As road salt prices soar, town officials worry about the coming winter

By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer

October 06, 2008 12:15 am

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The salt of the earth — and the sea, too, for that matter — has risen 35 percent in price over the last year, putting those in the road-safety business in local communities in full winter worry-mode.

After going out for bids through the local salt-buying consortium this summer with 19 communities including Newburyport, Newbury, Merrimac and Rowley, Salisbury Public Works Director Don Levesque is facing a 35 percent increase over last year's price for solar (or sea) salt and a 30 percent increase for rock salt. The high increases represented the lowest of the six bids received.

"The best bid for solar was $67 per ton, and $63.83 per ton for rock salt," Levesque said. "Last year we paid $49.59 per ton for solar salt and $48.90 per ton for rock salt. We used 960 tons of salt last winter on the roads. You do the math."

Averaging the prices of last year's solar and rock salt together, 960 tons cost about $24,000. This year, those two salt prices-per-ton averages could mean a salt bill of almost $63,000 out of about an $80,000 snow budget, he said. Snow budgets are supposed to also include the cost of plowing and snow removal.

Bidding together gives more buying power for small towns through the consortium, Levesque said, but even that has its limits when salt prices are going up the way they have been. Newburyport's portion of the salt consortium buy is 1,850 tons; Newbury, West Newbury and Rowley get 1,500 tons, Merrimac 1,000 tons and Salisbury 900 tons.

Both solar and rock salt are purchased for road application during icy weather because Levesque, like some other public works professionals, uses a combination of salts. Solar salt melts fast but doesn't last on roads very long, while rock salt melts more slowly but lasts longer on roadways.

In Amesbury, although the city isn't part of the local salt consortium, the news is equally bad. The former two-year bid that got the city through 2007 was for $43.24 per ton for rock salt, said Amesbury's new Public Works Director Robert Desmaris. It's the only type of salt the city uses.

After going out to bid this spring, Robert Desmaris received a low bid for rock salt of $64.57 per ton; the highest was for more than $90 per ton.

"We had heard costs were going up," Desmaris said. "It's all related to higher oil prices because everything about mining and transporting salt uses fuel."

During the 2005/2006 winter Amesbury used 2,250 tons of salt, Desmaris said, but last year Mother Nature was not kind. The city went through 3,600 tons of salt.

"It was a bad winter. We went way over budget," Desmaris said. "The only thing that's going to save us this year is that in March we filled our salt shed (before the prices rose), and we didn't have any storms after that. So, we're going into the winter with a full salt shed."

When bad winters and rising prices force expenses to exceed budget expectations, the state allows towns to overspend their snow budgets. It's the only budget line item with that option. But money to cover the overages has to be paid eventually, Desmaris and Levesque said.

But, travelers don't care about budgets when on the road in icy weather, both men said. The public expects roads to be safe and cleared of ice and snow. Both men have also been frustrated by the tendency of budget committees hoping for mild winters and failing to increase snow budgets year after year after year.

"We've been level-funded for our snow budget for as many years as I can remember," said Desmaris, who has been with Amesbury on and off since 1993. "But the rising fuel prices are making everything go up, not just salt. We had to raise the hourly rate we paid our (snow removal) contractors by $3.50 per hour last year. They weren't going to come if we didn't. That rise was warranted; the cost of diesel (fuel) is up $1.50 per gallon. Gas may have come down significantly recently, but diesel hasn't."

With about 17 to 20 private snow removal contractors hired for major storms in Amesbury, when combined with needing more salt because of a bad winter, expenses swamped Desmaris' snow budget last year. Levesque's took a beating, too.

Just preparing for winter, getting the city's own 20-vehicle fleet ready, takes about 80 percent of Amesbury's entire $128,000 budget, Desmaris said. With salt increases this year, the cost to buy the same amount of salt could go from $156,000 to $232,000.

Over the border in New Hampshire the story is pretty much the same. Seabrook Selectman Bob Moore said the town's received notice salt is going up 30 percent.

Levesque's seen salt prices almost double since 2005, when the cost was about $37 per ton, considered scandalously high at the time.

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