It’s that time of year again, and the city government of Aurora is making sure there will be enough salt on hand to melt snow and ice from city streets during the Winter this year.
“We’ve already applied salt twice this month,” said Tim Forbes, Aurora’s superintendent of streets. “We laid down just enough to make our primaries safer for the two (snow) events we had.”
City Council members will vote Tuesday, Dec. 4 on the purchase of rock salt from Cargill Incorporated Salt Division in Ohio through a State of Illinois joint purchasing agreement. The expenditure, which came before the Committee of the Whole (COW) Tuesday, Nov. 20, will be on the consent agenda next week.
Typically, the city budgets $1.1 Million per year in Motor Fuel Tax funds for the purchase of road salt, said director of Public Works, Ken Schroth.
Forbes said for the past six or seven years, the city government has split its salt purchases between two vendors in order to ensure there is enough salt stockpiled to combat a Winter’s worth of snow events. Approval to purchase 7,500 tons of salt from Detroit Salt Company through the DuPage County Department of Transportation was approved by City Council two or three months ago, Forbes said.
This second purchase of 7,500 tons of salt will cost $63.87 per ton, Forbes said, adding that the cost per ton for salt through DuPage County is $4 to $5 more per ton.
“In the past, we always bought through the state of Illinois,” Forbes said. “But the State’s supply can run low, so the city began to do split orders to avoid a shortage.”
“Last year we went through every bit of our orders,” Forbes said.
The city government of Aurora has experimented in the past with road treatments in advance of a snow or ice event. One was made with beet juice and one was formulated from byproducts of beer production, Forbes said. The city government spreads salt brine in advance of bad weather. “We’re looking at another trial with the beet juice,” Forbes said. “It is more of a sticking agent that keeps the salt on the road where you want it… it doesn’t melt snow or ice.
“Everybody in the country tries something different,” Forbes said. “In Wisconsin, they tried a waste product from cheesemaking. But in the Spring, they found out how bad it stunk.”
In other business, City Council next week will vote on a change that will allow a Popeyes Restaurant drive-through in the Savannah Crossing shopping center at Butterfield and Church Roads on the East Side of Aurora.
The requested change is in reference to the development of a 2,827 square-foot restaurant with 72 seats. The restaurant will coordinate with a Burger King that is being built on the adjacent property to create a cohesive plan for the two restaurants with their drive-throughs, and their parking lots.