Wednesday morning’s snow and ice storm was just the latest headache for local road departments throughout the county.

After the heavy snow was plowed aside, many municipalities found their already depleting salt supplies sat noticeably thinner.

“We’re running low on salt,” said Doug Roth, the director of the Penn Township Public Works Department. “We have about 150 tons left at the most.”

Roth estimated it takes about 30 to 40 tons to cover one trip of the township’s nearly 60 miles of roads.

“We probably have about four trips left before we run out,” he said.

It seems that for many municipalities, salt deliveries have not been as consistent as the snow and freezing conditions.

Roth attributed the cause of the delivery delays to the increased demand for salt.

“We’ve had pesky snow this year,” Roth said, adding the department has already gone through more salt than it typically does in a winter. “The storms keep coming down in long durations. And then there has also been the cold weather.”

While the latest snow storm put a strain on the remaining resources, the stress is nothing new for the township.

Roth said deliveries have been often delayed this winter and sometimes have not even been for the entire amount requested.

“I’ve been concerned about our salt since Christmas,” Roth said. “Our deliveries are just trickling in.”

Roth said Wednesday morning that the township still is waiting on its latest order of salt.

“We’re supposed to get two loads in today, but I’d be surprised if we do because of the weather,” he said.

The Summit Township Roads Department is also waiting on deliveries to add to its low salt supply.

“We have about 200 tons,” said John Marra, a worker with the townships’ department, which is responsible for about 45 miles of roads.

The township has the capacity to hold 1,000 tons of salt on site.

Marra said its salt deliveries have been slow this winter, with the department only receiving about 90 of the 700 tons it requested in January.

Frequently bad weather combined with the sparse deliveries has made the department a little concerned about whether its current stock of salt will make it through any upcoming storms.

Tom Shuler, the foreman of the city streets department, said the city has about 500 tons of salt on site and another 500 already requested.

“We’re doing pretty well right now,” he said.

While the city isn’t facing the same pressure as other municipalities at the moment, Shuler said he has seen delays in salt deliveries this winter.

“They have been a little slower than normal,” he said. “They’re struggling to get it out to everyone.”

Shuler said the harsh winter weather has made it difficult to get shipments out on time.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had this much snow this early,” he said.

Some municipalities in the Karns City area rely more on ashes to melt snow on the roads than salt. Lonny Stewart, roadmaster in Oakland Township, said ashes are generally a cheaper alternative to salt.

“We don’t rely on salt too much,” Stewart said, although they might add salt to the mix if the roads are really bad or icy.

With ashes, it makes for more of a cleanup effort in the spring, but it’s what’s worked for them.

Floyd Zang, roadmaster in Donegal Township, said they use ashes a lot too, but they usually mix it with salt.

So far this winter, they’ve gone through 200 tons of salt.

“We’ve used more ashes then the last two winters put together,” Zang said. “This has been a tough winter.”

It’s been even tougher when it comes to ordering salt. Their salt provider states in the contract that salt ordered would be delivered within seven business days. However, his last two orders have taken over a month to get delivered. He usually places 50 ton orders.

“I can understand there’s a big demand with the winter we’ve had,” he said. “But you shouldn’t have to wait a month.”

Jason Dailey, Cranberry Township’s director of public works, said Wednesday that his salt supplies aren’t in danger of running out anytime soon despite the heavy winter.

That’s because the township is constantly receiving new batches of salt to help counter the ice and snow in a winter that’s received far more than its regular share of both.

“In terms of our supply, we continue to monitor it and run a conservation plan for the most part,” he said. “This snow is so wet and heavy that the biggest challenge right now is in residential plans.”

Zelienople got a salt delivery last week, but this week’s storm depleted the supply and the borough again will be dealing with the weekend snowfall with a depleted stockpile.

Borough manager Don Pepe said the borough’s “Plan B” approach to rationing salt supplies calls for all the main roads to be covered and also intersections, places with traffic lights and hills.

In Evans City, 250 tons of salt to start the winter is now at 100 tons, said Norm Nelson the borough’s public works director.

“It’s been quite a few years since I’ve used this much salt,” Nelson said on Wednesday during a break in plowing the one-square-mile borough.

Nelson said Forward Township donated a load of the sandy mixture to Evans City earlier this week in anticipation of Winter Storm Nika.

Nelson said most motorists do not understand that in addition to plowing, public works employees must keep doing their regular work as well. He said workers were on the scene of a water main break in the borough last week from midnight until 7 a.m.

He said a plow truck broke down recently, and public works employees scrambled to fix it to keep it in the fleet.

Asked to sum up the 2013-14 winter so far, Nelson uses two words likely on the lips of all Western Pennsylvania plow truck drivers this year.

“I’m tired.”

Eagle staff writers Will DeShong, Kate Malongowski, Jared Stonesifer and Paula Grubbs contributed to this report.