Crescent-News.com - Road salt for winter season a tough buy for many area officials

By JARED ORZOLEK

Area officials are having a difficult time locating affordable road salt for the upcoming winter season.

Road crews used extra sodium chloride last winter after a series of snowstorms swept through the area in January, February and March.

The drain on supply has increased demand for salt as local and state entities seek salt suppliers for the upcoming winter.

In Napoleon, city operations manager Jeff Marihugh said he has sought bids for road salt from six companies, but received no offers. He is now seeking to obtain salt in a variety of ways in an effort to get the city ready for cold weather.

Marihugh said the Henry County engineer has allowed him to include Napoleon's salt order in the county's bid package.

He said the city could decide to purchase salt at the price offered to the county or bid the city contract separately for the second time. Bids for the Henry County salt contract are set to be opened Sept. 9.

Napoleon does have limited sodium chloride supplies left over from the last season, but city officials have said they may have to cut back salt use depending on how much product the city can obtain.

Other municipalities have also met with difficulties in obtaining bidders for salt contracts.

In Defiance, assistant service director Russ Jesse said only one salt company submitted a bid out of the seven he solicited.

"The one bid we received was 140 percent above last year's cost," Jesse said.

The city has decided to seek salt through the Ohio Department of Transportation's (ODOT) state purchasing program. Bids for this salt are scheduled to be opened today.

"We will get our quota of salt, but until (today) we will not know what the price is," Jesse said. "There is not enough supply for the demand that is out there. If we have another long winter, who knows what next year's cost could be."

In Defiance County, Engineer Warren Schlatter said he only heard from one company interested in supplying salt when bids were opened last week. The company bid $97 per ton, which was more than double the $40 per ton amount of last year's contract.

"We've not awarded it (bid contract) yet, nor have we rejected it. I am taking a wait-and-see attitude," Schlatter said, adding that he is waiting to see the bids that ODOT gets for the state salt contract before making a decision.

This year, 236 municipalities have sought to join the ODOT state purchasing program, an increase from the 174 that signed up last year.

"Every year, usually late spring, ODOT announces it's in the process of putting together a salt contract for the upcoming winter. Interested entities need to respond by a deadline with a signed agreement," said ODOT District 2 public information officer Theresa Pollick. "Once we have gathered the agreements, we merge it into our contract document."

ODOT's District 2 includes Henry, Fulton and Williams counties.

The deadline for government entities to sign up for the state purchasing program for sodium chloride was in July, and 1.4 million tons of salt is needed to provide salt for each entity included in the contract.

"We anticipate a significant increase in the costs but we don't have the numbers yet to determine how much it may be," said Rhonda Pees, public information officer for ODOT District 1, which includes Defiance, Paulding and Putnam counties.

"As far as availability, we do not anticipate having difficulty getting salt supplies this year. We've heard of no issues with the salt mines and we believe they are likely running at full capacity to get ready for the season."

The transportation department's salt contract is awarded on a per-county basis as salt companies bid on a price per ton in each county.