People out skiing and snowmobiling in Darby Canyon on Saturday were greeted with an unusual sight: a team of draft horses pulling a Ford F150 off of the groomed trail.
Matt Sullivan, the manager at WreckerBoyz Towing in Driggs, got the call around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. Some college kids from Rexburg had bypassed the large warning sign at the end of 3000S that prohibits wheeled vehicles up Darby in the winter, squeezed through the access gate, and made it around a mile up the groomed trail before getting high-sided and mired in deep snow.
âWhen people do stuff like that, we donât want to drive up there to tow them out,â Sullivan said. âThe snowcat groomers are all up there busting their butts to make a good trail, and the Forest Service closes the road for a reason. Fortunately WreckerBoyz is going through a rebirth and we now have a partnership with AJ Woolstenhulme.â
Hallowell is looking for a firm to redesign its 193-year-old former fire station, a plan that would provide a new home for the police station and other community uses.
The city recently issued a request for qualifications from architectural and engineering firms to design of an adaptive reuse of the building at 124 Second St. that would provide a modern home for the police department, but retain historic elements of the 4,500-square-foot building, partly for a museum that would also locate there. Proposals are due Jan. 29.
Built in 1828, the two-story brick building was the town hall then city hall until 1899, when the new city hall was built a few blocks north on Winthrop Street. It became the fire station in 1900, and the department was housed there until 2018, when a new station was built at Steven s Commons.
Hallowell’s comprehensive planning group identifies most important issues
The city s Comprehensive Plan Committee met Saturday afternoon to whittle down a list of issues to the most important items after about nine months of data collection.
Image capture by Sam Shepherd
HALLOWELL Members of a city comprehensive planning group worked Saturday to whittle down a set of issues important to residents.
About 20 people attended a meeting held via Zoom. During the meeting, a number of issues of importance were identified, including accessibility downtown and near Stevens Commons, and affordable housing.
Hallowell’s Comprehensive Planning Group began its work in fall 2019, being guided by consultant Jeff Levine. Levine said the state asks for comprehensive plans every 12 years or so. The plan strengthens city zoning, Levine said, and gives the municipality preferential treatment in some grant programs.