Like lottery winners who suddenly hear from relatives they never knew they had, county and municipal highway officials have been getting some unusual calls lately.

It's not money the callers are after though; it's road salt.

"I got a call from someone down in the Chicago area that thought they could do a better deal by going out (of the Illinois state bidding system) and now they're looking to buy salt from the rest of us," said Madison Streets Division operations manager Chris Kelley.

"Only thing he told me was he couldn't afford it (at the prices he was getting elsewhere) and he wanted to know if we could sell him a couple of loads. And I said I can't."

With many areas of the country having difficulty securing salt, some highway officials are looking to Wisconsin, where most counties and municipalities locked in contracts months ago for the salt they needed at a reasonable price.

"It's not so much that they didn't think so far ahead," Columbia County Highway and Transportation Commissioner Kurt Dey said of other regions. "It's whether the salt companies had enough product to go around the state."

The problem, Dey and others agree, is that after last year's record-setting winter, municipal, county and state governments were left with diminished or depleted salt inventories, causing most of them to up their orders with the nation's salt suppliers this summer. It's a simple supply and demand quandary, they say, that has led to reports of salt bids in some areas coming in at two or three and more times the cost per ton of last winter, or higher.

"We've heard that salt's out there and people are getting it, but last year they may have paid $40 a ton and this year they're paying $250 a ton, and they essentially don't want it at that price," said Michael Sproul, winter maintenance engineer for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Salt shortages have been reported in several states, especially in the Midwest and Great Lakes region. Some county governments are reportedly looking to suppliers as far away as South America. In mid November, the Illinois attorney general launched an investigation into the ballooning price for salt in that state.

In contrast, most Wisconsin county officials appear to be sitting pretty, with their salt contracts secured and the price per ton only about 12 percent higher than last year on average.

The average price per ton in 16 counties in southern and southwestern Wisconsin this year was $50.81, secured for the counties through a state bid, according to DOT records. That's a relative bargain that has allowed many area highway departments to get as much or more salt than they used all of last winter.

"We're very lucky," Sproul said. "We got some of the best prices in the Midwest, and we got the most quantity in the Midwest in terms of what percentage of what we requested did we get."

That good fortune is due mostly to a contract signed three years ago between the Wisconsin DOT and North American Salt, one of the largest salt producers in the world. That contract has allowed the state — and all the counties and municipalities that opted to buy their salt through the state's bidding system — to renew their order with North American Salt for the past two years with a relatively small price bump each year.

"We've been a good client, we've been a big client, they want to keep us happy," Sproul said. He noted, however, that the contract expires after this winter, meaning the state will have to solicit new bids in most Wisconsin counties next year.

'Paid a premium'

But while the majority of the state will benefit from the renewed contract with North American Salt, some counties that did not buy into it are feeling the pinch as winter approaches.

In Dodge County, where only salt intended for state highways is secured through the state's bidding system, Highway Commissioner Brian Field said he has paid more than $150 a ton and estimates he's only secured enough salt to make it about halfway through an average winter.

"We could not get a conventional contract with anyone," he said. "We went out to some smaller entrepreneurs who had connections, primarily with railroads, and managed to get products secured. ... We paid a premium for that, much higher than we're accustomed to paying."

In the past, Dodge County has benefitted from operating outside the state bidding system, he said. That was especially true last winter, when the county had a contract for $41.63 a ton with no limit on how much could be supplied at that rate, while other counties overran their contracted quantities and had to scramble to find salt, often at higher rates.

Similarly, St. Croix, Racine, Iowa and Douglas counties are starting the season short of their inventory goals, Sproul said. Those counties got their bids through the state bidding system, but the supplier in their case, Cargill Salt, has told them that it couldn't meet their entire need.

Field said he expects the price to come down in coming months as this year's initial demand levels off and cheaper fuel prices — another factor in the high cost of salt contracts this year — lower the cost of moving the salt. In the meantime, he said his department would conserve its salt, focusing on curves, hills and intersections, and would advise residents to stay home when it's snowing.

"In some areas, especially on secondary roads, there's going to be snow and ice on the roads, at least for a longer period of time than people are accustomed to," he said. "If you have to drive, leave early and drive slow."

'A learning curve'

The conservation message is being echoed by highway departments throughout the state. It's a lesson many departments figured out the hard way last winter.

"We had a learning curve last year because everybody was worried about running out, so we cut back," said Kelley, the Madison streets manager. "We tried to control it a bit more ... when we knew it was snowing heavily."

One thing Kelley said Madison learned last winter was how to be more efficient in choosing when to lay salt. In the past, plow operators would put salt down even when it was still snowing heavily. That often led to freshly laid salt being plowed away within a few hours when the trucks had to clear the roads again.

This winter, Kelley said, the department plans to more carefully pick the time to put salt down.

Several counties and municipalities are also using more sand (or limestone chips) to conserve salt, or using methods like pre-wetting their salt or incorporating brine into their process to make their operations more efficient.

Madison and other areas in south-central Wisconsin will also continue testing alternatives to road salt.

With future prices uncertain and budgets being squeezed throughout the state, highway officials are looking for long-term changes they can make to reduce their costs so that local governments don't have to make hard funding cuts in other areas.

"You know, you still have to keep these roads safe," said Lafayette County Highway Commissioner Tom Jean.