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STEUBENVILLE -- Some Jefferson County communities are opting out of the state’s road salt procurement system, citing price quotes more than twice what cities and counties in other parts of Ohio have been asked to pay.
County Engineer Eric Hilty said the decision came after extensive discussions within Jefferson County and with Columbiana County officials, the governor’s office and the Ohio attorney general’s office.
"A lot of entities were dropping out of the state procurement contract because of the price being so very high," Hilty said. "At today's Jefferson County Commission meeting, we're going to request authorization to advertise for bids for road salt in cooperation with other members."
Hilty and Steubenville City Manager Mike Johnson both pointed to the disparity between prices quoted for buyers in Mahoning County ($63.48 per ton) and neighboring Columbiana County ($151.85 per ton) as one example of what they believe is a flawed bidding process.
"The bid process is seriously flawed when Mahoning County gets a bid price of $63 a ton while Columbiana County -- which touches Mahoning County -- and Jefferson County, which is only an hour south of Mahoning, get bids (more than twice that)," Johnson said.
Earlier this year, Steubenville City Council authorized the city’s participation in ODOT’s road salt procurement program, which requires participating entities to submit the amount of salt they wish to purchase. ODOT then advertises the contracts, with suppliers submitting bids on a county-by-county basis.
In the first round of bidding, 18 counties -- Jefferson, Columbiana, Carroll, Harrison, Belmont, Monroe, Noble, Guernsey, Tuscarawas, Holmes, Coshocton, Muskingum, Knox, Morrow, Richland, Ashland, Seneca and Shelby -- received no bids, forcing ODOT to readvertise the contracts.
In the second round of bidding, Morton offered to provide road salt to Jefferson, Carroll and Columbiana counties, but at prices ranging from $96 to $107 more per ton than Geauga County’s $55.39-per-ton bid. Another company, Compass, proposed supplying road salt to Belmont County for $138.26 per ton, Monroe County for $135.79 per ton and Noble County for $134.86 per ton.
"We made countless calls to see what was available," Hilty said. "I think there are a lot of options substantially better than the price we received from the state contract, and no one I've contacted has any explanation for why prices are so high in our region compared to other regions in Ohio that are paying less than half our price. We're going out for our own bid and are hopeful we're going to get a much better option than the state contract."
To participate, local governments had to opt out of the state’s procurement process earlier this week. Steubenville City Council approved the city’s participation in the cooperative effort Tuesday.
"We're going out for our own bid and are hopeful we are going to get a much better option than the state contract," Hilty said, noting that Jefferson County paid $67 per ton for road salt in 2025 and used between 4,000 and 5,000 tons to treat roads.
The higher prices Morton offered this year "would have put us close to $1 million -- around $900,000 -- if we'd accepted that price," he said.
Steubenville, which purchases an average of 3,500 tons of road salt each year, would have paid more than $302,000 extra had the city remained in the state program.
Johnson said Street Superintendent Bob Baird has been working with Hilty for the past two weeks to identify alternative suppliers. He expects Wintersville and Cross Creek Township to be among the local entities joining the effort.
"We reached out to a lot of high-up officials across the state, hoping to get answers in the future," Hilty said. "I'm not sure if it will be comforting or provide more clarity, but we want answers and we want to do what we need to do to figure out why we're in this situation.
"I'm not saying anybody did anything wrong, but it's definitely something we need more information about and more answers so we can make better decisions moving forward," he added.
Hilty said "a lot of tough conversations" preceded the decision to withdraw from the state contracting system.
"As the county's engineer, ultimately, what I'm trying to do is what is best for the residents of the county in hopes of saving money for us and other municipalities," he said.
"This might be the writing on the wall for what the future will bring for salt and if it is, then we'll have to get creative down the road."
Hilty said his department is fortunate to have significant salt storage capacity but anticipates needing additional space to accommodate future purchases. He said the county is willing to work with the city and other local governments to handle and store materials and has "plans in place to accept all this material earlier."
Hilty said he and Baird also located a supplier willing to ship road salt by rail, unload it locally and deliver it.
"But this will be going out to public bid and we're hoping others will be interested as well," he said.