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Too Much Supply and Not Enough Demand This Winter

Posted at 12:21 PM, Jan 03, 2013
and last updated 2013-01-04 04:14:54-05

MUSKEGON, Mich.- It is a case of supple but not enough demand. Road crews are sitting in a good position so far this season. Thousands of tons of salt and not many chances to use it puts the Muskegon county road commission in a unique situation.

It was a quick burst of snow right before the morning drive, Thursday. Muskegon County road crews got a jump-start. One by one, they loaded up on salt to tackle roads throughout the county’s 16 townships.

“We did hold a crew overnight till 2 a.m. so we did have 24 hour coverage during the storm,” said Eric Scott, foreman with the Muskegon County road commission.

As forecasted, it wasn’t a big snow event. But Scott is not too disappointed.

“It’s been a good winter so far,” said Scott. “I’m a warm weather kind of guy.”

West Michigan has not seen nearly the amount of snow we normally do this time of year. Muskegon usually has over 37.5 inches of snow by now. The area has only seen 8 inches. And, Grand Rapids typically has 31.5 inches of snow up to this point. That is a far cry from the 7.5 inches that has fallen.

Scott says they have salt left over from last season and haven’t had to order more.

“We have a lot of salt on hand. I think there’s 8,000 ton out in the shed out there.”

Students like Sadie Cassidy would like to see more snow. Schools have not used many snow days up to this point.

“That’s a little bad because I don’t want to go to school a lot,” said Cassidy. “I want the days off!”

But, FOX 17 meteorologists say one big snow event could quickly bring us back to normal.