Staff photos / Ashley Fox Standing in the smaller of two salt domes at the Ohio Department of Transportation office in Canfield are, from left, Mark Seeds, Matt Busch and Nick Kratsas.
By RAYMOND L. SMITH
Staff writer
It’s proving to be a good thing to have a little extra salt in the pantry.
Mahoning Valley communities annually purchase road salt and ice-control material to treat slick county and city roads. But some places found they had salt in storage facilities left over from the 2019-20 winter season.
Last year, about 24 inches of snow fell on the Mahoning Valley.
During the 2018-19 winter season the area had about 30 inches of snow, and in the 2017-18 season, 46 inches landed on the area’s roadways.
Several years ago, area governments experienced sticker shock when salt prices rose to more than $100 per ton, so many have worked in consortium, or with the state, to make sure they don’t experience such a hit to their finances again.
MAHONING COUNTY
Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti said the county does not have a large enough salt dome to buy or store enough salt for other Mahoning County communities. Trumbull County, however, does.
“We have a year’s contract with Morton Salt, which obligates us to purchase between 3,000 and 15,000 tons of salt, depending on the severity of the winter,” Ginnetti said.
The county has nearly 5,000 tons of salt on hand at the beginning of this winter season and depending on the need, it will order more. It can store up to 3,500 tons of salt in the main salt barn and nearly 1,500 tons of salt at two satellite barns in the county.
Its contract with Morton Salt requires the county to purchase a minimum of 3,000 tons.
“We did not have a lot of snow last year, but we had a lot of freeze-and-thaw periods, which required us to use more salt on the roads,” Ginnetti said. “Personally, I would rather have a steady cold and snowfall rather than constant temperature changes, which causes us to use more salt.”
Ginnetti said the county is paying $83 per ton for salt this winter season. The Mahoning County Engineer’s office is in charge of clearing the snow from nearly 500 miles of road.
ODOT
Matthew Bruning, an Ohio Department of Transportation spokesman, said many communities seek to purchase road salt through the state’s purchasing program, to lower their costs though the state’s ability to buy in bulk.
Four salt companies primarily sell to the state: Morton, Cargill, Compass Minerals and Detroit.
Compass won Trumbull County with a bid of $52.20 for the ODOT Cooperative Purchasing Program, and Mahoning County with a bid of $53.45 for the program. This is a significantly lower amount than paid in 2019-20 winter season under this program. Trumbull paid $69.60 per ton, and Mahoning paid $72.23 per ton.
“Prices generally are determined by the use of salt in the previous winter,” Bruning said. “If there was a relatively light amount of snow in the previous winter, then prices will be low. It is basic supply and demand.”
Liberty Township is a member of the ODOT Cooperative Purchasing Program.
“We purchase our salt from the state’s successful low bidder, Compass Minerals,” said township Administrator Martha Weirick. “The township normally orders about 1,000 tons of salt per season. However, we had approximately 400 tons of material left over from last year’s mild winter, so we ordered 800 tons.”
Austintown Township is is expecting a new order of road salt from Compass Minerals this week.
Administrator Mike Dockry said Austintown has ordered 2,400 tons of road salt for the upcoming winter season. Because the township has a relatively small salt storage facility, Dockry said it only had approximately 400 tons of road salt left from last season.
“If we have a large snowfall, we easily can use 300 tons,” Dockry said. “We generally order more salt after every snow event.”
Austintown plows and salts 117 lame miles of roads.
Dockry said the township is primarily using salt to keep its roads clear. It only uses ice-control material when temperatures drop below 20 degrees, when salt is less effective. Ice-control material can include items such as sand, fine stone, crushed rock, crushed gravel or limestone and the like, or brine.
TRUMBULL CONSORTIUM
Trumbull County built a 100-by 200-foot salt dome about six years ago. Salt can be stacked 30 feet and the county’s salt dome can hold up to 15,000 tons.
When the county began purchasing salt under a consortium in 2014, 31 communities joined. Today, 39 communities, schools and other organizations order road salt through the county.
Communities may pick up their salt from the dome or have it delivered to them at $25 per truck load.
Nicole Klingeman, fiscal officer with the Trumbull County Engineer’s office, said the county had 16,000 tons of salt on hand from last year’s order from ODOT. Klingeman said the county ordered 19,000 more tons for itself and the 39 member communities of the consortium.
“Schools are discovering it can be cheaper to order for salt through us than buying individual bags of salt,” Klingeman said.
This is the second year Warren has ordered salt through Trumbull County’s salt purchasing consortium. Frank Tempesta, Warren’s operations superintendent, said the city has 500 tons of road salt left in its storage facility from last winter and an additional 1,700 tons being stored by Trumbull County at the engineer’s site.
“Depending on the severity of a snowstorm, we can use 400 tons in one snowstorm, but it is good to have this on hand,” Tempesta said. “It is Mother Nature that determines how much we use.”
Last year, the city ordered 5,000 tons of rock salt; it used about 3,300 tons.
Tempesta ordered 3,500 tons of rock salt for this winter season. Combined with what was left over from last year the city should have about 5,700 tons available.
“Last winter season was not bad,” he said. “But you don’t want to under order, because you can’t predict what’s going to happen the next year. You don’t want to be caught with too little. ”
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