Newsletter
July 9, 2009
Hope all is well and hopefully the remainder of the summer is dry and sunny. I am writing to share with everyone that from June 24th.-28th. Specialty Crew Chief – Mathew Weightman, Specialty Crew Chief – David Feener and I were enjoying the sunshine in Louisville, Kentucky at the annual SIMA www.sima.org (Snow & Ice Management Association Symposium). We have been attending this event for several years now and each year we find new ways to improve our service level to our winter customers.
This year was particularly interesting with some great new innovations we will be investing in. One of which is a skid steer 
application called the KAGE we think this new tool will help us become more efficient and productive using skid steers to clear snow. We were also entertaining several offers to become a local distributor of bagged ice melt. JC’s customers use over 70 pallets or 4,000 50lb bags annually. By becoming a distributor we can eliminate the middle man and pass on the savings to our customers. We also sat through several classes on the use of our new product “liquid calcium chloride”. We have made a significant investment to up-fit our salt trucks with computer controlled liquid salt sprayers. These sprayers will help evenly spray our bulk salt with a liquid which will then transfer to the roadway. This is the same technology Mass Highway is using. In fact we are purchasing direct from the same supplier as Mass Highway. Through our relationships with the Salem Public Works, Peabody Public Works, and Mass highway we have made modifications to reduce our salt waste and at the same time melt ice and snow at a faster rate and lower temperature than ever before. We are offering all of our customers this new product at the same rate as straight salt. Many other area vendors offer this same product at a significant price increase but we are using our bulk direct purchase and waste savings to leverage better pricing and pass the savings on as an added value.
The classes we attended helped us clarify some understanding behind the science of pre-treating our hot-top surfaces. We learned how much more effective the de-icer can do its job being already on the ground just before the snow cover. This allows a slushy barrier to keep ice from packing on the surface when a car drives over the new fallen snow. It also should help reduce our frequency of applications.
We also got to meet our weather service providers "The Weatherworks Team" and congratulated them on a great job last year predicting several storms. Our forecasters were much more accurate than the local news channels and proved to be very valuable. This year we will be forwarding there customized weather alerts to all of our winter customers. I would love to speak more about what we learned and how it may pertain to your site specifically any time you are available in the next few months.