‘This Is What Community Looks Like’: Snowplow Vigilante Clears Streets For Free

January 30, 2026

A St. Louis man is being praised after he rented heavy equipment with his own money and spent days clearing snow-covered neighborhood streets for free, helping residents get back on the road after winter weather made many areas difficult to navigate.

Kenneth Harrell / KSDK News

The man behind the wheel is Kenneth Harrell, whose quiet act of generosity has been drawing attention online after videos of his work began circulating on social media. Harrell doesn’t live in the neighborhood he helped, but he says he has long felt connected to it and wanted to step in when he saw how hard it was for people to get around.

Rather than waiting for help to arrive, Harrell rented a Bobcat-style skid steer loader at his own expense, a cost of about $500. He then used the machine to clear streets that many drivers couldn’t pass through.

“Originally we were putting out a crew to hand shovel and we were charging for sidewalks,” Harrell told KSDK. “It just didn’t make sense to me that people could get out of the house, but not off the street.”

Once he began clearing streets, photos and videos quickly spread online, with neighbors sharing clips of the machine navigating narrow roads. Some residents said they had heard about “someone with a skid steer” helping out even before seeing it firsthand.

A restaurant owner reached out to Harrell when she needed parking spaces cleared and he responded right away.

“He inboxed me today and I said, 'I’ll be there,'” Karen Wiley Vails said. “And I said yay — this is what community looks like.”

City officials were also aware of the situation. When asked whether the unofficial plowing was allowed, St. Louis Streets Commissioner Kent Flake said, “I mean, if they're helping, I'm not going to tell them no.”

Watch the video below: