McHenry County takes first step to more road salt

With near-record snowfalls causing McHenry County's road salt supplies to dwindle, a key county board committee Tuesday agreed to an emergency outlay of $165,000 for 2,000 more tons of salt to make sure they make it through the winter.

With the purchase, the county now has bought 15,000 tons of salt this winter, said Mark DeVries, superintendent of operations for the McHenry County Division of Transportation. Most years that figure is closer to 9,000 or 10,000 tons, he said.

DeVries called the purchase a "security blanket," saying the county had not yet run out of salt and there is a chance it could make it through whatever snowstorms remain without any more.

But he said the county transportation department decided it would be better to spend the final weeks of winter with too much salt instead of not enough.

"We never ran out, but we were getting low enough that we got concerned," he said. "We struggled with this decision, but we just didn't want to put ourselves in a no-salt situation.

"Now our (storage) dome is full and we're right back where we should be."

The full county board will vote on the matter March 4.