Sick of snow and ice? Join the club

ZANESVILLE – In like a lion, out like a lamb? Locals have their fingers crossed.

But while the frozen, huddled masses of Muskingum County take heart that spring is less than three weeks away, local officials are still fighting to keep the roads and sidewalks safe.

Goss Supply has gone through 25 truckloads of salt this year and, with warmer weather, hopefully, on the horizon, has stopped selling it altogether, Terry Goss said.

“We basically have none left,” he said. “We only have a few bags left lying around that we’re rationing our own use.”

The store could order more, but with the complications that come with obtaining more of the in-demand product, Goss said, it’s not worth it.

“We’re just gonna be done for this season.”

Ohio Department of Transportation employees wish they could be done for the season, but with more cold weather expected late into the week, Muskingum County Manager Phil Valentine is still receiving salt — 750 tons of it to be added to the 1,400 already in storage.

Dropping temperatures eat up salt pretty quickly, but Valentine expects the reserves to be more than enough to last through winter.

“Right now, we’ve got more on hand than we’ve ever used to cover the remaining time period,” he said.

Valentine expects his sector to be left with about 1,000 tons of salt at the end of winter in part because of the increased use of calcium, which helps ice and snow melt faster while sticking to the road. In previous years, ODOT has used about 8,000 tons in-county, but so far about 16,000 tons have been used due to the quickly dropping temperatures.

The Muskingum County Engineer’s Office and Zanesville Public Service Department also are within normal limits with salt.

The city has 250 tons in storage, 350 on order and 2,250 left in its contract that could be ordered. The county, on the other hand, has about 300 tons of salt left, with none remaining in its contract after keeping the 530 miles of county road navigable through this winter.

County Engineer Doug Davis is mixing the salt with cinders and other materials to extend its life, but he said he simply hopes that Old Man Winter decides to take it easy soon.

“Hopefully, spring is just around the corner and comes sooner rather than later,” he said.

arumer@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

740-450-6758

Twitter: @AnnaRumerZTR

This week’s weather

A winter weather advisory will be in effect from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, while a flood watch will be in effect from Tuesday evening to Wednesday evening because of the frozen ground’s inability to absorb precipitation.

•Tuesday: High of 44 degrees, low of 35, 100 percent chance of a wintry mix.

•Wednesday: High of 37 degrees, low of 12, 50 percent chance of rain and snow.

•Thursday: High of 20 degrees, low of 7, cloudy.

•Friday: High of 30 degrees, low of 18, sunny.

•Saturday: High of 43 degrees, low of 23, mostly sunny.

Source: National Weather Service