APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – The city of Appleton is running low on their salt supply after a harsh start to 2019.
The city says their supplier is unable to deliver the rest of its winter order until sometime in the spring, which puts them in a position of being forced to conserve their current supply.
To do that they’ll only be salting main roads, hills, and bridges in the city until the order can be filled.
Chad Doran, Communications Coordinator says the good news is that they have not run out yet, but have to adjust where they apply salt the rest of winter.
He says residential streets will not be salted for the rest of winter, but that is not unheard of.
“We salt residential streets where a lot of other communities don’t do that because they can’t afford to or just choose not to.”
The city placed a salt order in April 2018 with Morton Salt for 4,250 tons and at this time 2,500 tons have been delivered.
Doran says they looked at getting salt from neighboring communities, but that wouldn’t work.
“What we really found out is that there are a lot of communities that do not have any salt at all, so we are actually in a pretty good situation compared to a lot of other communities.”
The city has about half of their supply left, and Doran feels it should be enough to finish winter on the main roadways.
Conditions on residential streets may be a little slick at times for the rest of winter.”
Because of this, they are asking drivers to use extra caution during winter weather in the coming weeks.
“Slow down, it is just good winter driving practices.”
He says now more than ever, those practices need to be used.
