At last week’s Highway 212 grand opening, after hands had been shaked and a ribbon had been cut, there was one more small detail to take care of.

A bet had to be settled.

Years ago, city of Chaska attorney Luke Melchert and former Carver County engineer/public works director Pat Murphy made a wager. In the 1970s, the pair served on an ad hoc committee for new Highway 212. However, after hitting dead end after dead end to get the project funded, they quit in aggravation, related Melchert.

Melchert told Murphy that if the project was ever built in his lifetime, he would push him from Chaska to Chanhassen in a wheelbarrow.

“It was just so frustrating,” Melchert said, of the deadlocked highway. Well, new Highway 212, the “forgotten highway,” will open July 14.

So after the June 1 ceremonies, Melchert pushed Murphy through the crowd in a wheelbarrow. After decades of waiting, they’re no longer spring chickens, so they didn’t travel too far down new 212.

But there it is – an honored bet.

Wheelbarrow

City of Chaska attorney Luke Melchert pushes former Carver County engineer/public works director Pat Murphy around in a wheelbarrow to honor a Highway 212 bet, made decades earlier. -- by Mark Olson