November light on the old wire-mill brick downtown is the color of a struck match, and it tells you the season is about to change hands. Wheelock Property Services covers both sides of that handoff in Cortland — mowing, edging and leaf work while the yards are still growing, then plowing, shoveling and ice control once the ground goes hard. City lots and side-street drives ask for patience and a good line, and both of them get one. Stepping back from a walk cleared corner to corner, salt already down, is worth every degree of the cold. An old mill town wears winter well when somebody has been out ahead of it.