First steps taken for new road-salt dome to be built

Trustees approve resolution to buy components, building plans for state-of-the-art structure

Madison Township trustees have taken the initial action needed to construct a new, state-of-the-art roadsalt dome for the community’s Service Department.

Trustees, at their March 12 meeting, approved a resolution to purchase building plans and some of the components that would be used in building the salt dome, which meets Ohio Department of Transportation specifications.

The resolution calls for the township to buy a 60foot by 90-foot salt dome, with one vented end wall and a flame resistant polyethylene covering, along with engineer-stamped building plans, from Accel Building Systems of Perrysville for $55,000.

“This is not the total price of the salt dome, this is just the actual fabric dome and the trusses that support it,” said township Trustee Board Chairman Kenneth Gauntner Jr. “We will later on have to bid out the concrete walls that those things are mounted to, and there’s still a foundation to this that has to be constructed and built, so this is just the first step of the process.”

The new salt dome is needed because the township’s two existing salt bins — built in 1994 and 2007 — “are beyond their life expectancy, structurally failing and in need of significant repairs,” the resolution stated.

Trustee Max Anderson Jr. was one of the township leaders who visited road departments in Stow and Hudson to check out the same style of dome that the township eventually decided to buy.

“I think this is a great way to go,” Anderson said. “It’s well worth it for what we need to help save our road salt from the weather.”

The township hopes to have the new salt dome constructed by the end of summer, said Administrator Tim Brown. After the two existing wooden salt bins are emptied and evaluated, the township plans on salvaging the best of the two. Road materials other than salt would be kept in that structure, he said.