Austin Hotch, left, and Blake Ward use axes last week to dig channels for leading water away from an ice pack that formed under Ward’s 2002 Chevy Malibu. Ward left the car in the parking lot at Third Avenue and Main Street for about a month. An upwelling of water that occurs in the lot apparently turned snow that was around the car into a slab of solid ice. Ward said he’d heard several suggestions from passersby on how to free the car. Tom Morphet photo.