HONESDALE BOROUGH, PA — How much salt does it take to make safe Honesdale’s roads?

It’s more than one might think. 

“We’re gonna need more salt, I’ll just say that,” public works commissioner David Nilsen told the Honesdale Borough Council on January 27. “We’re gonna need more salt.”

The council originally planned to sign a contract for 450 tons of road salt for the coming year. At Nilsen’s request, it contracted for 710 tons of road salt instead. 

Nilsen said he’d arrived at the figure by going through the salt numbers for the past couple of years. To date for the year, he has already purchased 372 tons of salt, he said. 

Because the contract will last through the year, the amount of salt purchased will have to cover both the tail end of the 2024-25 winter and the start of the 2025-26 winter, said council member William McAllister. 

Before the council left behind the discussion of salt, council member Tiffany Rogers asked if the borough has shored up security at the salt shed, referencing the recent theft from the facility. 

On January 13, the Honesdale Borough Police released a video of two individuals using a bucket to take salt illicitly from the borough’s salt shed. 

It requested the public’s help in finding said individuals. 

“Because we are spending a decent amount of money on this expense, have we shored up the security of the salt shed?” asked Rogers. 

“That’s correct,” said interim borough manager Kevin Kundratic. 

Nilsen, in his public works report, told the council that the department of public works is in the early stages of identifying a place on borough property to which to relocate its salt shed. 

Currently, the salt shed is on 12th Street near Sycamore Point park. Honesdale DPW is working to survey the boundaries of its property at 100 Ridge St., to determine if there is a suitable location there, said Nilsen.