The Connecticut Department of Transportation distributed road salt this week to more than 40 communities who were facing a shortage. The supply problem caused Gov. Dannel Malloy to declare a state of emergency last week. It’s been a different story for cities and towns in western Massachusetts.

As soon as he heard about a possible lack of available road salt to treat snowy and icy roadways, Northampton, Massachusetts Public Works Director Ned Huntley took a preventative measure.

“We placed an order for 700 tons as soon as we heard there might be a shortage coming,” Huntley says.

And the city received all of that shortly after Huntley placed the order.

A number of cities and towns in western Massachusetts say they have plenty of salt on hand and deliveries have been arriving on a regular basis. John Morrill is the highway chief for the town of Monson. He says about 15 years ago several neighboring communities decided to put their salt contracts out to bid together.

“I asked a couple of other towns, the next thing I know everybody else is falling into place with us because the salt, at the time, the rates had gone up so high. They were almost over a $100 a ton, now we got it back down to $57, $58 a ton,” Morrill says.

Morrill says he just placed an order on Friday, and the salt was there by Monday.