After a month of sub freezing temperatures local thermometers are expected to pass the 32 degree mark Sunday according to the latest forecast.
“It sounds kind of weird be exciting about getting to freezing,” said a local West Wendover Police Officer. “But yes we are looking forward to it.”
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Sunday’s projected high however will be as good as it gets. According to forecasts the temperature is expected to dip below freezing again for at least another week.
Since Christmas Day local temperatures rose above freezing just once on January 10 when thermometers passed the mark by a whopping 0.8 degrees.
The month of below freezing temps was the longest since accurate records began to be kept in the region in the 1920’s. The previous record was set during the winter of 1992/93 when in December and again in later January February the temperature stayed below freezing for three weeks.
Apart from the general discomfort the unprecedented cold has caused thousands of dollars in damage around Wendover mostly due to frozen and broken pipes.
The long cold spell also helped to push the West Wendover City council to use its police powers to purchase 9,000 gallons of emergency propane for Wendover Gas owner Nancy Green who told the council last Tuesday that she did not have the funds and that her system would run of of fuel by that Thursday.
The 9,000 gallons, Green advised would be enough to get her customers through the weekend until more gas could be delivered. If the gas did not get here Green warned the council her customers could run out of propane as early as Thursday.
While Green blamed most of the problem on the lack of national supply she admitted that the local shortage was exacerbated by her dismal relationship with her former supplier Turner Gas.
With her debt to the propane wholesaler seriously in arrears, Green told the council that the company demanded that she pay $10,000 in addition to the cost of the propane before she could receive even the emergency 9,000 gallons of propane.
City Manager Chris Melville informed the council that the impasse could be avoided if the city purchased the supply or purchased it through the Peppermill Corporation. The Peppermill as well as the other casinos in West Wendover are directly supplied by Turner Gas.
Melville told the council that the Peppermill had already agreed in principal to help the city.
This November the council laid the foundation to make use its emergency police powers to buy gas should such an emergency arise after Green told them of the demands by Turner Gas.
It was s not the first time Green has found herself in this predicament, indeed the scenario of the Wendover Gas running out of fuel during winter has repeated itself over and over again for almost a decade.
In a related development Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval declared a state of emergency Tuesday as a “precautionary measure” to allow more propane deliveries in the state, the Associated Press reported. Record low temperatures below zero have gripped some parts of the state causing an acute supply problem.
Sandoval’s order temporarily waives the rules that typically allow only 14 consecutive hours of driving and require drivers to have at least 10 consecutive hours off duty before driving again. They also limit drivers to 60 hours driving over seven consecutive days and 70 hours over eight consecutive days.