Street salting causes downtown damages

Nevada Daily Mail

What was initially thought to be a serious case of vandalism in the weekend breakage of windows and glass doors at three downtown Nevada businesses was determined to be something the late mystery writer Ellery Queen might have dubbed "The Case of the Wayward De-icing Trucks."

City police had issued a news release Monday morning to say they were looking for the person or persons who broke windows and doors Saturday and Sunday at the Final Cut at 130 N. Cedar St., previously the place of business of Hairy Frog Grafix, the Dress Code at 106 W. Walnut and Nine Patch Quilt & Fabric at 129 E. Walnut.

Times when those businesses had been left in good condition by proprietors or employees ranged from 8:31 p.m. Saturday to 3:02 p.m. Sunday, the release said before investigators decided the damages did not appear to be vandalism.

Chief of Police Graham Burnley said Monday afternoon that the glass had in fact been broken by chunks of salt sprayed by city maintenance crews when they were de-icing the downtown Square.

Having met with City Manager J.D. Kehrman and Public Works Director Roger Beach, Burnley said the businesses had been informed of the city's culpability and asked to get repair estimates so reparations could be made.

"We have reason to believe the damages were caused by the crews when they were fighting the ice and snow," he said. "It didn't seem like regular vandalism because there were what looked like pieces of sand below the windows.

"We think there was a malfunction when they were salting the Square and that the salt chunks they were throwing were too large. We have contacted the owners and asked them to get estimates so we can take care of it.

"When we do something we need to fix, we'll fix it" Burnley said.