After Wicked Winter, Road Salt Prices Nearly Double
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting another winter of colder temperatures and heavier snowfall than normal; and, accurate or not, after last year's brutal winter, keeping road salt stocked is proving to be an expensive effort.
WBBM Newsradio's John Cody reports road salt is available, but at almost double the price from before last year's record-setting winter.
Channahon public works director Ed Dolezal said the village has about 700 tons of road salt left, bought at at last year's price of $53 a ton. He found another 750 tons for the upcoming winter, but the price has since spiked to $98 a ton.
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Dolezal said Channahon had to buy salt on its own, instead of through the state's Department of Central Management Services joint purchasing program, because it didn't get any wholesale bids from major salt suppliers.
If there's another winter like last, supplies might get low, meaning careful allocation.
"If we had another winter like last year, we would have to alter our operations to make it through the year," he said. "We would salt only key areas; intersections, hills, these kind of things."
Dolezal said his forecast input predicts another hard cold winter like that last one, but he said simply "we'll see."
