Do you think Carver County should pursue a fiber optic ring to bring high speed communication to the area? Carver County is in the early stages of exploring a high-speed fiber optic ring. Here's a letter on the topic from Randy Maluchnik and Tim Lynch, Carver County commissioners:

25th anniversary

July 4th celebration

The grand opening celebration for the final segment of new Highway 212, connecting Eden Prairie to Carver, was held Tuesday afternoon. The roadway will open to drivers on July 14.

Take photos, get published

The Chanhassen Villager staff would like to encourage you to take and submit digital photos this holiday. We plan to run photos in the newspaper and online the week following the celebration. This could be your chance to get published. Submit photos and information to editor@chanvillager.com or fadams@chanvillager.com.

Dead fish floating in water that looks like green pea soup and stinks like a swamp might tell the story of a blue-green algae contamination.

Mitchell Lake in Eden Prairie is contaminated, and the Riley Purgatory Bluff Creek Watershed District is taking actions this summer to begin correcting it.

Two floating, stainless steel, solar-powered water circulation machines, called Solar Bees, were installed in Mitchell Lake last Wednesday as part of a pilot study to treat the harmful algae. The study has wide implications because watershed officials will base the results of this study on the solutions they offer for other area lakes with blue-green algae problems, including Lotus Lake, Riley Lake and Lake Susan in Chanhassen and Round Lake in Eden Prairie.

“Most of the lakes have problems with harmful algae blooms,” said David Austin from CH2M Hill, the engineering company that’s heading up this effort for the watershed district. “The blooms happen in mid-to-late summer. Lake Susan definitely has a harmful algae bloom problem. By contrast, Lake Ann (Chanhassen) is in great shape. It’s a real gem… I believe there are also blue-green algae in Riley. It’s probable. Looking at the data, I see that the water clarity gets poor in Riley in late summer.”

Do you have concerns about blue-green algae in any Chanhassen lakes?

Chanhassen resident Lisa Hokkanen opened up her lawn and irrigation system to scrutiny Wednesday morning as Craig Otto and his crew from Plymouth-based Irrigation Consultants and Control, Inc., inspected and tested it.

The first of many irrigation audits to take place in Chanhassen this summer, it is part of the city's Waterwise water conservation program. The audits are subsidized by the city and available to "high-end" users who want to improve their systems in the interests of conserving water. Watch video clips of the audit.