South of the city the ground drops toward the Rock River bottoms, the streets give way to township roads, and the weather out there behaves like open country. South Rock Island Township keeps that ground in order with mowing, trimming and edging through the growing months, seasonal cleanups, and then plowing, walk clearing and salting once winter sets in. Bottomland fog and cold pavement can make ice where there was only wet an hour before, so the salt goes down with that in mind. In summer the same acreage gets cut on a rhythm you could set a clock by. It is neighborhood work, done for the place it is done in.