Road Salt Plentiful Thanks to Light Winter

Like last year, Stow has an abundance of road salt to keep ice and snow from jamming your commute this winter.

Unlike last year, the city has plenty of room to store it.

In 2012 many other Northeast Ohio communities saw an unusually light winter that had them scrambling to store all the road salt they were contracted to buy but had little reason to use.

"We ran into that problem last year," Stow Service Director Mike Miller said. "Last year that was a problem countywide."

Each year Stow administrators enter into a contract to buy so much salt at a set price.

This year, Stow is contracted with Cargill Incorporated through CUE (Community, University and Educational Purchasing Association) to buy 11,340 tons, plus or minus 20 percent, at a cost of $44.81 per ton delivered.

Miller said the city has been using more road salt this winter compared to last year, so he doesn't expect storing the salt Stow is contracted to buy will be a problem.

Stow also has a storage capacity of about 8,000 tons.

Neighboring Kent, which has less storage, is struggling again this year to find places to keep its road salt.

"It's good to have as much storage under roof as you can," Miller said.