Talked to Jim's cousin that relocated to Rochester NY last spring. They avoided all the blizzards, had a bit of snow tho. She said she had gotten one of the battery operated heated shovels to make a trail for the dogs to go out, told her I had just seen them featured the day before on one of the morning shows. They have a contracted snow plow for the front street. A big change from the couple of years they spent on our Gulf coast. They had lived most of their married yrs in Maine.