Spike in price for road salt has cities scrambling

ThisWeek CW 09/18/2014

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2014/09/15/spike-in-price-for-road-salt-has-cities-scrambling.html

Between an increased demand for road salt and the fact that many Ohio waterways froze, preventing new shipments of salt making it to port, last winter posed a significant challenge for municipalities.

This year, salt prices have spiked, leading Canal Winchester and Groveport officials searching for ways to keep costs down while keeping residents moving on the roads.

Groveport City Administrator Marsha Hall said her city paid $50.12 per ton for salt in 2013. This year’s price has jumped to $116.50 per ton.

“Our capacity is 1,000 tons and our current level is 862 tons,” Hall said. “Our seasonal average use is 700 tons, so we are in pretty good shape for this winter but we’ll probably want to purchase some salt to have on hand late in the season.”

At the Sept. 8 Groveport City Council meeting, members asked Hall to work with the staff to find any efficiencies available, in hopes of not needing to purchase additional salt this year.

“When you think about roads like 317 where there are four municipalities who could be salting, let’s figure out a schedule so we don’t double up and waste salt,” Councilman Ed Dildine said.

“Obviously, our guys do a great job. We just don’t want to run out.”

Hall said Groveport works closely with other municipalities and they are working on some “alternate plans too, to make sure we’re all right.”

In Canal Winchester, the city was left with just 100 tons at the end of last season, but according to Public Works Director Matt Peoples, officials were able to make an early purchase of 350 tons of salt this summer at a price of $63.66 a ton, which put the salt barn at capacity.

“We put in a bid for 700 total tons — 350 with the summer bid and 350 for the winter bid,” Peoples said.

Currently, the city’s salt barn only holds about 400 tons, but like Groveport, Canal Winchester uses an average of about 700 tons per winter.

Peoples said he is working to design a new public works garage and salt barn facility that he hopes council will approve, to help alleviate storage issues and reduce the need for multiple salt deliveries, something that became a big problem last winter.

“We are designing a new salt storage facility that will have the capacity of approximately 1,200 tons,” Peoples said. “With the new facility, we anticipate being able to have enough salt on hand in a given year to be able to accommodate the annual usage of about 700 tons, and still have excess capacity to temper the delivery delays we experienced last year.”