Small Town Success

The Village of Spring Grove, located in Northern McHenry County, has been turning some heads recently. What has caught people's attention? The accomplishemnts of the Village's Public Works Department and their liquid production and use in their winter maintenance program. Specifically, what the Department staff in this community of less than 6,000 is doing with producing and blending their product and the savings they are seeing by using liquids. Depratment staff produce salt brine in house with a portion of the production system acquired through a barter agreement with a local farmer. The liquid that is blended with the brine, GeoMelt55, is a sugar beet by-product that has also sparked interest in its use in winter maintenance. The specific department blend is applied during anti-icing (pre-storm road treatment) and deicing operations and has netted the Village a savings of thousands of dollars per year in regards to less salt having to be used. In addition, experiences and services are shared with other local communities in hopes they choose to add liquids to their winter maintenance operations. A common misconception is that only larger agencies with larger budgets can get into liquids in addition to it being difficult to start some type of program in these economic times. With some research and creativity anyone can get a program started and it won't break a budget and our small community has proven that.