After facing yesterday’s storm with just barely enough salt to scrape by, Southold Town received another delivery today and could soon see relief.
According to Highway Superintendent Vincent Orlando, the town got a trailer full of salt, 40 tons, on Friday. That, coupled with what he had left after making two complete sweeps around town yesterday, means he has enough for definitely two more rounds. “I can possibly squeeze out a third,” Orlando said.
Also, he said, the Staten Island-based supplier has promised another delivery tomorrow, Sunday and Monday. If that happens, he said, “We’ll be in great shape. And if the weather cooperates and stays true, we’ll catch up with expected deliveries, and we can breathe a sigh of relief.”
Yesterday, with snow making travel treacherous and resources strained to the limit, Orlando said the town’s supply of salt remained “dangerously low”.
The town got one delivery Wednesday night of 40 tons of salt, Orlando said. With a delivery of 30 tons earlier in the week, Orlando said there were 80 to 100 tons in the town’s barn prior to Wednesday night’s delivery.
According to Orlando, 40 tons makes just one round of the entire town, so he had just enough stocked up for just three rounds, two yesterday and one over the weekend — before today’s delivery spelled some respite from concerns.
“Absolutely, it’s low,” he said. “That’s living life on the edge, with two rounds left after this one. It’s like living paycheck to paycheck.”
The town mixes the salt with sand, and Orlando said they could go to just sand in an emergency, but added that the salt is needed to melt the snow.
Town and county departments have reported being critically low on road salt. Salt deliveries from the Staten Island supplier slowed down after the January 26 blizzard, according to highway superintendents for Southold, Riverhead and Brookhaven. All report having large road salt orders unfulfilled for weeks, receiving shipments “in dribs and drabs” throughout the month of February.See prior story.
Of the new storm this week, Southold Town Supervisor Scott Russell said, “This has been a brutal winter for us all. The bright spot is that we are down thestretch and hopefully won’t have to contend with it much longer.”
Orlando, the supervisor said, just ordered another 200 tons of salt yesterday and the vendor “assured him it’s on its way.”
The winter’s storms packed a punch to the town’s budget, Russell said. “We had many weather events during last year’s winter with considerable costs. We used those figures to develop this year’s budget and it’s clear we will exceed those costs.”
