Lake Babcock and Lake North sit north of Columbus behind the retaining walls this crew has built along both shorelines, and by January the shallows there carry a skin of ice thick enough to hold a gull's weight while the open water in the middle still moves. Lakefront Sprinklers & Retaining Walls Inc. plows the driveways and access roads for the houses built along both reservoirs, where wind off the open water tends to drift snow harder against a garage door than it does two miles inland in town. The walls that hold those banks steady all summer sit buried under drift by midwinter, and the crew clears the paths down to the water's edge for anyone who still walks out to check a dock or an ice fishing spot. Walkways and steps get shoveled and salted the same as any Columbus street, but the lake wind means a second pass is often needed by afternoon. It's a narrower stretch of Platte County than most crews cover, but the lakeshore keeps its own weather, and someone has to stay ahead of it.