Two new storage structures give hope to a less icy and safer winter this year
Following last year’s icy winter, Athens County officials are already scrambling to prepare for the biting cold season this year might bring.
The county suffered a sweeping road salt shortage last February, leaving only the highly-trekked areas safe from ice — much to the annoyance of students and locals. Then, salt reserves were being kept in a building on East State Street.
But Athens County Engineer Jeff Maiden discussed plans for two new road salt storage structures at Tuesday morning’s Athens Board of County Commissioners meeting. However, Athens might not be getting these buildings as soon as city officials had previously hoped.
These buildings, constructed in light of a 2009 project in Hocking County, were estimated to cost $530,000. However, each of the four contractors that bid for the project put costs closer to $700,000.
Because all bids far exceeded the estimated cost, Maiden will have to resubmit a request for bids and hope for a more ideal offer.
“We obviously underestimated the impact of inflation when we quoted the 2009 cost of the Hocking County salt buildings,” said Maiden. “We have about 25 employees at our office that we can use before hiring a contractor, but when we resend the bid for a contractor we will need to reevaluate our costs.”
Maiden told The Post last February the city had already spent $140,000 on road salt, sand and trucks to clear the road, with each ton of salt costing roughly $57. The city used around 2,300 tons of salt alone last year.
The two concrete structures will be built to accommodate 3,000 tons of road salt and “grit” mixes each. Both are necessary to ease Athens’ icy roads, County Commissioner Charlie Adkins said.
The structures will be roughly 60 feet wide and 98 feet long, with steel trusses for roofs.
County commissioners also approved a transfer of $5,368 from the county gasoline funds to the county ammunition funds. He believes that the action will be temporary until new ammunition funds can be generated.
“All we did was create the new financing line item for right now,” County Commissioner Lenny Eliason said.
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