DuPage Co. towns already monitoring road salt use

Many DuPage County road crews already are mixing their salt supplies with less costly alternatives to ensure there's enough to last another long winter.

Monday's snowfall didn't bust the bank for anyone, but municipalities still are being cautious so they don't wind up blowing the budget on additional road salt like they did during last year's unusually difficult winter.

"It's not an issue yet," Naperville Public Works Director Dave Van Vooren said. "But we have asked our employees and the managers of our de-icing program to evaluate what we do and make sure we're managing our resources effectively. We're not looking at salt as the end-all for our de-icing activity."

In Wood Dale, road crews already are cutting salt supplies with sand to make sure the budgeted 900 tons lasts the entire winter.

"We are trying to be a little more proactive in trying to conserve it," said John Kramer, assistant director of city services.

He said the city also put off calling in plow drivers until police felt the roads were becoming a safety risk to ensure overtime budgets don't go overboard this year.

To keep costs low, Lisle officials announced earlier this year that some residential streets won't be fully salted - just intersections, curves and hills.

Last winter, municipal road salt budgets exploded because of the lengthy winter. Several communities doubled their salt orders and tripled their costs. This year, salt prices are higher because last year's demands left suppliers with less product. That meant most communities had to come up with alternative ways to make roads less slippery this winter.

Milton Township Highway Commissioner Gary Muehlfelt handles 86 miles of roads in the central part of the county. His crews began using a product called GeoMelt on certain parts of the road to save salt. The product is a blend of salt brine, calcium chloride and beet juice.

Muehlfelt said the beet juice is a sticky substance that can provide additional traction days after application as long as it doesn't rain.

"You try to do anything you can to save taxpayers money," he said. "That's the bottom line."

But tax savings from less road salt may cost more in cleaning cars and carpets.

Brad Trojanowski owns Lombard-based Beeline Steam and he's gearing up for a busy season of cleaning rugs and carpets because of the alternatives being used instead of salt.

"If they're adding something to the salt that's good for me," he said. "Especially the sand, because when you're walking over the carpeting with sandy grit embedded in it, your feet are acting like sandpaper breaking down the fiber and pretty soon you'll start to see tread paths."

Sand is just as bad for cars. Joe DeBias said he expects more business for his Naperville-based 708 Mobile Detailing company because of the alternatives being added to road salt.

"It's going to be making chips in the car's paint," he said. "And I've never heard of beet juice, but that sounds like something that would make people want to clean their cars more."

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