BAZETTA — At Tuesday’s township trustees meeting, Trumbull County Engineer David DeChristofaro said Trumbull County is considering a significant change in the road salt program.

The engineer is gauging support from the 41 agencies that buy salt through the county program if they would consider moving away from staggered winter orders and instead buying the full season’s supply in advance.

“If we can have that salt in stock, we would never have to worry about the salt mine delivering it to us on time,” DeChristofaro said.

Under the current process, the county agrees to pay for a certain volume of salt, and then orders deliveries as needed throughout the season. That way, the salt can be kept in salt domes. While vendors have fulfilled the total amount ordered this winter, DeChristofaro said deliveries have often arrived weeks behind schedule. At one point, the stockpiles were down to a three-day supply on hand, he said, to serve both county roads and 41 participating communities.

Having it all delivered in advance, he said, would avoid the shortages and delivery delays that have strained salt supplies across the area this year, especially during the severe storms over the past several weeks.

There is a tradeoff, however. The county only has storage for about 16,000 tons, which means about 20,000 of the 34,000-ton yearly order would need to be stored outdoors under tarps. It’s possible, but using the tarps adds an additional $3 per ton charge that would have to be passed along to the communities.

The trustees expressed support for the idea and offered to use the full capacity of the township’s 1,000-ton salt dome to offset the cost.

“I think we’d be more than happy to help you out with stockpiling as much as we can get,” said township trustee chairman Michael Hovis.

DeChristofaro noted that trustees had used about 95% of their 700-ton salt allotment for the year, but had the ability to purchase up to 105 more tons of salt at the same price of $48.99 before having to worry about a price increase.

Also at the meeting, trustees:

• Approved selling off several vehicles from the township impound lot.

• Heard the township easter egg hunt will be at 11 a.m. March 21.

• Promoted Talon Cerny from part-time to full-time firefighter / EMT, with the requirement that Cerny must complete paramedic certification by Feb. 15, 2028, and pass all required physical examinations.

• Approved reducing zoning change hearing fees from $1,200 to $800 and zoning board of appeals fees from $800 to $600. The fee reductions are possible because of the elimination of legal newspaper notice requirements and reduced meeting expenses.