Western Pennsylvania communities face higher road salt costs ahead of winter
While winter may not be here anytime soon, the efforts to prepare for it are underway. Across the region, communities are starting to look for salt, and the price they are finding is coming with some sticker shock.
We're talking about going from around $88 per ton to $160 per ton in one year. The South Hills Area Council of Governments, or SHACOG, puts the bid together for 104 communities in Allegheny County and parts of Butler County.
"Right now, there's much more demand than there is supply. So, they can be much more choosy with the bids they put out there," SHACOG executive director Patrick Conners said.
Only one company replied in the bidding process. This has municipalities now looking to see if they can find their own bids.
Places like Verona and Brackenridge are looking over finances to see what they can do. Brackenridge's borough manager says they may have to order less, while Verona was not willing to do that.
"I don't think we're looking at ordering less. We always want to be prepared. We never want to be in a situation, you know? We try our hardest to salt our roads if they're needed," Verona borough manager Jacob Russell said.
With how much snow the area received last winter, there's not much leftover salt either.
Conners said they are watching how other bids, including Pittsburgh's, go to see whether this is an outlier. If communities agree to the SHACOG bid by mid-October, the price goes down to $152 per ton.
"The longer you go, the more expensive bids get. It kind of dries up pretty quickly," Russell said.
Moving forward, leaders want to find long-term solutions to keep prices down while having enough supply. That was a major challenge last year.
"That's a conversation that's got to start today and keep going for the next couple months in anticipation of next year's winter, not just the one that's a couple months ahead, but we need to be thinking about a year from now," Conners said.
SHACOG has reached out to state leaders to try to secure some funding to help.
KDKA-TV also reached out to American Rock Salt, which made the bid, to see why costs almost doubled, but has not heard back.
