ASHLAND — The city’s winter road salt supply impacts more than just Ashland roadway conditions.
Its stockpile helps combat slippery road conditions throughout the city. But in recent years, according to Mayor Matt Miller, the city has also used its road salt on the campuses of Ashland University and University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center.
“It’s important we get an adequate amount,” Miller said July 31.
The city handles its own road salt contracts separate from Ashland County — although the city and county have assisted one another in past years when one or the other’s supply has depleted, he said.
Ashland is still waiting to learn its road salt situation for this coming winter pending the third round of a statewide bidding process through the Ohio Department of Transportation.
This same statewide bid left Ashland County — as well as 11 others around Ohio, including Richland and Knox counties — without any current salt bids ahead of the upcoming winter season.
“We’re still waiting on results of the ODOT contract,” Miller said. “We’ll go from there.
“It’s a precarious situation.”
Ashland’s current request is for 6,000 tons of road salt, the mayor said, which includes 3,000 to refill the city’s salt dome and another 3,000 to spread on city streets if/when needed.
He said the city uses about 3,300 tons of salt during an average winter and is preparing to use around the same amount this season.
“This past winter was a bit more involved (more snow),” Miller said, which led to the currently emptied salt dome.
Ashland County gets no road salt bids (yet) through state contract
Ashland County Engineer Ed Meixner said he cannot recall a year in which the county didn’t get a bid through the state contract.
Meixner said this has happened a few times when the county has put out its own bid for road salt, but it’s a first as far as statewide process.
In years when Meixner has put out a local bid, he has typically waited to do so until September, the county engineer said.
“I am contemplating doing that (this year),” he said. “I haven’t decided for sure that I will.
“(Richland County Engineer) Adam (Gove) did that on his own fairly recently and received no bids, which kind of tells me that I probably won’t receive any either.”
Meixner said ODOT is going out to bid for a third time in an effort to seek bids for the dozen counties around the state still seeking to purchase salt through the state contract.
From roughly November to March, about 3,500 tons of salt is used on Ashland County’s 280 miles of roadway it’s responsible for maintaining.
While Meixner didn’t express any specific concerns regarding the county having enough salt for its coverage area this winter, the county engineer did say there are issues which need to be addressed related to the lack of companies offering to supply salt.
“It needs to be addressed at the ODOT, county and city levels and there’s not a solution yet, but they’re working on one,” he said. “Stay tuned for a solution that resolves this problem —- or not.”
