Salem looks to save on road-salt expenses

By D.a. Wilkinson

SALEM — City officials are trying to squeak through the start of 2010 with as little spending as possible, including on road salt.

Steve Andres, the city’s safety-service director, told council Tuesday that the city had used all its road salt.

However, Andres said Wednesday that the city actually has 200 tons of salt. The city, he said, has used an average of 1,200 tons of salt a year for the last 10 years.

The city will need about 800 tons more of salt this season. The city buys salt at $60.49 a ton, which would cost the city of $48,392 for the rest of the season.

But Andres said that right now, if a storm were predicted, he would buy No. 9 sandstone at $6 a ton to put on snowy roads. The rock is crushed by vehicles and provides traction.

Andres is trying to curb spending because city revenue in the beginning of the year is generally low.

Saving by reducing spending now can help the city, he said.

Andres said he is not ordering more salt right now, but “that may change within a week or 10 days.”

James Armeni, the city auditor, said he has to make two city payrolls in both January and February before major revenue begins to reach the city.

The city’s 1 percent income tax take in 2009 was $311,539, or 7.7 percent, below the $4 million income-tax collection in 2008.

Armeni said that in 2008, he had a carryover of $625,000 to start the new year.

He had $305,000 to start 2010.

He added that tighter city budgets are not unusual in Northeast Ohio these days.

“We have to make choices,” Armeni said.

Mayor Jerry Wolford also has said that the city may even tinker with its income-tax revenue split. Some 85 percent now goes for general operations and the rest for capital improvements.

wilkinson@vindy.com