SNOWFALL FINANCIAL WINDFALL TO PLOWERS

Equipped with hip waders, warm clothing and the sharp eye of an entrepreneur, Lee Phillips casts an appreciative glance at a sea of snow.

To the casual observer, the snow looked white. To Phillips, however, it looked green.

Tender snow flakes meant easy access to all the legal tender Phillips could literally plow his way into Wednesday afternoon.

"There are more snow-covered commercial lots than tractors available to plow them, so I guess I'm going to be busy for a while," said Phillips, who normally uses the tractor he was driving to push and scoop up dirt for Julius Meyers' construction company in Fruitland.

Phillips and drivers in two other tractors worked as a team to plow the lot at Toys-R-Us in Cape Girardeau. One tractor pushed the snow to the edge of the lot while another followed with a blade to clean excess snow left behind. The job was completed in less than an hour.

Mindful of how much money he made from the two heavy snows in 1993, Phillips decided to begin plowing just after the onset of snow Tuesday evening.

"It's easier to plow when it's fresh," said Phillips. "I wanted to try and get to it as soon as possible because you can't do much with it when there's ice on the bottom and snow on top."

Phillips said he would be working far into the night.

"The last snow, I got started on Sunday and didn't really quit completely until Tuesday," said Phillips.

Phillips helped his boss turn a profit from an industry he didn't even know existed. "I talked him into using this tractor to plow snow after watching him plow a private driveway," said Phillips. "It's making some money for both of us."

Phillips declined to say just how much he was making. "Let's just say it's enough to make this worth my while," said Phillips.

John Heuer, who works for the family-run Heuer Sons Implement Co., was busy coordinating a team of four drivers on Wednesday. "Normally I would be out there plowing with the rest of them, but the guy who organizes this is in service school so I'm taking his spot," said Heuer. "We're down to a skeleton crew, yet somehow we're getting a lot done."

According to Heuer, plowing commercial lots can bring up to $100 an hour. "It all depends on the difficulty of the job and how quickly it has to be done," said Heuer. "We have a list of clientele from previous years and that list seems to get bigger with each snowfall."

There's even some walk-up business. "People will see us plowing a lot and ask if we can clean theirs," he said.

Heuer's crew operates much the same way as Meyers. "We have one loader pushing the snow and then one with a blade cleaning it up," said Heuer.

Although much of the work appears worry-free, there's actually a negative side to plowing commercial lots.

"You've got to have the kind of insurance that covers you if you hit something," said Heuer. "If you nick a car or something, you're hung."

Ron Gilbert, who works for Drury Southwest Development, worked 19 hours plowing lots owned by his employer.

"This snow was easier to plow than the snow from the first storm this year," said Gilbert. "We worked 24 hours straight trying to get that all cleaned up. Even after we're done with the first snow, we have to get up periodically during the night to see if we need to get out again."

Unlike Phillips and Heuer, Gilbert doesn't have the luxury of turning a snowfall into a financial windfall. "It's just part of the job," said Gilbert. "We work in teams of four, so it's not too bad. But I'm not really looking forward to the next snow storm."