Cedar Rapids gearing up for winter, paying more for salt

Winter is never entirely out of the mind of Craig Hanson, the city's public works maintenance manager.

The City Council this week will approve Hanson's request to purchase 9,000 tons of rock salt to help the city combat ice and snow on the city's streets this winter.

The city will pay more per ton than last year, and considerably more - 43 percent more - than just three winters ago.

The city currently has between 5,300 and 5,400 tons of salt on hand, Hanson reports.

According to Hanson's figures, the city used 12,274 tons of salt as recently as the winter of 2007-2008. Last winter, it used about 8,000 tons.

The city is buying the salt from North American Salt Co., Overland Park, Kan., for $68.02 a ton as part of a bid with the Iowa Department of Transportation. A year ago, the city paid $66.49 a ton.

Hanson says the city sought its own bids for salt and three firms responded, none of them local and none of which could match the bid secured by the state. The low bid through the city bid process was $68.67 a ton.