Less Salty 2026: Contractor Selection

We are excited to bring you unique content from local experts each day with Wisconsin Salt Week offered livestreams and recordings, paired with local expert content from the City of Madison Engineering Division.  

Less Salty 2026: with Phil Gaebler 

Today’s Episode: Contractor Selection 

Not everyone does their own winter maintenance. If you hire a contractor, make sure: 

• the contractor has completed the Winter Salt Wise Certification 
• make sure you’re paying for level of service, not just the amount of salt put down
• make sure the contractor measures the amount of salt used and record it

Our focus with Less Salty with Phil Gaebler is to help property owners learn how to minimize salt use, know when to use salt and how, plus making sure companies you hire, neighbors and community know about responsible salt use in the City of Madison.  

Phil Gaebler is a stormwater engineer with decades of experience in the environmental engineering world. He works for the City of Madison Engineering Division and kickstarted the City with Wisconsin SaltWise with the inception of the now-statewide group. He’s also tasked with completing in-house training for all City salt crews on salt calibration, salt use and more, which helps inform City leaders make decisions on salt use implications, citations, use on roads, sidewalks and more.  

Winter Salt Week Offered Recording

Don’t miss out on the livestream recordings from the Winter Salt Week team. They offered new topics all week long discussing with national salt experts sharing their expertise and experiences that have proved successful in their communities.  

Today’s topics were Salt Monitoring 101 and Advocating for Change.  

Watch each of the discussions recordings here: 

Salt Monitoring 101 recording

Advocating for Change recording

Happy Winter Salt Week!