Long journey into spring

Salt shortages, road commission staff cuts, soaring heating bills, below average temperatures and big wallops of snow are colluding to make this one of Michigan's toughest winters.

The 5 inches of snow that fell in Metro Detroit on Wednesday, brings the region's total to 47.7 inches -- 17.9 inches above normal. The accumulation means Metro Detroit could crack into the top 20 snowiest winters on record and the deep freeze this January ties with the eighth coldest, according to the National Weather Service in White Lake Township.

"We're definitely above average through the first half of the season. Whether it keeps up or not, that's to be determined," said Dave Kook, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "We're setting ourselves up for potential records (of snowfall)."

Wednesday's storm was massive, affecting states from Texas to Maine and into Canada, meteorologists said. Governors in Oklahoma and Kentucky declared states of emergency because of the weather.

In the Metro area, the storm made for a slippery commute, resulting in numerous crashes and hours-long delays for some drivers. AAA Michigan got about 2,200 calls from motorists seeking assistance Wednesday. Calls for roadside assistance have been well above normal since mid-December, officials said.

Most people are fed up with all the snow.

"It seems like snow gets dumped on the area every other weekend. I don't remember it being this bad last winter," said Ashley Thomas of Troy, as she bought stamps at the Birmingham post office. "It would be OK if I was into winter sports, but I'm not. So I'm more than ready for spring."

A 30-car pileup on Interstate 94 near Albion caused delays in both directions for hours. Thomas Pauli, 52, of Grand Rapids was found in the snow Monday, at least the eighth person found dead in the cold between Jan. 17 and Monday.

Bobby Johnson, 32, who left his Grosse Pointe Woods home about 9:20 a.m. and arrived has his job in Wyandotte about 11:40 a.m., said this winter is not the worst he's seen, but the road conditions are terrible because many streets have not been plowed.

"It is the worst road conditions I have ever encountered," Johnson said. "They always seem to find money for what they want. I guess they don't care about the massive amount of accidents and spinouts due to their lack of funds."

The continuous storms have put a deep hole in the region's road salt reserve, leaving many communities struggling to restock. The supplies are limited and the prices are high.

Salt prices have soared to $74 a ton for some communities, a bump of nearly $40 over last year's rate. To cope, some are scaling back routes to only key roads and intersections.

Bloomfield Township is salting county-only priority roads like Wing Lake and Lincoln. And before they restocked in the last week, workers were mixing salt with sand to stretch supplies.

"Supplies are back up at this point, but we are still in a conservative mode," said Rich Davis, the township's Public Works superintendent. "The snow is not letting up. We probably have enough for another four or five storms."

Mark Gahry, Brownstown Township's Public Works director, can relate.

He's been paying Wayne County roughly $74 a ton -- about $40 more than he paid last year -- to buy some of its salt supply after the 250 tons the township got from Detroit Salt ran out in December. He ordered another 200 tons two and a half weeks ago. He expects half of it to come in today.

"I don't know what the status will be on the remaining 100 (tons)," he said. "At this point I'll take what I can get."

It's a capacity issue, said Richard Hanneman, president of the Salt Institute, a nonprofit trade association. Mines in the United States and Canada are operating at maximum capacity, as they have been for 13 months, he said. And reserves were tapped dry after last year's tough winter.

For some county road agencies, staffing reductions are posing the greatest challenges.

By attrition, the Road Commission for Oakland County is down 49 workers, including 24 snowplow drivers. Last summer, Wayne County's Department of Public Services laid off 40 staff.

"Our choice is to buy new trucks or lay even more people off," said Alonzo Blount, Wayne County's roads director. "We haven't been able to buy a new truck in over four years. We laid off 40 staff members last summer, so we have less people to drive the older trucks. We used to have 562 employees, but now we have 364; that's in the last 3.5 years."

Adding insult to injury, soaring commodity costs mean heating bills are up 10 percent. The average homeowner paid $175 for a monthly bill last year. The same bill this year is $198.

"We have more (customers) behind on bills," said Scott Simons, a DTE Energy spokesman.

G & G Auto Service Inc. of Redford Township expects to see many dinged-up vehicles.

"We try to be prepared for it. Basically we get as many cars as we can done and brace for the impact of more cars coming in," said Manager Brad Lado. "We call it (snow) white gold."

Staff Writers Darren A. Nichols, Delores Flynn and Valerie Olander contributed to this report.