Just because salt didn’t pepper DeKalb’s roads this winter doesn’t necessarily mean money saved for future snowfalls.

During a normal winter, the average snowfall is between 33 and 36 inches and an average of 2,700 tons of salt are used by the city. This winter has seen 27 inches of snow, and 1,800 tons of salt have been used so far, said John Conlin, assistant public works director for DeKalb.

Even though nine tons less were used this year, the city hasn’t saved any money yet. Conlin said the city put in a bid to purchase a certain amount of salt this winter, and it still has 400 tons to receive.

The storage for the salt is already too full, so the salt will be stored with the salt supplier for $2 per ton. And whether or not DeKalb will save money on salt depends on how much the salt will cost next year.

This year, the salt cost $33.18 per ton, and if the price goes up next winter, the city will have saved money because of its salt surplus.

“It’s a bit of a gamble,” Conlin said. “It’s a nice problem to have.”

Last winter, the NIU Grounds crew paid almost twice as much for salt at a price of $55 per ton, said Tom Anderson, NIU’s superintendent of grounds.

DeKalb and the grounds crew did save money from lack of overtime. NIU Grounds paid about 1,330 hours less in overtime than a usual winter, which saved about $32,000.

Also this year, snow plows and trucks went out only two dozen times for the city, and some trips were of short duration, Conlin said.

In a normal winter, the vehicles are out about 30 to 45 times. Conlin added last year the trucks were out almost every day in December, but this December the trucks weren’t out at all.

Even if money was saved, the department won’t get to use the savings to get equipment or other snow-related supplies.

“We don’t get money in amount,” Conlin said. “As we spend money, we go into the general revenue funds.”

It can be thought of as a “double-ended sword,” Conlin said. “If it was a really bad winter, we might have to sell a truck.”

Though the crews weren’t out moving a lot of snow, more grounds work was done during that time than normal.

January and February were spent street sweeping and removing 15 to 20 trees. Grounds also performed a lot of forestry and electrical work.