Naperville shaking sources for road salt

The Naperville City Council approved the purchase of an additional 1,900 tons of road salt Tuesday to thwart a shortage many suburbs are facing.

The additional salt will cost just under $75,000.

Winter storms have already dumped 45 inches of snow on the city. In its effort to de-ice the roads, the public works staff has used 16,875 tons of salt, up from 13,600 tons last year.

Its current supply, while low, is not depleted. The city has about 1,600 tons left and another 4,300 tons have been ordered but not yet received.

Naperville purchases most of its salt through a state joint purchasing program. The additional salt the council approved Tuesday brings the total amount spent through this program to just over $664,000. It also puts the city at the limit of how many tons it can buy at the program's reduced price.

The state has already said it cannot help cities procure additional salt and several vendors contacted by the city also have said they do not have additional salt available anyway.

One factor leading to the shortage is that salt-carrying barges aren't able to make the trip to deliver the commodity while major rivers are frozen.

To conserve salt, Naperville is not salting cul-de-sacs unless absolutely necessary and in future snowstorms it will not salt residential side streets until the streets have been plowed. It also will use less salt and plow streets more often, according to a city memo.

On Tuesday the council also approved spending up to an additional $165,000 for snow removal services through various contractors. That would bring the total spending for these services to $530,000.

Funding for the additional salt as well as the snow removal services will be paid for through money that would have otherwise been set aside to replace vehicles.