The storms that matter around here rarely announce themselves — a clipper drops down out of the northwest overnight, and by three in the morning the office courts along Northwestern Highway are sitting under four fresh inches. Brilar answers that with plow trucks working the lanes, crews opening entrances and walks, and salt spread where traffic will pack snow into ice by mid-morning. Wind off the open ground between buildings keeps refilling what was just cleared, so the job is as much watching as pushing. The measure of a night's work is simple: a lot that fills at eight o'clock as though nothing ever fell, and doors that swing open onto dry concrete. Farmington Hills gets a long winter, and it is met one storm at a time.