A news report this week about the supply of rock salt has generated some apprehensive phone calls to our public works department. Public Works Director Tom Kelley assures us  that we have enough salt to deal with whatever this miserable ice-troll of a winter has left in its bag of despair.

Our supplier, Cargill, says that supply for local governments is not a problem. They have salt in storage around here to meet all existing orders.  Additionally, more salt is on the way upriver from a mine in Louisiana, and still more is headed here on trucks from another mine in upstate New York. Although there is a backlog of orders, and delivery has been affected, Mt. Lebanon has enough salt to last until our resupply order is filled. As of January 31, Mt. Lebanon has purchased 7,500 tons. There are enough funds in the 2014 line item for salt to buy another 1,584 tons. Last week, Mt. Lebanon had four snow and ice callouts, using a total of 853 tons of salt.

And remember. Pitchers and catchers report to Bradenton in six days. So that’s something.