(Host) As another storm bears down on the region, area road crews are worrying about their supply of salt.
VPR’s Ross Sneyd reports.
(Sneyd) Distributors have not been able to keep up with the demand because there have been so many storms in regions across the country.
And that means that both the Vermont Transportation Agency and many towns have been scraping their salt sheds to get by.
Dennis Lutz is the public works director in Essex. After last week’s storm, his town was down to almost no salt.
Lutz says a few truck loads have been delivered since then.
(Lutz) “We’re fine for the coming storm. We’ve got experienced people. They’ve done it a long time. They’re good operators. They know what to put down, they know when not to put it down. It’s a question of stretching the supply and keeping the thoroughfares open, keeping the schools open, keeping businesses running.”
(Sneyd) But many towns have had to borrow salt from state supplies – and that left three of the nine VTrans maintenance districts with low supplies last week.
Now, a distributor has been able to get 7,000 tons of salt to Vermont. Half of it is going to VTrans and towns are getting the rest.
VTrans says another two-thousand tons is on its way – and should be available when weekend storms are expected to barrel into the region.
For VPR News, I’m Ross Sneyd.