CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The residents of an Ann Arbor, Michigan, neighborhood pooled together to buy a $43,000 tractor to plow their sidewalks.

More than a dozen signed up to drive their sidewalk snowplow, SnowBuddy, around the 1,000 homes of Water Hill after snowstorms. Another 25 residents serve as shovelers, clearing the piles of snow left behind from the street plow.

Cool, right? We saw this story and wondered, would such a cooperative work here, too? It snows here, making sidewalks treacherous for dog walkers, mail carriers and kids walking to school. Some cities, including University Heights, plow sidewalks. But as far as we know, no neighborhood has bought itself a sidewalk snowplow.

Would you donate to a community pool of funds to buy a $40,000-sidewalk snowplow?

Already, here, neighbors work together to help each other, said Tom O'Brien, director Neighborhood Connections, a Cleveland-based community building program. O'Brien points to organizations, such as Cleveland Youth Landscaping, a Glenville-based group that cuts grass and shovels sidewalks for the residents of the neighborhood.

Cleveland Youth Landscaping co-founder Alexander Robertson said they hire teenagers and pay them $9 an hour, funded by donations and grants, to do yard work. This year, they included snow removal in their services, "to keep the sidewalks clear and people from walking in the streets," he said.

Ann Arbor, like most cities, plows roads but leaves sidewalks up to homeowners, who are legally required to clear paths on their property.

"The current system assumes that when you spot an unshoveled sidewalk you should call the police on your neighbors," said Paul Tinkerhess, who organized the SnowBuddy program. "But it has very little chance of it actually meeting the needs of pedestrians. And then on top of that you think, 'Gosh, should every homeowner be required to go out and lift hundreds of pounds of snow every time it snows in order to maintain what is essentially a public right-of-way?'"

A vast majority of Tinkerhess' neighbors agreed with him because SnowBuddy is funded entirely through donations.

Who bought SnowBuddy?



Tinkerhess founded a nonprofit organization. By November the board already had a volunteer base willing to go to every house in Water Hill to ask for support.

In less than a month, volunteers raised $18,000, enough for a down payment on SnowBuddy, which was financed for $43,000 over four years from the Ohio-based Ventrac Products Inc., which produces snowplows, tractors and other machinery. The tractor has a heated cab and three attachments, a broom, snow thrower and blade.

So far, the neighbors have more than 300 donations for a total of $30,000. He said some of the donations even come from supporters out of state.

"We run it like a public radio station, that's our model," Tinkerhess said. "In that we provide the service for free in an entire area and then we survive on donations. And like public radio if people think the service is worth it, they send us a donation. And so far they are really kicking in."

Tinkerhess had already established some credibility with his neighbors after starting the Water Hill Music Fest four years ago, which helped raise money.

How does SnowBuddy work?

SnowBuddy is stored in a "Snow Cave," which takes up half of one neighbor's garage.

Tinkerhess said one "super volunteer" serves as the group's "snowcaster." He tracks the weather and organizes the plowing by using a Google spreadsheet to coordinate pathways, times and drivers' schedules.

Tinkerhess said they use a map that "looks a lot like a New York subway map" to plan plowing routes, generally starting with the sidewalks that have the highest foot traffic. But after every snowstorm, all 12 miles of sidewalk in Water Hill are cleared.

They also put down an ice-melt product that is environmentally, animal and concrete friendly.

"It takes us about 10 seconds to clear the walk in front of somebody's home, in contrast to that homeowner taking 10 minutes to do the same job," he said.

Check out the video of SnowBuddy in action.

But he said they're hoping to retire SnowBuddy in a few years by encouraging their city government to include sidewalks in its snow-removal services.

"SnowBuddy has a two-prong mission," Tinkerhess said. "One is to try and clear an entire neighborhood every time it snows. The other equally important mission of SnowBuddy is to ask our city government whether it might be in a position to maintain all of our transportation corridors, which we argue includes the sidewalk."

How could it work here?



Tinkerhess said the first step is working with neighbors, to court community support and start soliciting donations.

"The idea of a neighborhood banding together and maintaining their sidewalks in their entirety is pretty hard to argue with," he said.

Laughing, he said residents in other neighborhoods generally express "only envy," and some even drive to Water Hill to walk their dogs.

What do you think? Tell us in the comments.