City of Kent prepares to get snow out of roads
Snow and cold are no strangers to Ohioans. This November the early snow and extremely cold took away 13 lives in Buffalo and had an impact to Kent as well. Soaring road salt price went skyrocketed while the temperatures dropped dramatically down as early as November, TV2’s Yujing You has the story.
According to Kent Service Department, the winter salt bid opened on July 10th received abnormally high pricing and an overall lack of bids in some counties including Portage. The only bid received by ODOT for Portage County was from Morton Salt at a price of $108.01 per ton. The salt price went from $27.50 per ton last year to $108.01 per ton this year.
Based on the current tonnage requested as part of the first ODOT bid (4,000 tons +- 10%) the expenses would be estimate $432,040. This number equals to a $277,513 increase over the past twelve years sale costs and a $316,540 increase compared to last year. If this increased cost holds Central Maintenance will need an additional $300,000 in the operating materials budget for 2015.
City of Kent Salt Purchase increases over the years. The maximum number of total tons purchased is 6215 from 2003-2004 and the minimum number is 1860 from 2006-2007.
Gene Roberts, the Service Director for City of Kent public service says that the financial impact to the city is “zero to none.” The Service Department has been applying a rationing process when it comes to use rock salt last winter and now the salt dome is full to capacity. It means regardless the skyrocketing salt price, the city doesn’t necessary have to purchase any for this winter.
Right now there are 5,000 tons of salt sitting in the salt barn. In an email Roberts sent to the City Manager Dave Ruller, he said that the original request made for salt was 4,000 tons. The Public Service department has reduced this number to 1,500 tons. Based on the 5,000 tons in the salt barn and the ability to purchase additional 1,500 tons of salt they’ll be in the good shape to get the ice out of road for this coming winter.
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