(Spirit Lake)– The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors last week approved the construction of a salt storage facility at the secondary roads facility in Spirit Lake. County Engineer Cole Budach says $140,000 was budgeted for the project, with the facility coming in at about $94,000…
“And that’s for a 41 by 42 salt storage building which is on a block foundation with fabric stretched over a truss. The estimated storage capacity on this is 450 tons of salt/sand mixture. Our current salt storage building, we have our main one down in Milford, that’s been responsible, or the hub for all the other shops to go to and get that. Spirit Lake does store some on the ground at the current shop under a little lean-to. This would take the place of that. Last winter and likely this winter as well, the guys from the Spirit Lake shop run into town and then go back out each time they get it.”
Budach says that between the two facilities, the county should have enough salt on hand to get through the entire winter…
“It’s going to move us pretty much, I would say, in line with our typical salt storage for the year. If we had a really heavy winter it’s possible we would need more storage to last us the whole winter, but right now as we operate at the Milford, that one holds any where from 1,000 to 1,200 tons of salt/sand mixture. In a typical winter we’ll see about 1,500 tons or maybe a little bit worse than average winter we’ll see about 1,500 tons of salt/sand mixture being used, so this would bring our capacity over that 1,500 tons.”
Budach says there have been issues in the past with salt delivery during the winter, due mainly to supply and transportation issues. He says this would allow them to get deliveries during the spring and summer in advance of the upcoming winter each year.
