The slushy snow that fell Wednesday night and Thursday morning didn’t require an abundance of salt to clear it from roads.
That’s a good thing because the city’s salt supply is running low.
“We used a lot of our salt last week,” said McMinnville Public Works assistant director Brad Hennessee during Tuesday’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting. “The salt house stands at about one-third capacity. We can probably withstand a two- to three-day run on the salt again. If we do run out, there is none available at this time of year. We are getting toward the end of winter. Unfortunately, they are calling for some more snow.”
Hennessee said minimal salt has been used this week.
“We didn’t use even a pallet of salt last night,” he said Thursday morning. “We plowed. The only salt we used was on the bridges. We treat the roads based on conditions. The snow was basically slushy so plows pushed it out of the way and allowed the streets to dry. Salt would have been washed away by all the water.”
Hennessee informed city officials Tuesday night the department’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2015-16 will include enough funds to purchase 120 pallets, a full salt house.
“There will be a large budgeted item in our request this year for salt,” Hennessee said. “It will be around $55,000 to $65,000. It will take that much to put the salt back into that house. We buy in pallets. We usually buy 120 pallets of salt. We go through years when we don’t use any salt. Unfortunately, this is not one of those years.”