“We’re ready to go for the weekend in case we’re called in,” Champaign County Engineer Stephen McCall said. “Everybody is anticipating the first snow. Once it gets here, this winter will finally be here.”
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The temperature will be bitter cold in Friday morning with wind chills reaching the single digits and highs will hold in the upper 20s, according to Stormcenter 7 WHIO-TV Chief Meteorologist Eric Elwell. A few flurries or even a quick snow shower will be possible through noon, tapering off in the afternoon, Elwell said.
Last year’s mild winter helped keep salt in the barn and push prices down, local traffic officials said.
The city of Springfield used about 1,900 tons of road salt last year, well off of its 20-year average of 3,400 tons per season.
Springfield has about 4,100 tons of salt in its barn, Service Director Chris Moore said. The city will purchase at least 1,800 tons with an option to buy up to 2,200 — meaning it could cost anywhere between $98,000 and $120,000.
Snow and ice removal is paid from the Springfield’s street fund, meaning it won’t be affected in the short term this winter by the city’s projected general fund shortfall, Moore said.
Springfield and Clark County will both pay about $54 per ton for salt this winter, down from about $71 last year. Both entities are part of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s salt purchasing program.
Clark County used between 1,500 and 2,000 tons of salt last year, County Engineer Jonathan Burr said. The county currently has about 6,000 tons of salt and mixed grit on hand, he said. The county added another salt barn last year, which is now at capacity.
“We’ve got everything packed full because we used so little and we were under contract for it,” Burr said. “It has been since the spring.”
An average winter for Clark County is about 3,500 tons of salt, Burr said. However, the amount of snow and the temperature play a huge factor in how much salt is used, Burr said. The county has a contract to purchase up to 3,000 tons of road salt this winter worth about $163,000, Burr said.
Clark County typically has a contract for about 5,000 to 6,000 tons, but decreased the amount because he had so much on hand.
Champaign County used 900 tons of salt last winter, nearly 1,100 tons less than it typically uses per season, McCall said. The largest winter saw the county use 3,000 tons, McCall said. This year, the county has about 2,000 tons of salt and is under contract to purchase about 1,000 more tons at nearly $55 per ton — for a total cost of about $54,900.
With low demand, prices have dropped across the state, Burr said. Two winters ago, salt cost about $80 per ton.
A few years ago, prices increased because flooding on the Mississippi River kept barges from getting where they needed to, meaning salt from Lake Erie was in greater demand across the country.
“A lot of times things can happen thousands of miles from here that we don’t know anything about,” Moore said.
He reminded drivers to be patient during early winter storms.
“The most accidents always seem to happen earliest in the winter because people haven’t adapted yet,” Moore said. “We have our drivers trained and we have our trucks ready. We’ll be out on the road as soon as we need to be.”
By the numbers
2,000: Tons of salt used by Clark County last winter.
1,900: Tons of salt used by the city of Springfield last winter.
900: Tons of salt used by Champaign County last winter.
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The Springfield News-Sun digs into important public safety issues, including recent stories about roundabouts proposed for Springfield and long-time efforts to widen Interstate 70 in Clark County.
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