If Santa had attached a snowplow to the front of his sleigh, mounted a grader blade to the side and hung a sand spreader off the back, he couldn’t have kept up with the snow and ice that covered Wrangell this month.

Not to mention the workload on his reindeer.

But at least he’ll be done with his annual deliveries on Dec. 25. There is a lot more snow in the forecast starting that night and coming down through the weekend. So, if Santa doesn’t mind suiting up in winter gear and boots, he could postpone his post-Christmas vacation and help out the Wrangell Public Works and Port and Harbors crews and private operators — it’s been an unrelenting month for them.

Between shoveling and hauling, spreading sand and street deicer, snowblowing and more shoveling, the tired crews have been working tirelessly since Dec. 8 in a valiant effort to keep streets, parking lots and more as safe as possible for people.

The overwhelming amount of snow and the concrete-hard, packed ice have been a challenge. There was so much snow piling up at storage sites that the borough requested — and received — permission from the state to dump some of it in the water.

It’s been years since Wrangell has measured snow in feet, not inches. It was always possible that Southeast would revert back to its winters of yesteryear, and that certainly is the case for this winter.

The borough’s crews have been working long days, starting up the engines on their loaders, graders and plow trucks at 2 a.m. some mornings. They’ve cleared, recleared and recleared again many of the town’s streets, steering around parked cars on the roads and doing their best to keep pace with the snow.

Through it all, residents have been appreciative and understanding that “perfection” is not possible with so much snow getting in the way of life in Wrangell. Berms happen, only one street can be first on the list for plowing and sanding each morning, and the beep-beep-beep of a backing-up loader are unmistakable when people are still at home, in bed, trying to sleep.

Maybe by next month, the town will return to its usual rain, though that will create its own driving and walking misery over the packed ice and cold ground. But eventually, life will be back to normal, which is wet and sloppy.

Until then, be patient — and thankful — for the crews working to un-bury the town. And if you see Santa on Christmas, ask him to shovel some roofs while he is up there delivering presents.