Northwest Indiana officials are feeling a bit salty these days after all the snow.

Mostly, it’s the lack of salt that’s the problem. Several municipalities in Lake and Porter counties report that, with weeks of winter weather ahead, they’re already running low on a critical ingredient to keep the roads safe this time of year.

Officials said they are weighing their options to be prepared as best they can while being mindful of their budgets, which will be further challenged by a winter storm watch that extends through 6 p.m. Saturday for Lake and Porter counties.

National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Doom didn’t pull any punches when it came to predicting the winter storm blowing into Northwest Indiana.

Doom said Northwest Indiana will be getting the hardest hit from this weekend’s snow and it will translate to hazardous travel.

“Ultimately, the highest total in Lake and Porter counties will be 6-9 inches of snow or possibly in the double digits through the end of tomorrow (Saturday),” Doom said.

Doom said this marks the third lake effect event in the Chicago/Northwest Indiana area.

“This one will be impactful. Heavy snow is moving through, from downtown Chicago, right as we speak,” Doom said Friday morning.

He predicts this winter storm may be similar to the Nov. 9-10 event that left behind a one-foot total of snow in Lake and Porter counties.

“It (this winter snowstorm) does have the appearance to be similar,” Doom said.

He said the bigger story is hazardous travel.

“Travel conditions will be dicey,” he said.

A city of Gary salt truck sits on a jack stand in the Gary General Services building on Wednesday, February 10, 2021. Municipalities including Gary are running low on road salt this year. (Kyle Telechan/Post-Tribune)

That’s not good news for municipalities trying to stretch their salt supplies.

Steve Segura, a spokesperson for the city of Gary, said the street department there is running low and is having difficulty finding additional salt for its roadways, given the weather challenges faced so far this winter.

“They (the street department) are looking at other avenues (besides salt),” Segura said. One of those alternatives is beet juice, which can only be used in certain temperature conditions, he said.

Lake County Highway Department superintendent Ron Gregory couldn’t be reached for comment.

Winfield Public Works Director Tony Clark told the town council at a recent meeting that efforts to keep the roads clean wiped out a great deal of the town’s salt supply and there may be a need to dip into the budget in the future for additional supplies.

Clark said the town’s street department has so far used some 600-650 tons of salt on roads of its total 900-ton winter supply. That leaves the street department with only about 300 tons of salt to finish out the rest of the winter season.

Clark said that town officials may need to increase that amount in future budgets because of the addition of new subdivisions.

Dwayne Polarek, Lake Station chief of operations, told the city council Jan. 22 he had to purchase an additional 200 tons of salt and it’s already been delivered.

He said the cheapest rate he could get was $150 a ton.

“This year was exceptionally rough,” he said. Polarek said the heavy snowfall in November used up a lot of salt. Then, another snowfall followed by rain washed all the salt off the roadways.

“We’re going to do our best to manage the salt. We don’t want to skimp because of public safety. We just have to be smart,” said Polarek.

He said the salt truck drivers set the calibration for each unit and he double-checks their settings.

Polarek said he also makes sure that snow plows aren’t behind salt trucks pushing all the newly poured salt off the road.

Supplies are also low in Merrillville, said Roads Superintendent Steve King. “We are pre-treating our roads, as we do before snow events, but regardless of how much snow we get, all of our roads will be passable.”

Porter County will begin rationing road salt after taking delivery of nearly half the salt for the season less than halfway through the season.

The Porter County Board of Commissioners voted in early January on the recommendation of Highway Superintendent Jim Polarek to implement the ration that will start with subdivisions.

The highway department will strategically apply salt to intersections, hills, bridges and curbs in subdivisions, but aim for conserving on other stretches of subdivision roads. The county can go through 1,500 tons of road salt in one icy morning, Polarek said.

The county had agreed to buy 7,000 tons and had already taken delivery of 3,300 tons, with predictions of February and March weather calling for below-average temperatures and above-average precipitation.

“Right now, we don’t have the money to buy on the open market additional salt,” Polarek said.

Commissioner Barb Regnitz, R-Center, asked what that might cost if it became necessary and Polarek recalled that one year before he was in charge, the county had to pay an additional $25 per ton to buy more salt at the end of the season, which would be an extra $37,500 for a 1,500-ton morning.

Freelance reporters Carole Carlson, Shelley Jones, Deborah Laverty and Michelle L. Quinn contributed.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/30/northwest-indiana-low-on-road-salt/