Salt suplies so-so

Some communities say they’re running out of snow and ice-fighting materials with winter’s worst month still ahead of us. On the state level, the transportation department has been shoveling and salting thousands of miles of roads for most of this month. Salt and salt brine are the most common show-and-ice fighters. State maintenance engineer Don Hillis sees no danger of the department running out of supplies “in the near future.” He says the department tries to keep adequate salt supplies scattered throughout the state. He says it’s up to district engineers to decide when to send out the trucks.