Captain America on walkabout
Market for healthy food
Man hoofing to 48 capitals
Program aims for fit county employees
Page 2
Page 12
www.chaskaherald.com
THURSDAY, JULY 7, 2011
CHASKA
$1
HERALD
Shutdown feedback is on parade Legislator says he heard only four jeers
JOIN THE CHAT DO YOU AGREE WITH DFL OR GOP OR NEITHER OR BOTH? POST YOUR THOUGHTS
www.chaskaherald.com
BY FORREST ADAMS fadams@swpub.com
D PHOTO BY FORREST ADAMS
Mayer Republican Rep. Ernie Leidiger, waving from a float set up for him by the Carver County Republican Party, was the only local legislator to participate in Monday’s Fourth of July parade in Chanhassen.
uring the Chanhassen Fourth of July parade Monday, Erik Salveson described himself as one of the few Democrats in Carver County. But what the Waconia resident said about the state government shutdown was not unique. “The best-case scenario would have been no government shutdown, but now this is going to require compromise,” said Salveson as Rep. Ernie Leidiger rolled past on a Carver County Republican float, waving enthusiastically to the crowd. “Get back to work,” Salveson said dismissively. Elsewhere on the parade route, Sharon Critzer, an Eden Prairie resident, said she has a friend who lost work as a result of the shutdown. “It’s too bad they can’t figure this out for the average person,” she observed. “They should just set party lines aside.” Another Eden Prairie resident,
Garden center goes green(er) Turbine will power nursery, and then some
Rep. Joe Hoppe, Republican, Chaska; (651) 296-5066 Rep. Ernie Liediger, Republican, Mayer; (651) 296-4282
Mary Kubicek, said she was more supportive of the Republicans. “It’s unfortunate they can’t learn to live within their means,” she said. Chanhassen City Councilor Bethany Tjornhom said she brushed up against an undercurrent of anger about the state Legislature as she passed out her own city literature. “People are ang r y,” she said. “They told me, ‘If you’re from the state government, you need to leave.’
Shutdown to page 2 ®
Facing FEMA rules, Carver looks to reps
What: A public event commissioning The Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center’s new turbine.
The wind used to be a curse to staff at The Mustard Seed Landscaping and Garden Center just west of Chaska on Highway 212. Gusts regularly knocked over the containers of f lowers, shrubs and trees, keeping employees busy setting everything upright again. But now, owner Mark Halla hopes to turn that meddlesome wind into a blessing by installing a wind turbine to power his business operations. “This is a cool thing,” he said. “It will power our whole facility.” Halla’s been researching wind turbines for the last eight years. “It was clear we needed to do something [about the wind],” he explained. “So we thought what can we do to make it better?” His answer was to try to harness the wind and turn it into energy for the garden center. The fi nal parts for the 160-foot high turbine were delivered earlier this week. The windmill
Sen. Julianne Ortman, Republican, Chanhassen; (651) 296-4837
A lobby for the levee
Turbine commissioning
BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO mfrancisco@swpub.com
Local legislators
BY NICK MASON nicholascmason@comcast.net
When: 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., Thursday, July 14
than Chaska’s 80-foot high turbine does. Halla expects to generate 120,000 kilowatt hours per year. His business uses around 100,000 kilowatt
The Carver City Council is in no hurry to remove the fi nal two raised sections of the city’s f lood-control levee. Councilors decided Tuesday to wait and see whether U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and U.S. Rep. John Kline can persuade a federal agency to let Carver keep part of its newly raised earthen levee and still get federal fi nancial help for the levee project. “Hopefully, some pressure will work,” Mayor Greg Osterdyk said. “Our deadline [for removing the raised levee] is Nov. 10. We have some time to keep seeing what we can do to put some pressure on. We don’t have to make a decision tonight.” Councilors would like to keep the Spring Creek and Union Pacific Railroad raised sections permanently, but the Federal Emergency Management
Turbine to page 2 ®
Carver levee to page 6 ®
Where: 6055 Highway 212, Chaska
should be fully installed by the end of the week with a commissioning event set for 4:30-6:30 p.m. on July 14. Halla says his turbine should be more productive than the city of Chaska’s infamous one just to the east. “Ours will spin more often,” he said cheekily. “And it will spin in winter.” The turbine’s 160-foot steel tower is already in place behind the garden center. It sits on a 24-foot-by-24-foot pad on top of two feet of concrete and 2,000 pounds of rebar buried seven feet deep. Its three piers are each three feet in diameter. The 25-foot blades will be among the items delivered and installed this week. W hen completed, the
PHOTO BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO
Mark Halla climbs the tower that will host a 40 kilowatt turbine designed to generate enough energy to power his garden center. turbine will spin at wind speeds of just 5 mph. Its capacity will be 40 kilowatts. That’s a quarter of the capacity of Chaska’s 160-kilowatt turbine, but Halla noted that sitting at 160 feet high, he’ll catch more wind
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 CALENDAR/9 VICTORIA/11 SPORTS/13-14 CLASSIFIEDS/20-23 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6683 EDITOR: (952) 345-6574 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@CHASKAHERALD.COM.
OUR 149TH YEAR, NO. 45 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS
NEW! Bariatric & Weight Loss Center “Like” Ridgeview at www.facebook.com/ridgeviewmedical
219852
www.ridgeviewmedical.org/bariatric