CALUMET, Wis. (WFRV) – A very snowy and icy winter so far has forced many communities to rethink how they use their road salt.
Calumet County highway department officials said they order their salt for the year each March. They look at the average amount of salt they used in the last five winters to determine how much salt to order.
This winter has been significantly snowier than recent winters, meaning the county’s salt order for this year may not last them through the last snowfall event of the season.
“We have a lot of salt, but we said you know if winter continues on at this same rate or gets a little worse, there’s a slight possibility we could use all our salt by April,” Calumet County highway commissioner Chad Scheinoha told Local 5 News.
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To prevent that from happening, Scheinoha said they are conserving their salt by slightly reducing the amount they sprinkle on their roads that don’t get a lot of traffic. Local 5 News asked him how they can do that while ensuring the roads remain safe for drivers.
“Our foremen and superintendent are out there making supervisor-level assessments of those roads, and then we have our trained operators, staff, and our plow units will also make some judgment on their own,” Scheinoha explained. “If they have a blowing area, they might not have to salt it, but if they have ice, they might need to salt it. They can pick and choose where to salt.”
He said he also put an order in for another 700 tons of salt, but doesn’t know exactly when that supply might arrive. Calumet County isn’t the only community paying close attention to the size of its salt piles.
In Outagamie County, highway department officials told Local 5 News that they’re using a sand and salt mix to conserve their salt supply. Oconto County and the Village of Hobart officials recently posted on Facebook saying they’re having similar concerns about the size of their salt piles.
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Oconto County and village of Hobart officials didn’t respond to a request from Local 5 asking to talk about how they’re handling their road salt situation.
According to Storm Team 5, there has been 28 days so far with measurable snow, which is 10 above the usual average at this point during the winter. It’s kept things interesting for the folks at Calumet County, especially when they’re responsible for about 130 miles of county highways.
“The general conversation around the shop is it’s a good old-fashioned winter in Wisconsin. It’s been busy,” Scheinoha said.
He said that snow removal has taken up so much of their attention that they haven’t been able to do other winter work like tree trimming.
