a narrow majority. In a previous vote and after heated debate, the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic had sanctioned this change by a margin of 116 to 31 amongst the 190 members present. Since 16 April 2009, the changes made by Act No. 97/2009 Sb. mandate that sidewalk cleaning is an obligation only of the owner of the walkway or road, i.e. generally the municipality. Despite the abolition of the duty, many people, including its opponents, declared that they will continue the winter cleaning of municipal sidewalks and paths, but instead will do so voluntarily and on their own behalf. As was mentioned during the discussion in the Czech Parliament in a statement by the Czech Association of Cities and Municipalities, a similar duty belongs to owners of contiguous land exists in many other modern countries, e.g. Austria, France, the United States and some cities in Bavaria. Clearing by contractors Hiring a contractor with a winter service vehicle or a shovel. In many high elevation or heavy snow accumulating areas, companies with snow removal equipment offer to provide services to remove the snow. Contractors may work on a per-time basis, full season contract, or will-call status. Per-time service (or per-push) is usually invoiced monthly and customers will be charged for each time services are provided. Some companies will charge per-time and per-inch where the depth of the snow is even taken into account. A full season contract is quoted and paid upfront at the start of the season and services will be provided automatically according to the contracted terms. Terms may sometimes differ between companies. For example, some full season contracts will expire after a certain amount of trips where others are unlimited. And finally, will-call service is where the client makes contact with the snow removal company to initiate a single clearing. This is not an automatic service and charges are usually higher for will-call jobs. Snow removal services may include driveway and parking area snow removal, walkway and deck handwork, and roof clearing. Allowing snow to accumulate - especially on roofs where the weight of the snow may cause the structure to collapse - can be very dangerous. Contractors use hand shovels, walk behind snowblowers (or snow throwers), truck plows, skid-steers, light-weight tractors, and heavy front-end loaders. Many times, these machines will require use of tire chains to perform their tasks. Snow may be pushed by