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The Buzz: Bill Biletzke
Author: David Collins
Day Staff Columnist
Published on February 21, 2004
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Who: Bill Biletzke,
40, of Mystic Why you should know him:
Biletzke may well have been helping to keep a
parking lot near you free from ice slicks during
some of the thermometer-busting cold snaps and
snowstorms this winter.
Biletzke is a landscaper who this year became
the king of Magic Salt™ in southeastern
Connecticut, the exclusive distributor for a product
promoted as great new tonic for the winter road
blues.
He has sold his magic elixir to the Mohegan Sun,
put it down on school parking lots, sold it to
colleges and is negotiating with some of the other
owners of the region's biggest parking lots, such
as Electric Boat in Groton and William W. Backus
Hospital in Norwich.
Can you sell ice melt
in July? Biletzke had his first introduction
to Magic Salt™ last summer, when a salesman
for the company stopped by his business, Mystic
Landscape Services, on Sandy Hollow Road in Mystic.
“The last thing I wanted to talk about in
July was snow,” he recalls. But come the
first fall snow, Biletzke, who had told the salesman
in the summer — “show me” —
got a demonstration. He signed on for the regional
distributorship. Then the Great Cold Winter of
2003-04 descended. |
| Bill
Biletzke is the owner of Mystic Landscape
Services in Mystic and the exclusive local
distributor of Magic Salt™. |
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What so magical about Magic
Salt™? It's made by blending an agricultural
by-product of the distilling process with the
mineral magnesium chloride. You mix it with rock
salt. It's biodegradable and doesn't corrode salt-spreading
equipment, bridges or parking garages, Biletzke
says.
It's environmentally friendly, since you only
have to use half as much salt and you don't need
sand in the mix. Not only does it clear up ice,
but it even prevents it from forming if you pre-treat
with the liquid before a storm, he says.
“Rock salt is no good below 10 degrees.
That's why (road crews) had so much trouble this
winter. You put this down at five below zero and
it will melt ice . . . It can melt ice up to 35
below zero.”
Sort of like cookie dough:
Homeowner-quality Magic Salt™ comes premixed
in 20- and 50-pound bags, and Biletzke hopes to
get it on hardware store shelves soon.
The industrial-strength stuff is mixed with the
salt by the ton. “We spray the pile, then
turn it over with payloaders,” he says.
Spring can wait:
“This was a good winter to show what it
can do,” Biletzke says. “It's been
a great year.”
Content © 2004 theDay.com |
