Small Towns Hope for a Mild Winter

Even though snowfall in Middle Tennessee is unpredictable, towns and cities are usually prepared with enough salt to blanket the roads.

Not this year.

Cities along the Upper Cumberland, like Jamestown, are struggling to find road salt.

City recorder for Jamestown, Sarah Threet:

“I’m not able to get any from anybody this year. We’ve got a little bit left from last year, but not much.”

Threet says the 115 tons leftover is enough to maybe cover Jamestown’s roads twice – it depends on the snowfall.

Towns across the Upper Cumberland are in the same dilemma. The ones that can find salt, like the town of Monterrey, are paying a steep price for it.

The non-partisan industry group, the Salt Institute, says the problem stems from last year’s heavy snowfall, which flooded the Upper Mississippi making it harder for salt barges to deliver the wintertime staple.

State officials, meanwhile, say they do have enough road salt. But that only covers state highways, not the 35 miles of city roads in Jamestown.