Salt trucks have already hit the streets several times this season, but compared to the approaching winter storm the last few weeks have been downright tropical. Boone county engineer Rich Lundin is worried.

"We haven't had a one or two incher to get people used to driving in snow and going from a half inch up to six, ten, twelve, depending on what we get hit by, it is going to be very scary for everybody." says Lundin.

Right now his staff is one man short and nobody will be plowing overnight, so Boone county roads may be treacherous Tuesday night. Winnebago county is already preparing for the storm.

"We have been out and about and checking our roads, we have put some materials down on bridges which freeze first as you know and all our equipment is ready and we have enough salt here to be able to handle it." says Joe Vanderwerff, a Winnebago county engineer.

The trucks are spraying a mixture of beet juice and salt on bridges. The solution coats the overpasses and slows the freezing process down. And they will take any head start they can get on this nasty storm.

"I've been here eleven years now and I would think this will be the first widespread blizzard conditions that I have experienced." says National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Ferry.

Drivers are reminded to leave early and drive slow and as is always the case with winter storms, the safest bet is to not drive at all.

In the recession everyone is looking for ways to save money. Vanderwerff says using beet juice saved the county sixty-thousand dollars last year. Freeport is saving about fifty-thousand dollars by using recycled sand.

Salt prices across the Stateline have averaged about seventy-five dollars a ton. For some departments like Winnebago that is an increase from last year. For others, like Freeport and Boone, it is a decrease.