Out past the city limits on Route 48 there is nothing to slow the wind, so a January snow never stays where it lands — it travels the fields and stacks against the first driveway it finds. Clear Point Property Preservation is out in the dark ahead of that, plowing the drive, opening the walk, salting the entry and the slope where ice always sets up. Decatur winters swing between heavy wet inches and a thin gray glaze that is worse, and both get answered on their own terms. The measure of a night is simple: whether the pavement is open before anyone has to be anywhere. When daylight comes up over a cleared lot, the asphalt is dark and dry and the morning starts on time.