CAPITAL REGION — Many highway officials might prefer to stock up on road salt this autumn after running out of it last winter, but they say they will have to take their chances again because of limited storage capacity.

“Unfortunately for the city of Johnstown there’s nothing really we can do,” said City Engineer Chad Kortz. Kortz, who said his city just barely made it through last winter.

Johnstown can store only 300 of the 2,000 tons it usually needs, Kortz said.

Fulton County Highway Superintendent Mark Yost is in the same boat. The county has storage for only 300 tons, he said, but will probably use as much as 6,000 tons before spring.

Yost said the county ran out last winter when supplies were so short salt was unavailable in late winter. Yost said he wants to avoid that sort of crisis in the future.

Fulton County was forced to borrow 100 tons from the state Department of Transportation. A priority item in his 2009 budget request, he said, is building a $350,000 storage building capable of holding the entire 6,000 tons typically needed each winter.

Yost said he wishes he had that facility now, while salt is selling on state contract for $38 per ton. With prices expected to jump to $49 per ton in 2009, Yost said a barn would allow the county to save about $11 per ton, or about $62,700 this winter.

But, Yost said, the coming winter may be kinder than the last one. “We always hope for a decent winter,” he said.

Joseph Ryan, Schenectady County director of public works, said his county’s 4,000-ton storage facility on Keller Road held enough stock to carry the county through last season.

In fact, Ryan said, other municipalities came to Schenectady County looking for salt.

The Schenectady County barn is still half full from last winter. Ryan said the county uses 12,000 to 16,000 tons a year, but by ordering before the reserves are 50 percent depleted, the county has always stayed well ahead of its needs.

Ryan said he would like to start ordering now. But with suppliers adding fuel surcharges to deliveries and with fuel prices now falling, he said it appears wise to wait.

Tom Speziale, Saratoga County’s deputy commissioner of public works, highway division, said storage limitations will force his department to proceed into this winter as it did last. The county stores about 3,500 tons and restocks as necessary, Speziale said.

Echoing what a number of his counterparts said about storage limitations, Speziale noted “You can’t store it outside.”