Let It Snow: Plenty Of Road Salt In Frankfort

FRANKFORT, IL — Frankfort residents can rest assured that unless Mother Nature has something else up her sleeve, the village has plenty of salt to keep roads clear this winter. The polar vortex did not deplete stockpiles of road salt.

Trustee Cynthia Corso Heath brought up the question at Monday night's board meeting, saying she'd been thinking about after the brutally cold weather the region experienced last week.

"We are in very good shape," said Rob Piscia, Frankfort's village administrator.

He explained that the village still had stores because last year's winter wasn't as bad as predicted. Plus, this year, he said, the beginning of winter had been fairly mild.

"We're ok and we have more coming," he said. Officials replenish the stockpile regularly.

It takes about 100 tons of salt to clear the village's roads when it snows.

Other snow facts from the meeting:

• The village buys its salt from Morton Salt. It costs about $65 a ton.
• The salt does not melt ice on the roads if temperatures dip to 10 degrees or lower.
• It takes four passes for a plow to clear a road of snow.

Photo via Lanning Taliaferro/Patch.