In Westchester County, Ice Piles Are A Hard Problem

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Like a velvet glove over an iron fist, a soft white coating of new snow sits on what's already on the ground.

As CBS 2's Lou Young reported, rock-hard ice mounds are rising along roads around Westchester County -- and taking a toll on car owners who try to bull their way into parking spaces.

Andy Pace of Westchester Auto Body in Rye said victims are lined up at his shop, some with damage costing more than five figures.

"It's not snow at all," he said of the mounds. "It's all ice. It's harder than cement, some of it.

"What's happening is as soon as you hit you're cracking everything in the front -- headlights, bumpers, fog lights," Pace said. "The parts just keep coming off."

Employees with the White Plains Department of Public Works have begun the secondary effort to move the massive piles to DPW yards to give cars more room.

"Everything is frozen," said DPW worker Jimmy Hazelwood. "And if we don't get it, it's going to stay there."

On Monday, crews were opening a turning lane in White Plains that was buried.

"Even with the machine, it's hard to break it up," said Justin McPherson with the DPW. "You've really got to hit it hard."

Public Works Commissioner Bud Nicoletti said what has compounded the problem of snowstorm after snowstorm is the lack of days when temperatures rise above freezing.

It's expected some of the ice mounds forming in Public Works yards won't be fully melted until June.

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