A January morning in Cortland at five o'clock is all streetlight and steam, the curb lines buried, nobody out yet. Leach's Custom Trash Services runs snow removal through those hours — plowing driveways open, clearing walks and curb cuts, laying salt where boots and tires will need it by seven. Routes are the trade here, and a route means every stop gets done, storm or no storm. It is a quiet kind of accomplishment to finish a street before the first porch light comes on. Cortland gets its snow in earnest, and this is the work of staying out in front of it.