Story posted Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Village Sees Rare Salt Price Decrease
Mt. Prospect elected officials recently approved the state bid for 2009-10 road salt in an amount not to exceed $221,372, which comes out to $58.37 per ton, compared to $64.42 per ton last year.
According to Paul Bures, supt. of streets and buildings, for public works, this is the first decrease in price in the last five years.
In the past, the village has routinely purchased road salt for winter's snow and ice control efforts through the State of Illinois Joint Purchasing Program.
In 2007-08, the village opted out of the state salt purchase to try and gain better pricing and better guaranteed deliveries.
According to Bures, pricing the village received was higher than the state pricing that year and deliveries had similar problems due to salt shortages across the country.
Bures said there is no advantage to bidding separately so the village decided to take advantage of the state bid for the 2009-10 snow season.
At the end of last winter season, public works filled its storage bins to a maximum capacity of 1,200 tons to take advantage of the low pricing and to ensure there was an adequate supply to start this coming winter season.
This year, the state contract was awarded to Morton International Inc. in Chicago. Morton supplied the village with salt in 2003-04 and helped the community in other years during salt shortages.
According to Bures, as in the past, deliveries are guaranteed not to exceed seven calendar days from time of order to actual delivery.
Based on the last two years usage of 6,716 tons and 4,921 respectively, the village requested 5,400 tons this year, the same as last year. With the State contract, the village is required to order 80% or 4,320 tons and may go over up to 120% or 6,480 tons if needed and supplies are available, without a penalty or increase in price.
By increasing the annual request to 5,400 tons, Bures believes public works should have enough salt for an average season and up to and including last years record snows. He added the current prediction for snow this season is slightly lower than average amounts with average to slightly colder temperatures expected.
Bures anticipates the village will use approximately 4,400 tons of salt this winter.
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