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Letters from our R eaders
Let’s talk about nails.
Specifically nails on the infamous Bottom Road. How do they get there? And why are there so many of them?
It seems like every other week, someone in my family gets a flat tire. The tire store knows us by name – we’re frequent customers.
Usually their response is “yep, another nail” (or 2 or 3). My neighbor, Kyle, wins the prize though – he had a whopping 13 in one of his tires.
That’s just crazy, isn’t it? Now some would argue, don’t drive the gravel. But let’s be realistic. I’ve clocked this and it takes twice as long to get to Yankton driving highway versus driving gravel. Time is of the essence. Besides, what about all the folks who live on the Bottom Road and have no choice but to drive it?
Seriously, where do these nails come from? Is it the gravel that the County periodically dumps on the road? If so, maybe they could sift through it and take out the nails before they dump it? Is it farm equipment?
I don’t think tractors and combines are put together with nails but if they are, I can’t imagine how they are still intact if they’re losing this many nails on a regular basis. I’ve often wondered if the County has a secret deal with the tire stores – planting the nails on purpose so we can give business to them? It is a great mystery.
Though I can’t solve it, I think I have a solution. The County could install a large magnet on the bottom of the maintainer. Perhaps that would suck up all those nails? I mean, they’d probably have to clean it off every half mile or so because there would be so many nails caught, but it could work. What do you think?
— Michelle Paltz St. Helena
