County Had a Hard Time Getting Salt During Blizzard

CREST HAVEN — Rock salt and snow shovels were highly prized in in the last couple weeks.
But imagine the plight of Cape May County when it called its supplier of rock salt in preparation for the Feb. 5 storm that dumped about 20 inches on the county’s roads, only to get no answer.
Freeholders, on Feb. 9, approved an emergency purchase of 2,000 tons of rock salt, but finding a supplier, and then getting it hauled here in time for the storm was no easy task.
The gut-wrenching problem became evident to Kim Allen, county purchasing agent.
On Feb. 3, Allen wrote a letter to Ronald Sweet of Mid-Atlantic Salt, LLC, in Lyndora, Pa., the county’s supplier of rock salt, based on competitive bidding.
In that letter, Allen told Sweet she had tried to contact the firm via telephone four times Feb. 3 to confirm a “pending order of 550 tons of rock salt to be delivered to Cape May County.”
None of Allen’s four messages on voice mail were returned, she wrote.
The prior day, the county Road Department also tried to contact the firm, and similarly, no return call was received.
It wasn’t a last-minute order, since, on Feb. 1, Joe Versaggi, Road Department supervisor, called for the 550 tons of salt, and was told that shipment would take place within 24-72 hours (Feb. 4).
“Our rock salt supply is depleted and due to a storm forecasted in Cape May County on (Feb. 5) and no returned calls from MARS advising the status of our shipment…an emergency purchase order was placed at noon today with the successive low bidder…to meet the emergency delivery requirements of rock salt for Cape May County and the county cooperative agencies,” Allen wrote.
Atlantic County, a cooperative member, had also tried unsuccessfully to contact MARS.
Allen further asked MARS if future orders of rock salt would be provided, per county contract.
Next lowest bidder for providing rock salt was Eastern Salt Co. of Lowell, Mass., but that firm was unable to provide the majority of salt ordered on Feb. 3. The order of rock salt from that firm was for 1,400 tons at a total cost of $98,322 with deliveries starting Feb. 5 to Feb. 9.
Allen told county Administrator Stephen O’Connor that Eastern “failed to deliver the 1,400 tons due to lack of trucking available and a small partial shipment was delivered by Feb. 5.”
The balance of that emergency purchase was cancelled, Allen wrote.
Thus, faced with a speeding blizzard and the need to get salt onto trucks and on road surfaces, the county went to the third lowest bidder for salt: Oceanport LLC of Claymont, Del.
Their price, per ton, was $65 for 2,000 tons, or $130,000.
That’s not the end of the rock salt tale.
To get the salty stuff from the First State to the southern tip of the Garden State, the county engaged Albrecht and Heun to haul the salt from Oceanport here at a cost of $26.40 per ton, a total of $52,800.
“Rock salt deliveries took place on Feb. 8 with 819 tons being delivered to Cape May County and the balance (expected) on Feb. 9,” Allen wrote.
Before the blizzard, as county emergency officials were gearing up for the prospect of thousands without power, needing shelter, and roads being snowed under, County Engineer Dale Foster reported to freeholders, at their Feb. 9 meeting.
“We’ve been battling a series of snowstorms for the last two weeks,” said Foster. “The guys are fatigued, and another storm is supposed to hit the Jersey coasts this evening.”
Foster reported that 1,425 tons of salt waited in county barns to melt the “icy, wintry mix” that was sure to happen.
In light of that anticipated storm, freeholders shifted their meeting time to 4:30 p.m. from 7 p.m.
Foster said that mechanics were “still working fixing broken equipment from the past week. He cited 27 trucks available to do battle on county roads.
“We are still moving along pushing as much snow as we can,” he said, and added that if was “difficult pushing it to the curb,” since curbs were already covered.
On Feb. 8, Foster said the county “hauled 40 trucks of snow off Mechanic Street” so parking would be available for the Office of Emergency Management, library and businesses on Mechanic Street. We’re giving it our best,” said Foster.
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 Ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com