Tonawanda, NY (WBEN) It’s a case of sticker shock for area highway superintendents as the price of rock salt has jumped as we approach the winter months.
“The price this year went up 57 percent, which will more than double what we need budgeted for taking care of the roads in the town,,” says Town of Tonawanda Highway Superintendent Ted Rymarczyk. He says that’s going to cripple most towns and villages financially. He notes all municipalities involved are on the Erie County bid, so this is affecting almost all of the communities in northern Erie County.
Rymarczyk hopes one thing doesn’t happen again: a rock salt shortage. “If that was to happen again, to try to get it outsourced and try to find it somewhere else is very expensive,” he says. His order is a standing one, at 7,500 tons. “Some years we use less, some years we use more. Last year we did use more, so we’re going to have to come up with new ways of salting and plowing, and we’re in the process. where we can calibrate all our trucks, so we’re going to actually try to find out if we use less, if it will do the same amount of roads as long as we use the brine that we use to mix in with it,” he says…