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Harrodsburg road salt supply running low

January 19, 2011|By ERIC L. RUEHS

HARRODSBURG — With a winter storm watch on hand for Thursday, members of the Harrodsburg City Commission and Mayor Eddie Long are concerned about the city’s depleted road salt reserves.

“We’ve already gone through 90 percent of our allotted salt budget for this year,” said Commissioner Charlie Mattingly, who oversees the Public Works Department. “Just to put things into perspective, last year at this time, we only went through 20 percent of our salt budget.”

Other Kentucky counties reported salt shortages as early as mid-December. Bell, Clay, Harlan, Jackson, Laurel and Whitley County officials had to stop treating secondary roads more than a month ago.
Mercer County might be better off than some other counties, but Mattingly said the situation is a unique one for Harrodsburg.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever run out (of road salt) and if so, I can’t tell you the last time,” he said.

Mayor Eddie Long said the city is taking a proactive approach to the road salt problem.

“We’re doing everything we can to stretch what we’ve got and even began mixing the salt with sand in an attempt to make it last longer,” Long said. “We could make it through two more moderate snow falls, but anything beyond that, and we’ll be in the same position as other Kentucky counties, and we’ve still got the rest of January and February to go.”

Mattingly said, unfortunately Harrodsburg is at the mercy of whatever the weather decides to throw at it.
“From now until the end of February, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea that we all pray it doesn’t snow,” he said.

In other business, the Harrodsburg City Commission modified the oversight positions for two city commissioners. Charlie Mattingly, who was previously watching streets and parks, will now oversee the public works department. Marvin “Bubby” Isham has been reassigned from fire and sanitation to fire and the cemetery department.

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