County could be stuck with salt

Jefferson County may be stuck with a shed full of overpriced road salt if its town highway chiefs don't honor a verbal commitment they made last fall to purchase part of the supply.

A collection of area municipalities — which includes the county, the city, the Watertown schools, and 29 towns and villages — needs to buy an additional 6,687 tons, or $867,206 of supply, to meet its minimum purchase requirement before the contract with American Rock Salt, Mount Morris, expires May 1.

If the other members fall short, the county, as the sole entity which arranged the contract, would be obligated to purchase the remainder.

The county, which has organized annual bids independent of the state bid for at least 14 years, requested 37,000 tons for the collective from American Rock Salt this year. The contract requires the county to purchase at least 60 percent of that request, or 22,245 tons.

James L. Lawrence Jr., county highway superintendent, said he is not yet worried that the threshold won't be met. But he is keeping close tabs on what each municipality has purchased.

Mr. Lawrence has identified four towns — Brownville, Ellisburg, Hounsfield and Pamelia — that haven't purchased anything from the contract. Those four towns collectively requested 5,300 tons, he said.

County Administrator Robert F. Hagemann III said the town of Adams recently made its first purchase: 114 tons. The town requested 1,000 tons, he said.

Mr. Hagemann said the towns, as a whole, need to purchase a total of 17,760 tons for Jefferson County to meet its minimum obligation. So far, the 22 towns have purchased about two-thirds of that amount.

He said the major issue was the bid result. The county has routinely beaten the state price for the ice-melting substance — until this year.

The state offered salt for $57.20 per ton for the 2008-09 plowing season. Jefferson County received one bid last year: $129.68 per ton. The winning bidder in both instances was American Rock Salt.

"Everyone is making a conscious decision to minimize their orders because of the cost," said Mr. Hagemann. "That's understandable."

In other years, one entity could purchase less than the minimum and be covered by another entity that purchased more than their requirement. But Mr. Hagemann said that's not happening this year. The administrator said county leaders never bothered with a formal contract with the towns because, in previous years, their low price ensured that municipalities would buy more than the minimums.

Now they're left hoping all the towns will honor a verbal agreement their highway chiefs made to Mr. Lawrence during meetings in September.

It seems unlikely that's going to happen.

"I told them numerous times up front I wasn't going to pay that price," said Pamelia Supervisor Lawrence C. Longway.

He said the town hedged its bets and requested salt through the state bid. It's used that contract for all its salt needs this winter.

Brownville, however, is planning to restock its supply for next winter by utilizing the county contract.

"We will live up to our obligation," said Supervisor Leo K. Thompson.

Eric F. Martin, Ellisburg's highway superintendent, said he will purchase some salt from the county, but did not offer a specific figure. The roads chief, who purchased the town's supply off the cheaper state bid this winter, has 800 tons of salt remaining in his barn.

Mr. Martin cited cost as the main reason why the town hasn't purchased anything from the county bid.

Hounsfield Supervisor Martin DelSignore said his town purchased from other vendors this year, but said he did not know specifics. The supervisor, who was appointed in November, referred questions to Highway Superintendent Bruce Alcombrack. He did not return several phone calls seeking comment Friday.

Mr. Lawrence said the county may ask American Rock Salt to forgive the difference if the total purchase falls short of the minimum. If that doesn't work, the county roads chief said he'll be forced to cut road construction projects planned for this summer or reduce his contractual maintenance work with the towns.

"When there's an obligation to spend money in one part of our budget, we'll have to make it up in another part," said Mr. Lawrence. "We might have to do some of the maintenance ourselves or cut back on some of the projects that we rely on the towns to assist us on."

No matter the outcome, Mr. Lawrence said the county "is out of the salt business."

"At the present time, I don't see us ever bidding salt again," he said.

Mr. Hagemann said the 32 entities will instead make their salt request to the state. The administrator noted that the state requires a written contract, which obligates each entity to purchase 80 percent of what it requests regardless of price.