by Jeff Saunders
Reporter
Macedonia -- The city's worries over a a road salt shortage in the Midwest have been eased -- at a cost.
The city is expecting to receive up to 3,000 tons by the Ohio Department of Transportation is making available to communities and counties, Service Director Jim Crevar said Dec. 11.
Crevar said the salt will cost $75 a ton, or $225,000 total, and the city will be responsible for picking up the salt from an as yet unspecified location within Summit County. ODOT spokesperson Scott Varner said Dec. 15 that the sale between the state and city had not been finalized, but it was expected to be soon.
Crevar said the cost was about double what the city paid for salt last year, but added the money is in the city's budget. He also said the salt is expected to meet the city's needs this winter.
"It should take care of us," Crevar told the News Leader.
Crevar estimated that the city had used roughly 600 tons so far this winter and has about 1,700 tons in its bins.
In a Nov. 26 press release, ODOT said it has 100,000 tons of salt available "for a one-time sale" to counties and communities which were unable to secure salt contracts and had taken part in the past in ODOT's competetive bidding program.
In November, officials in Northfield Village, Northfield Center and Sagamore Hills, which all purchase salt from the Community University Education Purchasing Association, a consortium hosted by the University of Akron, said they felt their communities had enough salt to see them through the winter.
Because the city last year had purchased from the different consortium, the Northeast Ohio Sourcing Office, it was shut out of the CUEPA program.
With about 2,200 tons the city filled its bins with at the end of last winter and another 700 tons the city was able to purchase from a local landscaping company, the city had fallen well short of the 7,650 tons it used last winter.
E-mail: jsaunders@recordpub.com
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