A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
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While the Wrenshall school board has yet to seal a contract with its proposed superintendent for next school year, Jeff Pesta was nonetheless in the audience at Monday’s board meeting. “We are in negotiations right now,” board chair Nicole Krisak said, meaning there would be no board approval of Pesta until June. The retired Deer River superintendent was offered the Wrenshall job earlier this month. He heard good news during the board meeting: for now, the district is done with budget cuts. “We’re at a comfortable place where we’re not making...
The Minnesota Wilderness are two big steps away from their first North American Hockey League championship since the 2015-16 season. But they may need to summit those steps without their best player. Kevin Marx Norén's status is unknown for the next round of the playoffs beginning Friday after he was injured during a high-speed collision on the ice in the team's most recent game. "We don't know yet - it's TBD," Wilderness coach Brett Skinner said Tuesday. "He lost some teeth, so he had to go...
Freshman soars at college meet Cloquet native and 2022 graduate Olivia Jameson finished a standout conference meet earlier this month at De Pere, Wisconsin May 5-6. A freshman architecture major from Cloquet competing for Illinois Tech, Jameson won the high jump with a height of 1.60 meters at the Division III Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championship. Jameson earned conference Freshman of the Year after placing first in the high jump, fifth in the 100-meter...
An enrichment day last week for Queen of Peace Catholic School found a large group of students bicycling through the Historic West End of Cloquet. The goal was to teach students the rules of the road. "They're going to be riding bikes long before they're driving cars," said volunteer Paul Baecker. "They've got to know the rules." Baecker works with the school as a mental health therapist. He and his wife, Jana, and their four young children moved to Cloquet from Germany, where they were...
Down to their last man, the Wrenshall school board seems to have found their next superintendent. The district has offered Jeff Pesta, retired Deer River superintendent, its position beginning July 1 and working half-time through the next school year. Pesta and the district are in negotiations, and board member Mary Carlson reported during the board’s committee of the whole meeting Wednesday that Pesta has said he wants to help the financially struggling district and not take a penny more than what the district is currently paying outgoing K...
The conflict between an outspoken business owner and the Wrenshall city council spiked again last week, when the council voted to send a letter informing Jeff Bloom he was out of compliance with city ordinance. Bloom is the owner of the Wrenshall General Store and RV park, and was in attendance at the May 3 city council meeting. Bloom told the board he would not seek to renew an interim use permit for his Ponderosa Sales, an auction business located on the same property as Bloom's other...
Presented with a plan to cut a program that's been serving kindergarten-age children locally for decades, the Cloquet school board balked Monday. The board denied a recommendation to close the Early 5's wrap-around care program, but not before hearing from a host of mothers and past users of the program. "It's frustrating and upsetting to worry about other kids falling through the cracks," said Emily Dunaisky, whose son was in Early 5's. Carly Baker said her husband is 37 years old and "he did...
The city of Carlton may have hit a speed bump last week on its way to adding two full-timers to its ambulance service. A skeptical Wrenshall city council heard Carlton’s proposal during a special meeting April 19, and Wrenshall’s five-member board remained noncommittal, telling Carlton it would have an answer following its May 3 council meeting. “Why does Carlton have to be in the ambulance business?” asked Wrenshall councilor Melvin Martindale. “You’re 1,100 people strong and you’re just not big enough to support (it) and you’re raisin...
Leading their best-of-five playoff series 2-0 following wins last weekend, the Minnesota Wilderness flew to Alaska this week in their attempt to close out the Kenai River Brown Bears and advance to the Midwest Division finals. "The next game in front of you is the most important game of the year," coach Brett Skinner said of what he's telling the team. "That's the same mentality we've had for a while now." A two-seed in the North American Hockey League's 16-team Robertson Cup playoffs, the Wilde...
Carlton County voters likely remember passing a local-option sales tax last November to pay for construction of a new jail and courts facility in Carlton. The half-cent addition onto the sales tax was passed overwhelmingly, garnering 89 percent of the vote. With collections starting this month, the sales tax will collect $60 million over 30 years - specifically to pay for the new justice center. Part of the appeal of the sales tax was billed as spreading the cost of the justice center onto visit...
The Wrenshall school board had planned to interview three full-time candidates for its superintendent vacancy on the first day in May. But a recommendation Tuesday from the board’s budget committee spoiled the plan, recommending pursuit of a part-time superintendent to replace retiring Kim Belcastro, who is fulfilling a half-time role through the end of the school year. There’s simply not enough money in the developing 2023-24 budget to accommodate a full-time superintendent, board members first learned during a sometimes tense school boa...
The city of Carlton moved closer to adding a pair of full-timers to its ambulance service at the council meeting Wednesday. Fire chief Derek Wolf reported roughly $206,000 in commitments from municipalities that use the service. The goal is $250,000 annually, which would be used to add two full-time emergency medical technicians beginning in 2024. “I’m super-happy with the support,” Wolf told the newspaper afterward. “It really shows people understand the need.” In February, the city asked surrounding municipalities to help fund the addition...
The city of Carlton adopted first-time ordinances related to short-term vacation and camping rentals during its March city council meeting. The unanimous approvals mean vacation and camping rentals will need to be permitted. Vacation rentals will be capped at five and feature quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Camping rentals must be on lots of 10 acres or more with no more than two sites. The applicant must also live on the property. A maximum of two short-term camping locations will be allowed in the city. The locations must also have campfir...
The Minnesota Wilderness tuned up for the upcoming Robertson Cup playoffs by exorcizing a demon last week. Following eight straight losses to Midwest Division regular season champion Wisconsin Windigo, including a 1-0 loss April 6 in Cloquet, the Wilderness pulled out a 3-2 win on April 7. The team scored a goal in each period, from Kevin Marx Norén, Oliver Stümpel and Sawyer Scholl. Isak Posch tied the team record for wins by a goalie, getting 25 saves for his 24th victory of the season. P...
Not every poem Patrick Stevens writes will see the light of day. Some are crafted simply to get it all out. "I'm venting a lot of anger in my poetry at this point about snow," Stevens said last week, before the warming thaw. "It's nothing I'm going to publish ever. It's more about getting it out on paper." In December, the 75-year-old Stevens, with the help of some old Cloquet High School classmates, published his first book of poetry. Titled "Panning Gold," it features 40 poems across 146...
The proposed artificial turf athletic complex at Cloquet High School is expected to cost $4.9 million, the school board learned Wednesday. Meeting with contractor Kraus-Anderson during a committee of the whole gathering at Garfield School, the board seemed to have an appetite for the project and its costs. Board members had been asking for financial and design specifics for weeks, during what has been an accelerated design and planning process. What started as a community conversation last spring could see construction this summer and yield new...
If you scroll Facebook or other social media, you've seen how spring roads in Minnesota have taken on a new life in memes. Many of the humorous images feature the character Jack from the blockbuster film "Titanic" shown submerged in a pothole. "It's one of the worst years I've seen for potholes," said Ross Biebl, assistant public works director for the city of Cloquet. "The roads are as bad or worse than they are in a normal year at this time," said Rick Norrgard, assistant transportation...
When Jessie Graddy started teaching at South Terrace Elementary School three years ago, she wondered why the school wasn't participating in higher-level activities, such as spelling and geography bees and Math Masters competitions. Instead of shrugging, she acted, creating all three extra outlets. "I'm just trying to elevate our school a little bit," said Graddy, a fifth-grade teacher. On April 21, the school's fifth-grade Math Masters team will participate at a competition in Duluth, one of 17...
Throughout life I’ve toggled between professional worlds, working in journalism or being employed in human services as a caregiver. For the first time, I’m juggling those. I work part-time at the Pine Knot News, of course, and also for a Cloquet outfit which houses and cares for people with disabilities. As part of my latter work, I go with people on 1:1 outings. I chauffeur. We connect. We do fun things. One week, we played miniature golf and shot hoops at the carnival baskets at Adventure Zone in Duluth. Another week, a gentleman and I wen...
By summer, Sam Coil will have retired his throwing shoes and his track and field silks, trading them for a professional accounting job in Minneapolis. Until then, the 24-year-old Sturgeon Lake native and University of Wisconsin thrower will focus on adding to his championship career. "I like to set high expectations for myself, though nothing too unreasonable," Coil told the newspaper this week. In February, Coil won gold in the weight throw at the Big Ten Indoor Championships in Geneva, Ohio....
When Tom and Nancy Getchell started an automotive repair business, T&N Auto Repair, in a two-stall garage on Avenue B, they did so with an understanding: they'd offer fair prices and honesty for all customers. "And that's the way it's worked for 25 years," Nancy said this week, just days after the shop closed for good on March 10. The reason for the end is tragic: Tom, 57, has terminal late-stage brain cancer in the form of two tumors. Thirty-one days of radiation earlier this winter was aimed...
The Wrenshall school board agreed to slightly more than $312,000 in budget cuts during a special meeting Tuesday — the biggest slice of three rounds of cuts to date, totaling $383,000. The board reiterated during its committee of the whole meeting a day later on Wednesday that it was on its way to $500,000 in cuts, money to cover its current deficit and allow for a modest surplus in the district’s fund balance. “We still have a lot of information to gather,” board member Eric Ankrum said. The final figure for cuts has been a moving target,...
It didn't take long for the Career and Technical Education building at Wrenshall school to show its value. The facility opened this school year after $2.1 million in renovations. By turning it into an asset, officials hope to attract students to a district currently in a budget crisis. "I like how big it is," said senior Peyton Johnson earlier this week. "Now look, we can build a house inside here." Johnson spoke as peers in his carpentry class spent the afternoon adding particle board sheeting...
When Barnum residents elected Dale Riihiluoma as mayor, running unopposed, in November, it was the culmination of decades of public service. It was also something his wife of 47 years, the late Diane Riihiluoma, didn't want to see happen. Diane passed away in November 2021 after three decades of battling cancer. She tended to favor blending in over standing out. "When Diane was still living she never wanted me to be mayor - it was too far out there," Dale said. "'You're not doing that,' she'd...
A new animal rescue group operating out of Carlton County has registered with the state as a nonprofit organization, and could begin fostering lost or stray dogs and cats in a matter of weeks. "We're 30 or 60 days away from taking our first official animals for rescue," said Erin Thompson, a board member of the new Carlton County Animal Rescue. Thompson met with 16 others Tuesday at the Cloquet Public Library as part of the group's monthly meetings. It has been gathering since October 2021, but...
