Cazenovia town highway crews last week began erecting a new salt storage shed and cold storage shed on Constine Bridge Road in the town as part of a $250,000 capital project. The new buildings will allow the town to store winter salt and seasonal town equipment in a covered structure.
The new 42-by-94-foot salt storage shed will benefit the town by allowing the highway department to have a supply of pure salt for winter road treatment, said Town Highway Superintendent Tim Hunt. The town currently stores its salt outside, which requires it to be mixed with sand rather than pure, because pure salt will become a solid block once it gets wet from rain. Having pure salt in a covered storage area will “give us more options available in our winter snow fighting,” Hunt said.
Having a covered storage area will also limit the amount of salt runoff into the watershed that currently occurs with the salt-sand mixture stored out in the open. This also will save the town from losing 20 to 30 percent of its salt through runoff, which will save the town “a couple thousand dollars per year” in salt costs, Hunt said.
“We’ve been talking about this for four or five years, and I think it’ll be really helpful,” said Supervisor Bill Zupan. “This will help protect the lake from phosphorous runoff. It should be a good plus for the town.”
The $250,000 cost of the two buildings will be paid by the town through a 25-year bond.
Before construction began last Wednesday, the board approved during its Monday, June 8, meeting a negative declaration for potential environmental impacts from the projects, the bond resolution to pay for the projects — subject to a permissive referendum by town residents — and to advertise and solicit for bids relative to the construction of the cold storage barn.
The salt shed is scheduled to be completed the week of June 22, Hunt said, while the cold storage barn is many months away because the town still must go through the bidding process.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
