Chaska’s first windmill will turn its blades above Pioneer Ridge Middle School (formerly Pioneer Ridge Freshman Center) this fall.

Monday night the Chaska City Council approved the location at the southwest corner of Pioneer Trail and Audubon Road.

“This will show our visible commitment to renewable energies,” Chaska City Administrator Matt Podhradsky told the council. As one of the 11 member cities of the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), windmills are being provided to help meet state mandates for renewable power.

“At this point, it’s inevitable,” said Brian Jung.

While acknowledging that no emerald ash borers have yet been found in the city, Chaska’s tree inspector has little hope of fending off the invasion.

“Last year they traveled about 300 miles from eastern Wisconsin,” he said. “Now they’re in St. Paul.”

Each week, Jung handles an average of three ash tree inspections. He looks over the trees for any evidence of the beetle larvae, including d-shaped exit marks and dead portions of the canopy.

Cleaning animal enclosures, walking birds, talking to crowds of onlookers and cleaning mouse guts off their faces – for Susie and Jessi Henderson, of Chaska, it’s just a day in the life of a volunteer.

The mother-daughter duo has been volunteering in the Twin Cities metro for the last several years, racking up an impressive number of hours – 679 for 15-year-old Jessi, and 706 for mom Susie. Today, they will be recognized as the 2009 Distinguished Volunteers by Three Rivers Park District.

Virgil Leih drives his nose mere centimeters away from the face of his art. He runs his dust-covered hands against the glass-like surface while his snow white moustache flirts with its smooth façade. His eyes dart from side to side, admiring how the light plays with the wood’s grain and he asks, “Isn’t it beautiful?”

While this stretch of the Minnesota River remains low, Chaska Public Works Superintendent and Fire Chief Tim Wiebe has left for Moorhead to help battle Red River Valley flooding.

Massive sandbagging efforts are underway to try to hold back a river expected to crest at a record-breaking 41 feet in Fargo-Moorhead this weekend.Thousands of volunteers have already answered the area’s calls for help to fill millions of sandbags to place along the river’s banks.

It started innocently enough. Jerry Fischer, working his way through school with a part-time job at Bachman’s, began bringing home orchids.

“He started collecting them and growing them in a windowsill,” related son Jason Fischer.

Two years after the city first started investigating how it would meet state mandates for renewable energy, the Chaska City Council reviewed possible wind turbine sites during a Monday night work session.

The Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge will celebrate the grand opening of its newest education and visitor center on Sunday.

There will be a dedication for Seminary Fen from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Oct. 1, according to a press release from Embrace Open Space.

Seminary Fen, a 73-acre calcareous fen (one of the rarest types of wetland in the United State), will be preserved as a state Scientific & Natural Area, the release stated.