In late January, DeKalb city officials announced they would have to conserve road salt as they waited for another shipment from the state. That meant only applying salt on major roads and not residential streets. At that time, the city had a supply of 250 tons of salt with an additional 800 tons on order. DeKalb Public Works Director T.J. Moore says the supply has since been replenished.
"This is winter in Illinois so we know we are going to have snow," Moore said. "The challenge is when you don't have [salt] you start losing your tools to fight it. We have our tools back. We have some salt that has been delivered. You never have as much as you would like, but we are feeling much more comfortable now."
He says early in the year, local officials estimate how much salt they need for winter. They submit that amount to the state, which puts in a massive bid for salt and then distributes it.
"We knew we would get it, but with storms coming every three or four days, we couldn't guarantee when the next shipments would come in," Moore said.
He says the current supply is enough to get through several more storms.
