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It’s hot, and their job is to keep it cool.

It’s nearing 8 a.m. at Acme Air Conditioning Company, 2626 Central Avenue, and the company’s six servicemen have been there half an hour already.

A plastic, yellowing Friedrich thermometer hangs on the back wall of the garage. It registers 84 degrees already. The relative humidity outside is 88 percent.

It’s only going to get hotter.

The workers are gathered in the store’s repair shop to complete the necessary chores before the white Acme vans head to their first assignments of the day. The men, dressed in navy pants and pinstriped shirts with their names emblazoned on them, restock spare parts they used the previous day. They clean the trash and debris that accumulated in the vans from earlier repairs. They load the units they will be installing that day. And most important, they take a few moments just to chat.

The workers at Acme range in age from summer employee Jason Dunkman, a 17-year-old Gibbs High School student, to Bernie Hunt, a 76-year-old veteran. The patriarch of the group is Hartley Skibo, an Acme employee for 32 years and the company’s system designer and service manager. He assigns the two-man crews to the job sites each day and travels from site to site to monitor progress.

Skibo is a fixture each morning in Acme’s garage, which resembles that of an old-fashioned car mechanic’s, except for the air conditioning units strewn about the place. Rusty tools are scattered across a weathered wooden workbench.

Inside the office, the phone rings constantly. It’s part of the summer norm. Co-owner Lorin Bridge estimates the company received 200 to 250 calls a week just for service.

“People are frantic this time of year,” he said. “They know they needed to do maintenance on their system in the fall, but they wait until they need A/C to call. Then they have to wait. But they want service now; they are dying. We try to keep everybody happy, but it’s hard in the summer.”

Shortly after 8 a.m., the Acme fleet rolls out in synch like a 20th century version of the cavalry. Repairmen have come to the rescue of overheated citizens since William Carrier developed the first residential air conditioner in 1928. The day promises to be long and sweaty.

“It is extremely busy right now; every summer is especially busy,” Skibo said. “We usually have triple the business. It’s hard to keep up sometimes.”

Part of the problem these days, Skibo said, is finding qualified workers.

“You can’t hire a good mechanic these days. No one wants to go up in an attic that’s 150 degrees. It’s tough work. You have to know electricity, plumbing, duct work and even design.”

Skibo is proud of the workers he has, two of whom are on the roof of the  Salvation Army building, at 3800 Ninth Avenue North, by 8:30 a.m. The problem with the old Carrier Weathermaker is a rusted drain pan that is leaking through the ceiling below. Skibo’s solution: Scrape the rust off, and seal the entire pan with a layer of epoxy. Problem solved.

After scraping off a layer of rust and waiting for Skibo to return with the epoxy, repairman Jeff Colon is sweating heavily. Still, he said he doesn’t mind the hectic pace of summer.

“We work on average six days and from 50 to 60 hours a week in the summer, sometimes more,” said Colon, who has worked for the company since the early 1990s.

“In the winter months a lot of repairmen get laid off. Usually (Acme) finds a way to get us enough hours, but it’s a lot slower. So it’s nice to have the work. If anything, this time of year is definitely busy.”

Within a couple of hours, the job is finished, and the Acme crew is off to another assignment. During the course of the day, they will visit Sterling Cleaners and a couple of private homeowners. Other Acme crews will visit Bayfront Towers, Azalea Baptist  Church, Lithos Jewelry and Pasadena Community Church. Later in the day, Greg Minton, service manager for St. Petersburg Heating & Air Conditioning at 4801 122^nd Avenue North, is across town at the home of an elderly couple who lost air conditioning that morning after a power surge. It’s stuffy inside, and the hall thermostat registers 83 degrees.

Minton, 31, was raised in the business and is accustomed to the summer heat. “We don’t work in the A/C,” he chuckles. “We work to get people A/C.”

Aside from time away to study engineering at the University of Kentucky, he has worked in the field roughly 14 years. His experience allows him to identify the problem in only a few minutes. It’s the worst case scenario—a shorted compressor, which means the system needs to be replaced. Even though it is almost 6 p.m., Minton offers to stay and install a new unit. The owners gratefully take him up on it.

Between 5 p.m. and 7  p.m., the Acme cavalry vans filter back to the dusty garage one at a time. The men say little as they disperse and head home for the evening. There will be time for talk when the ritual begins again tomorrow morning. And when it does, Hartley Skibo will be there, just as he has been for 32 years.

“I love my work,” he said. “You just never know what you are going to get to do on this job. And the customers, they love us this time of year. That part is a lot of fun.”

Across town, Minton finishes installing the new unit by 7:30 p.m. Only 12 hours until time to start again. That’s nothing compared to some of the 3 a.m. calls he has answered before. And tonight’s late finish hasn’t wiped away his perpetual smile.

“I really love my job,” he said. “This is my life, what I like doing. Most people are really kind and appreciative, and that makes going up in a hot attic a little easier.

“When I leave and my customers are happy, that is its own reward.”

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