Every winter morning in Palatine comes down to a few square feet: the step, the front walk, the patch of drive between a car and the street. Tusk Property Services LLC handles that ground, plowing drives and lots, shoveling and clearing walks and entries, and salting the places where a thin glaze does the most harm. Six inches overnight makes the headline, but a slick front step at seven in the morning is the actual problem. Working from the door outward rather than the street inward is how a property ends up genuinely usable instead of merely plowed. By the time the sky goes gray-blue over the north side of the village, the way out is open.