Listen to your road engineer.

That’s the advice Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro has to local municipalities underestimating their salt supplies for the winter season.

“At the beginning of every season, every community has to decide how much salt that they believe they’re going to need for the season,” DeChristofaro told county commissioners at its regular meeting Thursday. “Every community is then held to that amount of salt plus or minus 10%. …

“When people have been using salt for quite some time, they start to run short.”

DeChristofaro said his department would not remove supplies from communities to address others’ salt deficiencies.

“We cannot take from communities that overestimated or that estimated properly,” he said.

Trumbull County is among a slew of Northeastern Ohio communities included in a winter storm watch running Saturday night through Monday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

Snow accumulations in excess of 6 inches are being forecast. The weather service said the heaviest snow is expected Sunday. Subzero wind chills are expected Saturday night into Monday morning.

The county engineer did not disclose the communities with low supplies. In one example, he said a small municipality required assistance.

“It was a small supply that they needed. … They under-ordered from the quantity that they should have ordered,” DeChristofaro said after the meeting.

He said they wanted to obtain about twice their normal order.

“Their trustees chose not to order what the road superintendent wanted. And it turns out the road superintendent was right, DeChristofaro said. “So unfortunately, there will be some communities that may be more challenged than others.”

Commissioners Tony Bernard and Rick Hernandez questioned DeChristofaro about other options, such as contacting the Ohio Department of Transportation, private companies or supplier Morton Salt.

“Can we do that as a county? Reach out to ODOT and see if they have any extra salt that we could possibly buy or use or replace until we get through this storm that’s supposed to hit so these communities don’t get left out without any salt?” Bernard said. “I guess my other question is, ‘Are the other communities aware where they’re at with their salt inventory?'”

DeChristofaro answered yes to both inquiries.

“It just wouldn’t be fair to those communities that have the adequate amount of salt that they need to take their salt and give it to those who don’t,” he said. “So for those communities that are running short, it’s unfortunate, but I think it should be a learning experience for the follow up for the next year as to the quantities that you order for next season.”

When salt runs low, DeChristofaro said road departments will mix it with ash to extend the supply.

“The townships further north do that all the time,” he said.