Salt for any season

After months of planning and preparation by several Cities, the first salt will be delivered to our new metro salt storage facility today. The first building of the structure, the joint cities building, was recently completed. The City of Des Moines building should be complete within a couple of weeks. We will start filling today and begin using our new building immediately, as we obviously have a need for salt given the snowfall we've already seen.

The salt storage facility is a tremendous example of what can be accomplished when agencies work together for a common need. This multi-agency salt storage facility allows nine area cities to store 22,000 tons of salt at an industrial area site in Grimes. The Metro Waste Authority agreed to finance the project and to allow the agencies to utilize 10 acres of land they had purchased for a transfer station that may be constructed in the future. One of the biggest challenges that governmental agencies have faced in past winters is the lack of salt availability during peak snowfall months. Last year was particularly bad; many cities ran out of salt early in the season. This facility will allow the cities to reserve the salt they need in storage before the winter months begin, which also means we can purchase the salt when it's at its lowest price of the year, no matter when that occurs.

The first delivery of salt may attract some news coverage today, so watch for more information and a chance to view the facility yourself.