The Greene County secondary roads department is well positioned for whatever Mother Nature throws at the county this winter.
According to county engineer Wade Weiss, the county has on hand 4,000 tons of sand and 1,500 tons of salt. The two are mixed at a 2:1 ratio – two parts sand and one part salt. Weiss said the winter mix will be prepared yet this week.
The salt is purchased from Independent Salt of Kanopolis in central Kansas, a company that is in its 100th year of selling salt. The salt was shipped by rail to Ames and then trucked by the secondary roads crew to Jefferson. Cost this year was $60.68 per ton. Weiss recalls the cost was $18 per ton when he first came to Greene County 20 years ago. The sand is from a local pit.
The county typically uses 500 tons of salt and 1,000 tons of sand during the winter. In some years, Greene County has “loaned” salt to the Iowa DOT when state supplies were short.
