Snail or Egg Case?

 

One of my duties when closing up the library at night is to go into the Village Hall area and check that the doors are locked.   For months now, when I walked through the doors into the Village side of the building the smell of vanilla has been overwhelming.  Figured the village clerks liked the scent.  Turns out they were using the strong vanilla scent to mask a sewer smell.   Eventually the sewer smell seeped into the Library side of the building.  The building is maintained by the Village so the librarian asked when the smell problem would be fixed.  "As soon as we figure out where it's coming from."  was the answer she received.  It got so bad we started using multiple plug-in scent dispensers.   The village had plumbers trying to figure out the smell's source but all the plumbing seemed OK.  When I came in for my shift tonight the librarian said a furnace repair guy noticed there were three floor drains in the back storage rooms.  He poured a liquid down each and the smell is gone .  Assume maybe the Village Chairman, or the former Clerk, or maybe a maintenance person knew enough to fill those drains occassionally.  With the normal turnover of personnel that knowledge was never written down nor passed on and eventually the drains dried out allowing sewer gas to leak in.  Reminds me of the Haven House Maintenance Manual I've been working on.   (It's in spreadsheet format, of course.)