The Carver County recount is over.

In all, it took the Carver County workers about 15 hours on Wednesday and Thursday to complete the task.

“I think everyone kept their sense of humor quite well through the process,” said Recount Deputy Laurie Engelen.

The Chaska Area Chamber of Commerce will merge with chambers in Victoria and Chanhassen to become the SouthWest Metro Chamber of Commerce. The details of the merger were revealed to chamber members at a luncheon Thursday afternoon.

The new chamber will be headquartered in Chaska, at the North Meadows Office building on Bavaria Road.

James and Tim Vadnais carried a wooden fanning mill that was stored in the North Barn on the historic Andrew Peterson farm.

Volunteers removed wood and farm equipment from the north barn of the historic Andrew Peterson farmstead, near Waconia, on Saturday, Oct. 15.

The work was part of efforts to stabilize the structure, built by Peterson, a Swedish pioneer.

Planning is underway for the Chaska High School class of 2009 all-night party, which will take place after graduation ceremonies on Friday, June 5, 2009.

A group of parent volunteers has begun the planning for the annual party, and is seeking more senior and junior parent volunteers to serve on a variety of committees including entertainment, games, food, decorations, publicity, security and donations.

The next planning committee meeting is 6 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1 in the Chaska High School Staff Lounge, located in the Blue House.

Save energy and money with a new furnace filter. The city of Chaska, in conjunction with the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, is providing a $15 rebate when residents replace a furnace filter.

Send in a receipt along with a completed rebate form and the city will send a $15 check, regardless of what a customer paid for the filter, according to a city of Chaska press release.

Are you interested in reading the public notices published in the November 20, 2008 print edition of the Chaska Herald newspaper? The page or pages on which those notices were printed are attached to this item, in the form of .pdf’s that can be opened with Adobe Acrobat.

Al Franken appears to have lost one vote in yesterday’s Carver County U.S. Senate race recount. (Check the Secretary of State’s Web site for updates).

About 40 Carver County voting officials, overseen by representatives from Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaigns, are recounting the votes in Carver County Government Center training room. As of last night, the crew had counted 13 of Carver County’s 34 precincts, or about 40 percent of the total votes. A total of four votes had been challenged as of yesterday evening.

The following obituaries are from the Nov. 20, 2008 print edition of the Chaska Herald newspaper:

AAA forecasts a small decline in the number of Americans traveling during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Approximately 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home, a decrease of 600,000 travelers (1.4 percent) from last year’s total of 41.6 million. This is the first decline in Thanksgiving holiday travel since 2002 and is the fourth consecutive travel holiday this year with a year-to-year decline in the number of travelers.

Congressman John Kline today announced a lottery for constituents who would like tickets to attend the inauguration of President-Elect Barack Obama.

According to a Kline office press release, residents of Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional district who wish to be entered into the ticket lottery should call Congressman Kline’s Burnsville office at (952) 808-1213 or Washington, D.C. at (202) 225-2271 not later than 12:00 p.m. CST Wednesday, Nov. 26.