When the weatherman forecasts freezing rain and sleet, officials charged with keeping city streets clear cringe in anticipation of their task.

But when eight inches of snow falls atop the sleet and ice, and the mercury dips to record lows for days, their headache turns into a nightmare. That's what city street crews faced last week in Cape Girardeau and other area communities.

As temperatures climbed and snow melted on Monday, Cape Girardeau Public Works Director Doug Leslie breathed a belated sigh of relief.

"The storm really was unique," said Leslie. "It started out with ice and sleet, which caused a one-inch layer of ice beneath the snow.

"Then the intensity and magnitude of the snowfall, combined with the cold temperatures, made this a tough storm to clean up after."

But the public directed more complaints at the city's effort during this storm than in any other in Leslie's memory.

Despite the complaints, the public works director said he was proud of the city employees who worked around the clock to wage war against the elements.

"It was an excellent effort on behalf of the crews," Leslie said. "They worked around the clock from about 1:30 Sunday afternoon until Wednesday night, working 12-hour rotations."

Assistant Public Works Director Kevin McMeel said workers dedicated about 700 manhours to the task. "Out of that, probably more than a third was overtime," McMeel said.

Using five dump trucks equipped with spreader boxes and plows, a pickup truck with a plow and a single road grader, the city is ill-equipped to clear a heavy snowfall within a few hours, Leslie said.

"None of our equipment is designated for snow removal," he added. "We have to convert other equipment to snow plows.

"We have to cover in excess of 220 miles of streets with that equipment and somehow work a total of about 19 personnel in shifts that cover working all the equipment for a 24-hour period."

McMeel said the snow removal effort accumulated about 1,600 miles on city snow plows. He also said he was relieved to see temperatures rise on Monday.

"I think the weather did more in one day (to remove snow) than we were able to do all last week, fighting the weather," McMeel said.

Once the snow fell, the work was just beginning, Leslie said. Applying salt and sand did little to melt the frozen layer beneath the snow because of near record cold temperatures.

"Anything below 20 degrees, and the salt just doesn't work," McMeel said. "It was so cold that the sand was just blowing off the ice."

He said the city went through 550 tons of sand, 60 tons of salt and 1,300 gallons of liquid calcium chloride. Including the overtime hours, the total cost of snow removal in the city was about $10,000, McMeel said.

Leslie said that because of the difficulties getting main streets cleared, plows were delayed in getting to secondary streets.

"We ran into problems in some areas with cars parked on the streets, which sometimes prevents the plows from going both ways on a street," he said. "I think people just need to realize that our priorities must be keeping the main thoroughfares open, and we're not going to get to those secondary streets until we've got a handle on the main routes."

Leslie said some citizens have recommended that the city come up with snow routes or alternate street parking plans to help remove snow after major storms.

"Until last year, these events have been so rare that that's not something that's been looked at very carefully," he said. "But in some areas of town, there is no place to park but on the street, and we're looking to see if that would be beneficial."

Leslie and McMeel said the most common complaint lodged against the city was by residents angered that snow was plowed over driveways.

"Unfortunately, that's a side effect with heavy snows," said Leslie. "It's unavoidable.

"Obviously, we don't like plowing driveways shut, but our priority is to get streets open and traffic moving."

Leslie said he was more concerned about the potential for accidents or injury related to snow removal efforts on icy streets.

"I was very pleased that throughout this, we didn't have an accident or an injury with the equipment," he said.

City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said he thought city crews did an "exceptional job" removing snow, given the circumstances.

"This was a major effort and with the cold temperatures that followed the snow, the weather didn't cooperate at all," Fischer said. "I felt like the guys did a real good job considering the factors working against them."

Mayor Gene Rhodes last week also made a plug for the crews, congratulating the city staff for the job they did to keep traffic flowing.

Leslie said few businesses were forced to close due to snow and schools were able to reopen sooner in Cape Girardeau than in neighboring towns.

"I think our community fared much better than others around here," he said. "I was really happy with the work our crews did."