Andover facing road salt shortage

by rose sgarlato
ANDOVER ‑ Things were looking pretty dire in the salt department for Andover County, before a surprise shipment arrived Feb. 11. The status of the township’s salt was one of the topics of conversation at this week’s town council meeting.

Like many towns in New Jersey, the salt stock level used to treat the roads for snowstorms was hitting an all-time low.

“It’s the first time in 24 years that I have been working here that we are getting close to running out of salt,” said Darren Dickinson, Supervisor of the Department of Public Works.

On Feb. 10, Dickinson estimated he had about 30 tons of straight salt left. The department has an additional 200 tons of salt and grit mixture.

The township’s ice melting budget is $65,000 annually for salt and sand. Due to the amount of snowstorms this winter, Andover Township ordered 300 tons of salt in January from the supplier International Salt. As of Tuesday morning, there had been no shipment.

“We call about three times a week,” Dickinson said. “We research and we have no confirmation about shipping. Nobody has anything, and other salt companies will not supply you unless you are an existing customer.”

Depending on the storm, Dickinson uses about 75 to 80 tons of mixed salt and sand per application. To make the material last longer, only primary roads, hills and turns are treated during storms. All secondary roads take a back seat for now, until the supply is replenished, he said.

There seems to be no answers as to why the salt companies are not delivering. Dickinson said that it’s simply due to supply and demand and the severity of this year’s winter across the United States.

“It’s almost like a national epidemic,” Dickinson said.

The state doesn’t have any answers.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management in Trenton issued a statement to Sussex County for all local operations emergency coordinators.

Andover Township Mayor Phil Boyce read the statement to the public at the Feb. 10 meeting.

“In an effort to address the ongoing salt shortage, the NJ Operations of Emergency Management and the NJ DOT continue to explore various solutions to replenish the diminishing supplies of salt throughout the state. Currently options being researched include obtaining salt supplies in Maine and Virginia which may yield sufficient salt deliveries to provide limited relief. State officials also have met with executives from International Salt to discuss and better understand its shipment and distribution schedule. Due to decreased supplies, International Salt implemented its own distribution schedule to distribute salt supplies to both the state and county departments. Please note that at no time did state officials request International Salt to amend its operations as to how it would distribute salt. Municipalities in need of salt should continue to request salt through established resource request protocols. We will continue to keep all partners informed as to our progress.”

But after all the discussion at the meeting and no promises from the state, there is now a little light at the end of the tunnel.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dickinson received a delivery of about 25 tons of salt.

“We thought maybe it was going to come yesterday, because we kept hounding International Salt and getting no answers,” Dickinson said.

The original shipment went to Andover, Mass., according to Dickinson.

The new salt will be mixed with grit and will get the township through the next few snowstorms, Dickinson said. However, there is no word on the remaining 275 tons of the township’s order.

With the latest arrival of salt, there seems to be an air of optimism at Andover’s public works department and hope for more salt to be rolling in.