Road salt prices skyrocket

While the snow was still falling in unrelenting amounts last winter, scores of communities in Illinois started thinking a year ahead.

They began placing road salt orders for winter 2014-15 through a state joint purchasing program that seeks to help communities keep costs low by soliciting competitive bids.

Despite those efforts to get in front of the problem, supplies this year have become tighter after a particularly fierce winter with high salt use. About 180 local governments were unable to secure bids through the state, officials said. They had to find salt on their own — and often at much steeper prices…Please click here to read Geoff Ziezulewicz’s story in the Tribune.