Patrick Conners had one phrase he used over and over again to describe the day he opened the lone bid he received for the winter’s supply of road salt.
“Sticker shock,” he said. “I think all communities underneath our purchasing alliance had to take an internal look to see if they had the budget for it.”
Conners is the leader of SHACOG, the regional coordinator between governments that does the heavy lifting to find the 114,000 tons of salt municipalities in the Pittsburgh area expect to spread on the roads this winter.
Before last year’s freezing, snow-filled winter, SHACOG accepted a bid of $88.32 per ton, amounting to more than $10 million dollars’ worth of salt.
This year’s bidding wasn’t as smooth: only one of the four major salt suppliers responded to the request, with a bid of $152 per ton.
“Obviously, it’s almost twice as much,” Conners said. “Sticker shock is real.”
It’s also making a real impact on budgets throughout the region. For some communities, the increase alone is several hundreds of thousands of dollars, amounting to between 2% and 5% of entire annual budgets in places like Penn Hills, Moon and Harrison townships.
Of all the municipalities in Allegheny County, none have a worse outlook than Munhall, where Manager David Tye is staring down a crystalline-shaped hole amounting to $500,000, or nearly 6% of his borough’s budget.
“That’s a $250,000 increase to our budget, which would be equivalent to our roads paving program,” Tye explained. “I can’t go to the residents and say, ‘Hey, all of a sudden… you’re not gonna get any roads paved next year. We have to put them all in the salt.’”
Tye said he found another supplier that would give him salt for $140 per ton. He plans to order half as much as he expected. Instead of the 6,000 tons Munhall typically keeps for the worst possible winters, he’ll start the snowy season with 3,000 tons in storage.
That will have a practical effect for drivers as he and his road crews try to ration the supply they have and pray for a mild winter.
Tye said he plans to have crews salt the hills throughout a snowstorm but leave the flat stretches of road untouched until the snow stops falling and plows make their way through. It will limit the amount of salt pushed off to the side of the road before it makes a significant impact.
“The roads could be in theory less safe because there’s just more snow on the ground, less salt,” he said, adding that his crews probably over-salt the road to begin with.
Munhall is not the only borough trying to find a way to lessen the damage. Other communities are seeking their own bids, hoping to draw more competition through smaller orders.
Mt. Lebanon found a competing supplier for a little more than $136 per ton. Scott Township scored a deal at less than $95 per ton. Quaker Valley’s regional bid came to $139 per ton.
Pittsburgh, which has its own bidding process, plans to find out its cost Thursday afternoon.
When asked what caused the prices to increase so much, Conners said it was likely basic economics: the cost has gone up as demand rose from last winter, when many communities ran out of salt.
WPXI reached out to the four major salt suppliers to confirm and seek additional context. None of them responded to emails sent to their spokespeople.
Tye, for his part, cast doubt on the argument, at least in part.
“There’s a shortage, but I don’t know if it’s a shortage enough to double the price of salt,” he said. “There’s no other option out there. You’re going to have to just take the higher bid, and I just can’t do that.”
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