Where’s the Salt? Over the Bridge, Until City Creates a Storage Place

OCEAN CITY – Winter is coming, as any Game of Thrones fan knows. A former public works employee wants to know Ocean City will be ready when it happens. 
David Breeden, a city resident, has questions about city plans to build a structure to house the road salt crews use to keep roads from icing. In September, the city rejected bids to build the structure, citing the cost as an issue.
City officials say salt is available for this winter, being stored in Upper Township while the future of a dedicated city building is decided.
At the Nov. 18 council meeting, Breeden raised the issue. He cited regulations that mandate road salt is stored in a permanent structure.
“In other words, it’s the law,” he said.
Breeden was a longtime employee in the Public Works Department. Earlier this year, he told city council members that he had not been in council chambers in City Hall in many years.
Then, this fall, Breeden became a regular attendee at the meetings of the governing body, regularly commenting.
He has raised questions about other contracts, and at the recent meeting congratulated the city for its downtown decorations, but he’s returned to the salt storage issue more than once.
“I’ve heard the mayor’s reservations about where to put it, how much it costs, and they’re valid,” Breeden said. “However, you’ve had five years to figure that out.
“It appears that Congress will pass tax reform quicker than you can figure out where to put a salt storage facility, and that’s not good,” he said.
A building has been under discussion since the spring, and in May, city council approved going out to bid for a 70-foot-by-40-foot building next to the vehicle maintenance building on Haven Avenue. Breeden indicated that a round building for salt storage was under consideration before that.
Ocean City’s fleet maintenance building is at 10th Street, and there is an open lot used for storage adjacent to that.
Three bidders made proposals for the planned building, ranging from $431,000 to close to $550,000, according to city documents.
The lowest bid was close to the engineer’s estimate for the cost.
At a previous meeting, Mayor Jay Gillian took heat for the delay, saying he was not yet sold on the plans.
At the October city council meeting, Gillian said he had concerns for the neighbors about the beeping from the trucks and snowplows, and other issues, saying he is uncomfortable with the current options.
He said he’d like to work out an arrangement with the county to store road salt in Upper Township across the Roosevelt Boulevard Bridge.
“I’m looking at the neighborhood there, and the money it’s costing for this. I’m not satisfied,” Gillian said in October.
“That’s why it’s been taking a while. Every time they come up with something, it just doesn’t hit all the things I’m looking for.”
He said there is a need for a building, but that in the short term, the city’s needs will be met.
“We’re always going to have salt. We’re going to keep our streets clean,” he said. “My team has just not been able to convince me yet that’s the right place for it, or it would be done already.”
Contacted last week, city spokesman Doug Bergen said the city’s salt supply is at a county facility in Ocean View.
City crews have to head over the bridge, which is down to one lane for a county deck repair project again this winter, to collect salt for the streets. He said that is not ideal but is a workable solution for the time being.
“We’re just trying to find a place to put it at a price we can afford,” he said.
The city budgets about $25,000 a year for its salt supply, but the amount it spends will depend on the number and intensity of storms in a given winter.  According to Bergen, the city is currently working on a solution for salt storage with other agencies.
To contact Bill Barlow, email bbarlow@cmcherald.com.