PENDLETON — Motorists in Pendleton should enjoy the milder temperatures that arrived this week and hope there isn’t too much winter weather left in the season: The town is almost out of road salt.
“Drivers need to have a heads up that the roads are going to be slicker than normal,” town manager Scott Reske said.
The town has used up most of its stockpile, with four tons remaining for the rest of the winter, he said.
The problem has surfaced because of a salt shortage nationwide compounded by the severe weather across the country last week, Reske said.
Reske said he’s not sure when the town will be able to replenish the supply.
“We can’t even get our supplier to answer the phone,” he said.
As a precaution, the town is switching to sand whenever and wherever possible.
“We’re saving salt for ice storms and danger spots,” he said.
The road salt status varies from town to town in South Madison County.
Mary Armacost, utilities director in Lapel, said the town has enough salt for one more big storm like the one last week.
“If we have several minor snows then we’re going to be OK, too,” she said.
She was unaware of any salt shortage, she said, but there was one phone call on her to-do list that she had yet to make — to the town’s salt supplier.
“We have not received a (salt) delivery that we were supposed to get,” she said, adding that she had thought it was likely just a short delay because of the recent storms.
In Markleville, which contracts out its road plowing and salting, all is good, said Todd Leever, who’s in charge of town sewers and streets.
Leever said he recently
spoke to the contractor who maintains the 16 lane miles of road for which the town is responsible, and his salt stockpile is ample.
“He stocked up over the summer on palletized salt,” Leever said, adding that with any luck there won’t be any more significant winter weather events soon.
“Hopefully we’re out of the woods for this year,” Leever said
Ingalls Clerk-Treasurer Kip Golden said his town also is in good shape. He said he had an invoice on his desk for a delivery of 42 tons of salt received recently. The town maintains 17 miles of roadway.
Golden and others said this winter was unusual in that it arrived late and with fury.
“It seemed that we got a lot of ice and snow once we got into February,” he said.
Ingalls Street Superintendent Carl Marlett, who said there was no problem getting the recent delivery, said salt availability can depend as much on the vendor one uses as the overall salt supply.
One town might have no problem ordering more, while another can’t get any, he said: “That’s very easily a possibility.”
Madison County Highway Superintendent Scott Harless, who’s been on the job about 30 years, said he’s heard from various people about there being a salt shortage.
But the county, which maintains 900 miles of road surface using a salt-sand mix, received a delivery of 200 tons of salt last week and expects another 140 tons this week.
Last week’s order did take longer to get, he said — about two weeks instead of less than a week — a delay that was attributed to a problem at a rail yard.
He said once the 140-ton delivery arrives, the department should have enough salt to last the rest of this season, with 100 tons left over to start next winter.
“We’re probably going to get another snow or two,” he said.