Haslett keeps a kettle lake in its pocket — Lake Lansing, scooped out by ice that left ten thousand years ago — and the year around it arrives in two halves. In the green half, Benny's Outdoor Services is out with mowers and trimmers, running stripes across lawns that tip gently toward the water and holding the edges tight against the drives. In the white half, those same streets get plowed, shoveled and salted, sometimes twice before the day has properly started. Meridian Charter Township asks for both, and the pleasure of the trade is knowing on Sunday night which one Monday is going to call for. Either way the aim doesn't change: a place that looks tended, whether it has been cut or cleared.