Tight market makes salt a precious mineral

Salt is suddenly a precious resource.

This week the Hoffman Estates village board approved the purchase of 2,500 tons of road salt for $127 per ton. That's a $317,500 purchase.

With municipalities from 15 states competing to find and purchase salt, village officials had to move quickly once they discovered a supplier, Village Manager James Norris said. That's why the trustees convened for a special meeting Monday instead of waiting two weeks for the regularly scheduled board meeting.

"If you don't jump on it you're going to lose to someone else," Norris said.

Last year's winter was the worst in 40 years, and villages struggled to salt their roadways. Hoffman Estates made an emergency road salt purchase in February, buying more than 2,000 tons of salt for $99,000. The village usually uses more than 7,000 tons each winter.

Norris said the village paid around $48 per ton last year, which was a premium. But it looks like a discount compared to this year's prices, which represent about a 170 percent increase. The village also has to pay for delivery on top of the cost of salt.

Norris said the village already had 1,200 tons of salt secured, amd with this week's purchase of 2,500 tons, Hoffman Estates has between a third to a half of its regular annual supply, Norris said.

But how cold will the winter be? Will we see conditions that rivaled last year's?

Well if you take the predictions in the 2009 edition of "The Old Farmer's Almanac" with more than - say a grain of salt - the Chicago area will suffer through a slightly milder winter season compared to last year.

According to an advance copy of the book, which hits stores on Sept. 9, the Chicago area should see winter temperatures about 7 degrees lower than average. However, precipitation levels should be lower than normal.

The book has been offering predictions since 1792. The almanac's assistant editor Sarah Perreault would not divulge the secret formula used to devise the predictions, only saying it's a combination of meteorology and sun spot calculations. ABC 7 Chicago weatherman Jerry Taft, in a 2007 interview with the Daily Herald was among other who expressed skepticism in the accuracy of the almanac.

However, the village should take any help it can get, as tax dollars are on the line. Hoffman Estates last week announced a $4.4 million, or 4.2 percent cut in its operating budget, as officials cited lower than projected sales taxes for the year.

But despite the need to reduce spending, the need for salt was too much to ignore, Norris said. He said officials aren't looking to build a salt surplus and are having difficulty finding enough salt to meet their normal needs. Norris said it took "good detective work" to find the 2,500 tons of salt sold by National Salt Supply Inc. in Huntley.

Oh, to be the heir to the Morton's salt fortune in these stressful economic times.

• Do you have a Hoffman Estates story idea? Contact Ashok Selvam at (847) 427-4475 or aselvam@dailyherald.com.