The Marion County Road Department has had a busy winter so far, but has been able to conserve its salt and sand supply. Marion County Engineer Tyler Christian says only about half of the in-season delivery has been used.

“We’re actually sitting surprisingly well, considering the number of snow events we’ve had. We’ve been pretty fortunate during these events, we haven’t used a lot of material. We have ordered 500 tons in-season, and we’ve only taken delivery of about 250 tons of that, so will still have about half of our in-season contract remaining. We’re eligible to take up to 30 percent more of that as well. We’re sitting pretty well as far as our salt shed capacity, so we’re not going to take any more at this time, other than the 250 tons we have on order. We’ll save the remaining 250 for later in the season, or hopefully not at all.”

Crews have been working lately on widening gravel roads and clearing drifts that have formed due to high winds.