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Volunteer Program Clears Sidewalk Snow In Ann Arbor Neighborhood

Flickr/ Creative Commons/Brixton

A volunteer program to keep sidewalks clear in one Ann Arbor neighborhood has passed it's first tests with this week's snow. 

12 miles of sidewalks in Ann Arbor's Water Hill neighborhood are completely snowfree thanks to the volunteers running SnowBuddy and over $20,000 in donations to pay for equipment. 

Founding Director Paul Tinkerhess sees the ultimate success of the program as the city taking over clearing all sidewalks. He doesn't think it makes sense to break up the maintenance of a transportation corridor such as a sidewalk. "If the current system is such a bright idea, why doesn't the telephone company ask us all to maintain the stretch of telephone wire that runs in front of our house?  Well it's absurd of course," Tinkerhess says.

Tinkerhess is receiving questions from people near and far about starting a similar effort in their neighborhood.  

Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on Twitter— Andrew Cluley is the Ann Arbor beat reporter, and anchor for 89.1 WEMU News. Contact him at 734.487.3363 or email him acluley@emich.edu.       
 

Like many, I first came to this area when I started school at the University of Michigan, then fell in love with the community and haven’t left. After graduating from U of M in the mid 1990’s I interned at WDET for several years, while also working a variety of jobs in Ann Arbor. Then in 1999 I joined the WEMU news team.
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