Project includes replacing four blocks of waterline, widening street

It’s a scenario repeated too often over the years: a Division Street waterline breaks on a frigid winter day, sending water gushing down the street while leaving residents and businesses nearby without service.

After a five-year federal ban, aging or unwanted horses could soon be slaughtered again in America. Congress and President Barack Obama lifted the federal ban quietly in a spending bill last month.

This is a controversial step, especially in the West.

Local families’ stories highlight importance of organ donation

Stories of organ donation often are bittersweet — one family loses a loved one while another rejoices in restored health for the organ recipient. For some families, circumstances are much more bitter, as a loved one dies waiting for a transplant.

Over the past year, the Tribune featured four local families’ experiences with organ donation:

Hosts of underage drinking parties should be held responsible

True or false: It’s illegal to host an underage drinking party in Wyoming.

It may seem like a straightforward question easily answered with true or false. But shades of gray muddle the law when it comes to hosts of underage drinking house parties, so unfortunately, it’s not a simple answer.

A sister store modeled after The Merc recently opened in Saranac Lake, N.Y.

As it happens, Powell and Saranac Lake share more in common than a community-owned department store.

For a small community venture that began a decade ago, the Powell Mercantile continues to have great impact beyond Wyoming.

On Sunday, the New York Times featured a community-owned store in Saranac Lake, N.Y. that is modeled after The Merc in Powell.

Off to a strong start, the new store opened late last month, filling an economic void created after the town’s only department store folded in 2002.

Sample the Season, Festival of Trees under way this week

Cue up the Christmas music, heat up the spiced cider and light up the decorated trees. This week, it will begin to look a lot like Christmas in Powell.

In a split vote, the Powell City Council has decided to give up to $50,000 in additional funds to the Powell Golf Club — but only if the club raises $50,000 on its own. Contingent on the golf club’s fundraising efforts, the city will match each dollar raised by the club.

Monday night’s 5-2 decision came after an earlier motion to also commit $70,000 for the golf course in next year’s budget was defeated 3-4.

Does Powell need a golf course?

Well, it depends on who you ask.

City councilmen said Monday that they’ve received mixed responses from the community. Some absolutely negative. Some assuredly positive. And many others somewhere in between.

Just as the community is split, so is the Powell City Council.