Last-Minute Salt Purchase Approved

Winter has barely made its official debut, but Beachwood and other communities already are scrambling to keep ahead of the falling snow.

City Council gave city staff permission to spend an additional $200,000 on road salt, if needed, at its last meeting of the year on Dec. 13. Staff told council members that supplies were running low and there was no money to buy more if the region got another storm like the one that dumped a foot of snow on the region earlier this month.

The city made it through the last two weeks of the year without spending the money, Finance Director David Pfaff said Tuesday. But the extra money was a needed cushion: as of the 13th the city had only $50,000 left in the salt budget - enough to buy about 1,000 tons of salt.

"They were predicting a storm that weekend, and if they had it we could have blown through it," added Pfaff.

The city earlier had spent $495,000 on about 10,000 tons of salt in 2010. The extra $200,000 will roll back into the general fund on Jan. 1 to be used elsewhere.

State transportation officials say salt appears to be plentiful this year, after several winters when it was both scarce and expensive. 

Ohio Department of Transportation road crews who worked non-stop in recent weeks relied on some high-tech tools to keep the salt spraying and traffic moving.

David Rose, communications officer for ODOT in Columbus, said 172 sensors imbedded in roads across the state provide critical information to crews and supervisors. Sensors can measure temperature, wind speed, and snow and ice accumulations to better deploy road crews to more critical areas.

Such information is important for ODOT crews clearing roads but also for drivers traveling those roads. ODOT also launched a website that provides live camera shots and road and weather bulletins across the state. The site can even provide average freeway speeds and notify drivers where traffic jams are located.

Amanda Lee, spokesperson for ODOT District 12, which includes Cuyahoga, Geauga and Lake counties, said crews were swamped but well prepared for winter's early arrival. She said there were no serious accidents due to road conditions.

"People thought we weren't using a lot of salt, but we were,'' Lee said adding that the district dumped 3,200 tons in the three-county area in just one week. "And we don't randomly dump salt everywhere; we have a strategy.''

This year ODOT went even higher-tech, offering You Tube and Twitter connections so drivers can keep informed no matter where they are. Rose said the website attracted 18.7 million hits between November and December and has some 10,000 followers on Twitter.

"It has been a phenomenal success,'' Rose said. "It is a tool to help drivers learn about road condition before they travel as part of our 'Know Before U Go' program."

Beachwood, meanwhile, is preparing for the months ahead, with $380,000 budgeted for 2011's salt supply. But no one knows if that will be enough, given Northeast Ohio's unpredictable weather.

"It's a wild guess at best," he said. "And we know we've got the ability to go back to council and ask for more if we need it. That's usually not a hard one to explain, because they live here and they know what the weather is like."