Independence still keeps a working courthouse square at its center, Penn Avenue running past storefronts that have watched a century of Montgomery County weather come and go, and on a snow morning it's Sweeney's Pavement Maintenance out clearing that stretch before the square wakes up. Pavement is the trade here no matter the month — sealing and striping lots come summer, scraping them to bare asphalt come winter — so a plowed lot gets the same close attention as a freshly sealed one, edges square, drains left open so the next melt has somewhere to go. Southeast Kansas doesn't always commit to a hard winter, and that in-between weather, a wet snow one week and a hard freeze the next, is its own kind of demanding: ice forming overnight on a lot that was clean the day before, ruts freezing into the exact shape of yesterday's tire tracks. The crew works the business lots first, timing the job so Penn Avenue's shops open onto clear pavement instead of a mess, then moves out toward the residential streets before the day gets fully underway. It's straightforward work, mile of blacktop by mile of blacktop, but a clear, dry lot on a gray Independence morning changes the whole start of somebody's day.