Suburban officials are struggling with record snowfall, salt costs

When it snows, it's not flakes that Wheaton Public Works Director Vince Laoang sees falling from the sky.

It's money.

Money that has to be spent on salt this season - $120 a ton for Wheaton - money to take care of property damage sometimes associated with snow removal, money to cover vehicle maintenance, and money for overtime charges accompanying December's record snowfall that have yet to be calculated, he said.

"My perspective is you're seeing dollar signs coming down, rather than snow," Laoang said. "But we have to do what we have to do - those are the things that come with this type of operation."

It's already gotten to the point that Batavia Streets Superintendent Scott Haines cringes at the mere sight of a snowstorm.

In December alone, Batavia shelled out nearly $94,000 in overtime costs to deal with the 24 inches of snow that blanketed the town.

That's nearly twice what the village paid out in December 2007.

"It's a constant pain," Haines said of the snow. "It's every other day, it seems."

Other towns across the Northwest suburbs know how that song goes.

Overtime costs, coupled with higher prices for salt, have several towns looking at ways to conserve salt, whether it's using less, treating it with an environmentally friendly chemical substance called Geomelt to make it work better, or mixing it with sand.

Wheaton does all of the above, and then some.

With all of the activity in December and now January, Wheaton has already used up more than 50 percent of its 4,000 tons of salt and will order more as needed, Laoang said.

But given how expensive salt is to come by in Wheaton, authorities are applying salt only after the streets have been plowed and at the conclusion of snowstorms.

Previously, workers put salt down while they plowed the streets.

"We're doing the same work - it's just being more strategic and frugal about applying the salt on the roads," Laoang said.

Naperville has burned through 4,500 overtime hours associated with snow removal, for a total cost of $205,000.

Operations Team Leader Christine Schwartzhoff said she will ask the city council in February to help her department pay that off.

"When you think of how expensive salt is and just the labor that goes into it, every storm can be expensive," she said. "And sometimes the little storms that last a long time cost more than if it comes and just dumps 6 inches."

In the meantime, officials are behaving as if "we won't get any more salt for the rest of the year, which means we have to conserve it."

That means making the most of the roughly 3,000 tons Naperville has left.

Along with reducing salt on residential roads and salting after storms, officials have for the first time cut out salting cul-de-sacs, unless it's absolutely necessary, since there are more than 100 in town, Schwartzhoff said.

"Our guys are worn out. It's been relentless," she said.

The snow isn't the only thing that's out of whack this season.

So is the price of salt, said Arlington Heights Maintenance Superintendent Mike Reynolds.

"I'd say it's way out of control when you figure we paid $41 a ton last year," Reynolds said. This season, the village ponied up $73 a ton. "But it is what it is and we need it, so we don't have a whole lot of latitude to move on it," he said.

Knowing how to use salt in the best manner is difficult to do, given the number of snowfalls crews have responded to - at least 15 - in both December and January, said Dave Lawry, Elgin's general services director.

The city racked up $201,000 in overtime hours for December alone, he said.

"We are conserving, but with the number of systems we've had, it's still taking a toll on our salt," Lawry said.

Still, others are holding out hope they won't have to buy any more salt this season.

"I'm convinced we'll make it, but then again, Mother Nature plays her tricks on us," said Algonquin Streets Superintendent Al Mozolla, noting that the village paid $132 for every ton of salt this season. "If she keeps going the way she's going, I'm not quite sure anybody will have any salt left."

Salt: Overtime hits ceiling in the suburbs