County road department uses up half of salt budget, half of salt reserves on weather events
Jan. 26—With four snow events under their belts, the Madison County Road Department has spent a total of $224,326.36 in repairs, salt and labor.
The surge in winter weather has also nearly wiped out the department's salt budget for remainder of the year.
Scott Shepherd, the road department director, went before the Madison County Fiscal Court on Tuesday to break down what each winter weather event cost their department, and what the court can expect in the future.
For the first snow event on Jan. 6 and 7, $86,054 was spent between labor ($15,064), salt ($69,984) and repairs to the trucks ($1,005.) This was the most expensive of the four events in terms of each event's total cost.
On Jan. 9, the road department was forced to shovel out another $22,839.78; split between $4,139.78 for labor, $18,468 for salt, and $232 for repairs.
For the third event which occurred Jan. 16 and 17, $15,211.27 was spent on labor, $52,002 in salt and $3,530.57 in repairs for a total cost of $70,743.84.
For the most recent event on Jan. 20, $44,688.74 was spent. This was broken up into $7,814.74 in labor, $35,964 in salt costs, and $910 in repairs.
"That is what these events are costing us," said Shepherd. "This kind of brings light to when you put a money figure out there for what we are doing and for everyone to realize what it costs."
Shepherd added, that not only had the county used up most of their salt budget, but about only half of their reserves were remaining. If more snow events occur, Shepherd told the court, he would likely be back in front of them asking for more money for salt.
At the start of the year, the road department had about 3,000 tons of salt stored, which costs $97.20 and is from Detroit Salt Company. This price was put out to bid and awarded in April 2021.
In terms of mileage, the county is responsible for 530 road miles. Shepherd said this number is only one time of trucks running, and often, they go around that distance two or three times during each event.
Magistrate Roger Barger said he could recall a time on the court in which salt bids cost around $60 to $65 per ton.
Shepherd and Judge Executive Reagan Taylor agreed, and said those were the prices they also saw when they began work for the county about seven-years-ago.
Shepherd added, tracking these finances and costs of the snow removal was able to be done through a county program similar to Snow Tracks, which allows citizens to follow along with plows and trucks in real-time to see progress. However, the new program is called Road Tracks, and can follow along with any update made to a county road.
He said this program allows work to be logged in live-time as the staff completes it, with information such as who was there, how many workers were on the project, and materials used, and sends the information back to the department almost instantly.
"In the future, if someone has a question about whether a pothole was fixed, we can pull it up and it will pop up and we will know," Shepherd said. "Formerly, we would have to go back through journals, and that could just take days."
