this town... it puts salt on the walks before it even snows, which is dumb to begin with, but once there is literal ICE on all the walks, there's not a SPECK of salt down, anywhere. I just don't get how this happens.

why is it dumb to put salt down before it snows a lot? I'm glad you ask. The salt raises the freezing point of water, however, when that salt is diluted by more water, the effectiveness of the salt dwindles. Once the salt is completely dissolved the water will once gain freeze.