County holding the bag on salt

Jefferson County will be forced to buy $656,567 worth of road salt it doesn't want if its 29 towns and villages, the city and the city school district don't make another purchase by May 1.

American Rock Salt, Mount Morris, is requiring the group to purchase at least 60 percent of the 37,075 tons it thought it would need this winter. The county, as the sole entity that arranged the contract, would be obliged to purchase whatever gets the collective to 22,245 tons.

Ten days remain and the collective has purchased 17,182.02 tons, or 46.3 percent of its estimated supply.

James L. Lawrence Jr., county highway chief, said the shortfall will come out of his summer work budget.

"If we're obligated to make the final purchase, there will be road projects that will have to be scaled back," he said.

Mr. Lawrence has the sole discretion to decide which projects need to be done this year and which municipalities he'll pay to assist county crews.

The chief won't say how municipalities that failed to fulfill their piece of the salt contract will be affected.

There are two towns and two villages that orally committed last September to purchasing salt from the contract but have yet to purchase even a handful.

Dexter and West Carthage had requested 120 tons each, and Hounsfield requested 2,000 tons; Mr. Lawrence said they have no plans to buy salt from the county.

Pamelia initially requested 700 tons, although Mr. Lawrence said he heard immediately from Supervisor Lawrence C. Longway that the town had no intention of purchasing salt from the county bid.

Mr. Longway has previously said the town requested its salt through a state bid, which was offering salt at $57.20 per ton for the 2008-09 plowing season. Jefferson County received one bid for its collective: $129.68 per ton. The winning bidder in both instances: American Rock Salt.

The county collective had beaten the state price in the previous 13 years. County Administrator Robert F. Hagemann III has said previously that county leaders never bothered with a formal contract with the municipalities because their low price ensured that municipalities would buy more than the minimums.

Now they're still hoping that all municipalities honor a verbal agreement their highway chiefs made to Mr. Lawrence during a September meeting.

Two towns may do just that in the next week.

Mr. Lawrence said Champion and Brownville "are striving to meet their obligation."

Brownville needs to purchase 763 more tons to meet a 60 percent minimum order. Champion needs to buy 226.58 additional tons to meet the same threshold.

If both towns make good, the shortfall then would be $528,238.51.

The town of Ellisburg is another holdout, Mr. Hagemann said. The town has purchased 39.6 tons, or 6.6 percent of a minimum order.

He said the villages, as a whole, are at 99 percent of their minimum obligation. The Watertown City School District is at 98.4 percent, he said. The city of Watertown is at 86.1 percent. The towns are at 72.4 percent.

The thought of getting stuck with the bill did not sit well with lawmakers being briefed about the situation Tuesday during the General Services Committee meeting.

Legislature Chairman Kenneth D. Blankenbush, R-Black River, and Legislator Philip N. Reed, R-Fishers Landing, both noted that the county had increased its per-mile allocation for snowplowing, in part because of the higher salt price. Towns that plowed county roads saw an average per-mile increase of $1,200.

"I think we did our share of helping them defray the cost of plowing," Mr. Blankenbush said.

And Legislator Michael W. Behling, R-Adams Center, added: "Certainly there's a thought that those towns who did not take their allotment would not be receiving summer work."

The lawmaker won't have to include his hometown on that list. The town of Adams, which had purchased 114 tons through March 14, is now just two tons short of its minimum commitment of 600.