An infrastructure improvement project in downtown Hartley yielded quite a hole on Monday.

A crew from the city spent the better part of a day removing cement and digging out a sewer main under a portion of First Street Southeast directly south of the Stoplight Lounge. The old clay tile was replaced with completely new plastic pipe to improve the flow of wastewater from the bar and restaurant, which had experienced instances of backup during the past four months.

According to Superintendent of Public Works Jaron Benz, the old clay tile was in bad shape with some parts of the floor missing in...