Salt Shortage Forces Homewood To Conserve
HOMEWOOD, Ill. (CBS) -- More snow means less salt and some towns are making tough decision on how to use dwindling supplies.
In Homewood they were hit with about 3 1/2 inches Saturday and as CBS 2's Courtney Gousman reports, that means residents are asked to sacrifice.
Road crews are working around the clock to make streets passable in Homewood, only this time, the village is "holding the salt" when it comes to Homewood's side streets.
"Side streets we still will not be salting just to conserve salt." said John Schaefer, Homewood Public Works Director.
Homewood has less than 250-tons of salt. Each snow uses about 60 tons.
It's enough to last only a few more snows. Until the 600-tons Schaefer ordered last night, arrives from Canada at more than four-times the price.
Homewood has already been a town that salted our side streets," said Schaefer. "We're just asking that the residents bear with us."
In the meantime, drivers are asked to slow down.
Homewood expects its new shipment of salt to arrive within the next two weeks, pushing its salt budget over $234,000 this winter.