With hundreds of miles of streets and alleys to be cleared when snow or ice blankets the roads, Northampton Borough Public Works Department is ready to tackle the task.

The plows are ready at the public works facility on Lerchenmiller Drive. The trucks are full with tanks of fuel, and two sheds are filled to the brim with 600 tons of road salt.

“[Road salt] goes fast,” borough Manager LeRoy Brobst said.

This winter season, the borough - through Co-Stars, a state cooperative - is paying $55 a ton for road salt, down from $74 a ton last winter. The supplier is Morton Salt.

“We are braced for three months of winter, whatever comes,” Public Works Director Greg Morey said. “We are on standby 24/7.”

With nine full-time employees, a mechanic and Morey, the public works department has five trucks to put salt on the streets and eight trucks to remove snow from the roadways. The crews also apply anti-skid materials.

“We are prepared,” Morey said.

If needed, Northampton Borough Municipal Authority is called on to assist with a truck or two. Private companies are summoned only in extreme conditions.