CITY ADDS SNOW ROUTE; CLEARING PRIORITIES SAME

The city will add a snow route but will maintain the same road clearing priorities as last year.

Assistant Public Works Director Kevin McMeel said there are a few changes in this year's snow clearing program.

The department has added a sixth service zone and another truck with snow removal equipment.

"The additional equipment will allow us to divide up the city into another zone and increase the number of times a plow can cover an area," McMeel said.

Top priority will be given to the most traveled roads and major routes for emergency service in Cape Girardeau.

McMeel called these routes "the lifeblood of our city."

Priority II and III routes are streets and roads that feed traffic from neighborhoods onto main priority 1 routes.

"Citizens living in priority 1 routes may see the snowplow pass several times, especially if there is a significant amount of snow," McMeel said.

The city's snow crews worked around the clock several times last year to ensure the streets were safe for travel. During the 1993-94 winter, more than 1,872 man-hours were spent clearing snow routes.

They covered 9,699 miles with 2,505 tons of sand, 120 tons of salt and 3,357 gallons of calcium chloride.

The city is constantly gauging the progress of snow by scraping and removing snow from the sides of the streets.