Need Help Shoveling?

When the last storm dumped snow on East Rock, Kevin Howe ​“The Plow” jumped in his Yamaha Kodiak quad and cleared his neighbors’ sidewalks.

As the snow piles up today — and whenever else it does the remainder of this season — neighbors can use a new web tool to get help digging out.

SeeClickFix and the Independent are teaming up to help neighbors help each other shovel away the snow from the latest storm, which was expected to dump 3 to 7 inches of snow on New Haven by the end of today.

Howe (pictured) has lived in SoHu, a historically Polish enclave of East Rock, for 30 years. He’s part of the neighborhood’s burgeoning block watch. He said he knows a few elderly people who rely on the sidewalks to get to and from St. Stan’s church.

“There’s a few absentee landlords, and a few elderly folks” who are not able to shovel, so the sidewalks don’t always get cleared, he said. That’s why he attached a plow to his quad and cleared off Eld, Pearl, Pleasant and Clark Streets after last week’s storm, to neighbors’ applause.

Ben Berkowitz, who runs the website SeeClickFix, set up the interactive map below so that other ​“snow helpers” can follow suit. Here’s how it works:

Need help clearing snow? Just click on the SeeClickFix map below to lodge a shoveling request. Make sure to enter your name and address.

Want to help out? Check the map to see who needs shoveling.

Or you can sign up here to receive alerts when someone posts a shoveling request.

The new web tool came at the suggestion of the city’s chief administrative officer, Rob Smuts.

Smuts said SeeClickFix, a website where neighbors can post non-emergency quality-of-life issues, is great at providing ​“work orders” for city departments. For example, Livable City Initiative workers now have a clear way to find graffiti, wipe it out, and report their progress, rather than roaming through New Haven looking for new tags. Smuts said in addition to providing those government work orders, he’d like to see SeeClickFix do more to encourage neighbors to help themselves. He said he saw that work recently on Court Street, where a new block watch got organized after a spate of muggings. He suggested the ​“snow helper” idea.

After a storm, city workers clear public streets and the sidewalks around city properties. Private property owners are responsible for clearing the sidewalks outside of their buildings. Clearing sidewalks is essential in a city where so many people walk and take the bus, Smuts said.

“Sidewalks are a public right of way, so they have to be cleared,” he said. ​“The city is responsible for the streets, and we try to do a good job with that — but residents have the obligation to do their sidewalks.”

Howe, who’s 40, said he tries to plow SoHu when he can, between a full-time job at Stop ​‘n’ Shop and a second, part-time job. He said no one asked him to clear the sidewalks — ​“I just thought it was a good thing to do.”

The mailman is ​“ecstatic” when he clears the way, he added.

Neighbors were pretty happy, too.

The act of kindness earned him a new name from the block watch: snow ​“genie.”

“If you[‘re] wondering what genie removed you[r] snow…it was none other then our block watch meeting host, Kevin Howe,” reported SoHu block watch captain Lisa Siedlarz in an email. ​“I for one am very grateful!!”