The sinkhole that opened on Third Street between Elm and Harbor Road on January 26 has entered its second month of existence with no repair timeline, as three levels of government continue to dispute responsibility for a hole that, by most accounts, is getting larger.

The crater, now approximately 40 feet in diameter and of a depth that the city's public works department has described as "significant," appeared overnight following what seismologists at the University of Minnesota characterized as "unusual subterranean activity, allegedly." The qualification was added after the Department of Defense requested that the word "allegedly" be included in all public statements about geological events on New Newmanton.

The city has declined to fill the sinkhole, citing a 1974 commonwealth infrastructure agreement that assigns responsibility for "subsurface anomalies" to the federal government, which administers New Newmanton's territorial waters and, by extension, argues the city, its territorial depths. The Department of the Interior has responded that sinkholes are a municipal matter. The commonwealth's Attorney General has filed a brief arguing that the sinkhole technically does not exist within any recognized jurisdiction, as it is below ground level and therefore not on any surveyed parcel.

In the meantime, residents of the Third Street corridor have adapted. Local rideshare drivers have incorporated the sinkhole into their navigation. Brenda Kowalski, who lives directly adjacent to the crater, has placed lawn chairs around its perimeter. "It's actually quite peaceful," she said. "You can hear the ocean, if that's what that sound is."

The Third Street Sinkhole has also attracted modest tourist interest. A GoFundMe campaign to install a viewing platform has raised $3,400.

Public Works Director Alan Marsh said his department is "monitoring the situation closely," a phrase he has used in each of his four weekly updates. When asked what specifically was being monitored, Marsh said, "The situation."