Salt would have been the answer

The first major snow of the season has come and gone. Four days later, the streets in this city are atrocious, to put it mildly. Plows were out early and did a good job of making the streets passable, but they're far from good by anyone's standards. What is it going to take to change the minds at the Department of Public Works on the topic of salt usage?

I realize this snowfall was somewhat unique. We had 70 degree temperatures just a few days before the storm hit, so the warm streets created a buildup of slush underneath the snow. Our subsequent colder weather had turned that slush into a thick slab of ice. Some of our major thoroughfares are so rough and rutted it's like driving down a prairie section line.

There is a cure for this. There is a wonderful substance made of sodium and chlorine that most of us have heard of. It's salt, folks. Forget about the miniscule amount of salt that is blended into the sand that is thrown on top of the snow and ice around here.

We need our city crews to be laying down pure salt to do the job properly. The mix that is used now does nothing but turn the snow into a light brown slushy mess that is slicker than the natural snow and ice and turns everything brown. Dumping plain salt would do a far better job of clearing the ice, as it is effective down to 10 above at melting ice. We could easily have clear, clean streets by now if the city were to forget the sand and use salt on our streets.

And for the naysayers who argue about the corrosive effects that road salt has on our vehicles, there is a simple and cheap cure for that as well. Two words, kids: car wash. In the long run, would you rather do business with your local car wash or your local body shop? I never had any rust trouble with my cars for the eight years I spent in the Twin Cities, and they use a lot of salt on their streets. An occasional trip to the local car wash cures it.