Highway superintendent Jordan Sage outlines winter plan, urges sensors and automated spreader controls to cut salt use

Jordan Sage, identified in the meeting as the town’s highway superintendent, told the board the town’s winter-operations program prioritizes public safety, fiscal responsibility and environmental stewardship as it manages snow and ice control.

Sage said the department focuses on clearing roads for morning commuters and school buses and ensuring routes are accessible to emergency responders overnight. “The driving force behind our winter operations is public safety, fiscal responsibility and environmental responsibility,” Sage said.

He described multiple operational constraints that make a one-size-fits-all approach impractical: storm timing, air and surface temperature, precipitation type, wind and pavement condition. Sage noted microclimates around Morrisville can produce markedly different surface conditions within short distances, which complicates route decisions and salt use.

The department maintains roughly 108 miles of roadway (about 216 lane-miles when both directions are counted) and operates 12 routes with 12 employees. Sage said a single absent employee or disabled vehicle can materially delay clearing. He also praised crew members who helped improve calibration and reporting, singling out Scott Nelson and a new sidewalk operator, named in the transcript as Jordan Loler.

Sage told the board the town’s current spreaders use an ‘‘open-loop’’ dial system that requires drivers to manually change settings as speed and RPM change, producing inconsistent application. To reduce misuse and improve safety, he described a set of technology upgrades and operational changes the department is piloting or recommending:

- Mobile surface-temperature sensors mounted on trucks, with a cab readout that reports surface temperature, air temperature and dew point. Sage said the town installed sensors on two foremen’s trucks and one salt truck; he cited a purchase price of about $750 per truck and said the devices have already helped foremen make better application decisions.

- A road-weather information station (vendor named in the presentation as Frost Solutions) that provides current and predicted surface temperatures and images through a web app. Sage said a subscription runs about $3,700 per year and argued the service could reduce early-morning physical road checks and associated overtime.

- Pre-wetting salt at the spinner and using brine or liquid chloride to reduce bounce and scatter. Citing VTrans guidance and peer practice, Sage said pre-wetting can reduce salt use by roughly 25–30 percent and noted nearby High Park can supply brine at about $0.40 per gallon, avoiding an expensive on-site brine-maker purchase.

- Live-edge plow blades that have individually tripping sections to reduce damage when hitting obstructions and to improve scraping. Sage said a live-edge blade was on order and scheduled for installation the next day; he cautioned the blades have stronger reviews for paved roads than for dirt roads.

- Closed-loop ground-speed spreader control systems (which let an operator set a target application rate and automatically adjust salt output with vehicle speed/RPM). Sage quoted two retrofit options he discussed with vendors: a higher-end CS660 and a lower-cost CS620. He said the CS660 is significantly more expensive to retrofit and cited a figure of about $115,000 per truck for that variant, while the cheaper CS620 approach would cost less (Sage cited an approximate $47,000 figure for retrofitting a set of trucks in the scenario he described) and would still allow the department to capture usable salt-usage data. Sage said those systems would reduce operator workload, improve safety and supply the data needed to review decisions after storms.

Sage presented projected savings tied to better equipment and practices, saying the department’s salt usage is down compared with last year and that current salt savings to date amount to nearly $27,000; he set a goal of $40,000 in salt savings for the year. He also said retrofitting trucks with closed-loop systems could pay for themselves quickly, citing estimated first-year savings ranges for the scenarios he presented, but he did not provide line-item supporting calculations in the meeting.

Sage said he will continue to pilot sensors and equipment, work with neighboring High Park on brine supply, and make a recommendation to Brent about which retrofits to pursue and when. Board members thanked Sage for the presentation and noted he has provided weekly data since his October start.

The superintendent’s proposal centers on buying measurable, data-driven equipment to reduce salt use and overtime while improving safety; the board did not take a formal vote during the presentation and next steps are a budgetary recommendation and a future decision on retrofits.