Updated at: 09/29/2009 9:38 AM | KSAX.com
By: Megan Matthews
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Douglas County Road Salt Prices up from Last Year

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Minn.- Icy road conditions are unavoidable during Minnesota winters, and this year Douglas County will have to pay more for salt.

"The biggest reason for the increase is the delivery charge.  With fuel spiking, especially a couple years ago spiking that's when we saw the biggest jump," said David Robely, Director Douglas County Public Works.

Salt prices jumped up about $10 this year raising the cost to just more than $77 per ton.  Douglas County orders about 1,800 tons of salt each winter, which means this winter they'll spend more than $100,000 dollars on salt.

"Salt is the most effective for the price," said Robely.

Douglas County buys salt through MNDoT, because they share the storage building here in Alexandria.  This saves them some money, because they can buy salt in larger quantities.

The question is, who pays for this increase?

"It's all paid for from tax dollars," said Robely.

Taxes may not directly increase with salt prices, but the city has to find the extra money somehow.  Douglas County Public Works has had an increase in revenue because of the fuel tax increase, according to Robely.

In the past few years salt prices have increased more than 60 percent, and Robely says they probably won't go down until transportation costs go down.

With a dry winter in the forecast the city might not need a lot of salt.  Robely says we'll just have to wait and see.

Written for the web by Megan Matthews

megan@ksax.com