All snow that falls in New York has to go somewhere, and cleanup is not cheap, especially in a small Lewis County village that just happens to be one of the snowiest communities in the entire country.

What You Need To Know

Several national agencies have declared Copenhagen, Lewis County, as the snowiest community in the country 

The cost of cleaning up from snow is not cheap. Rochester has budgeted nearly $12 million for this winter.

Drivers, however, say the cost of not cleaning them is unimaginable

“I’ve got pictures on my phone where I’ve stopped and taken pictures. You know, me up on the snow, plowing it and standing up. I can’t even reach the top of the bank,” New York state plow driver Melvin Zehr said.

Zehr’s photos were taken over the years in the small village known as Copenhagen.

“When I send those photos out on my Facebook, people ask, ‘Is that even real?’ he said.

They are incredibly real.

Copenhagen is only a little bigger than one square mile. But Zehr can spend up to 12 hours a day on this route, which includes State Route 12, a roadway that runs through the village.

Last winter, the village saw 270 inches of snowfall, among the most in the entire country.

“It was just phenomenal, the amount of snow,” Zehr said.

“It’s part of the deal, just like spring, summer, winter, fall,” Copenhagen Director of Public Works Richard Ross said.

Ross has lived in this area almost his entire life. How does he remain so nonchalant about that much snow?

“You just get used to it, I guess,” he responded.

His team is used to it.

Copenhagen actually contracts with its town, Denmark, for the heavy lifting, but that doesn’t mean village crews get off scot-free.

“We’ve still got the sidewalks to maintain, as well as the banks and around the village operations, and water plant, sewer plant roads,” Ross explained.

That can get expensive. Copenhagen’s contracts cost the village about $13,000 a year. Remember, that cost is to clear only a square mile.

Bigger communities have considerably higher costs.

Albany also contracts out, but for $700,000 a year.

Watertown spends $1.8 million.

Syracuse spends $4.3 million.

Buffalo budgets $8.6 million.

Rochester could spend a whopping $11.6 million this year.

That’s not counting the state’s share of its roads.

“We have labor, we have fuel, we have salt, we have road treatments. At the end of the day, we’re just trying to make the road safe as we can as economically as possible,” state Transportation Department acting Regional Public Information Officer Jarrod Radley said.

This winter, New York state has budgeted $12.5 million just to clean the State Thruway.

Those out there cleaning the roads pay a price as well.

“I can’t plan a Christmas dinner. I can’t plan Thanksgiving,” Zehr said, describing the unpredictable nature of snowfall.

He, however, also knows the alternative, and that cost is unimaginable.

“There’s no price on somebody’s life,” he added.