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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Bruce Matuszak recalled the vacation stop in Wichita, Kansas, where he hatched the idea of conducting a daylong worship service. After some Bible reading and prayer in the morning, he was moved by a thought. "I had to do something," he said. He turned to his wife, Tami Matuszak, and said, "'We're going to organize a 24-hour worship service.'" Matuszak is a board member of Cloquet-based Kingdom Builders Ministries, and the event organizer of "24 hours of worship" beginning at 5 p.m. March 17 and... Full story
New face minds Cloquet lakes, trails `The timing wasn't great, two weeks before the birth of his second son, but the opportunity for Tony Elwell and his family was too good to pass up. "Otherwise, chances of getting back here were slim," said Elwell, the new face of the Department of Natural Resources in Cloquet. "We'd have to wait years, and we've always wanted to come back to this area. So, I put in for it." Elwell's request was granted, and he started as the conservation officer for the...
Following two weeks of uproar related to proposed ordinance changes in Wrenshall, the city council earned a muted response at its meeting Wednesday. There were fewer than a dozen visitors to City Hall, compared to the almost 100 who objected to an RV park ordinance at a public hearing in February. The city council said Wednesday it won’t address the RV ordinance again until a planning commission meeting at 10 a.m. April 19 — the first date the council can meet in full due to an absence from councilor Joyce Gvesrude. The council, which also act...
For Adrian Watt and Benjamin Bauer, last weekend's American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin, offered a tale of two trajectories. The 75-year-old Watt, of Esko, skied his 46th Birkie, on his way to a goal of reaching 50 in his lifetime. Watt finished the 53-kilometer classic race in 5 hours, 6 minutes, among the top 1,000 competitors (939th) in a race that included 1,702 entrants. He finished fourth in his age group, 75-79. "It's the only race I do every year, and my goal is to finish with a... Full story
Nearly 100 people appeared Tuesday at a public hearing in Wrenshall related to proposed RV park regulations. About 15 percent of attendees spoke at the hearing, doing so resoundingly and to repeated applause. Their message to the city's planning commission, which is also its town council: leave business owner Jeff Bloom alone. "For you to pick this man out and single him out and try to create ordinances to cause him to spend more money that could possibly cause him to go out of business is compl...
A fire at the site of Bergquist Imports along the Minnesota Highway 33 frontage road in Cloquet drew a large response Wednesday afternoon as smoke poured from the back of the complex of buildings. Steady smoke curled from the back, carrying across the four lanes of Highway 33 and blowing south. Firefighters with axes and steel wrecking bars were entering at the back of the complex, disappearing into thick smoke. "I'm a little shocked," said Barry Bergquist, who owns three buildings on the site,... Full story
Voters in the Cromwell-Wright school district passed a referendum Tuesday, delivering a valentine to a district seeking $6.45 million in improvements to school safety and parking, along with a gym expansion. The measure passed, 243-194, following seven hours of voting in downtown Cromwell. “Obviously, the majority of people saw it as a need,” superintendent Nathan Libbon said. “I’m very grateful. I’m grateful for everyone that voted.” Approval of the referendum allows the district to bond for...
Carlton County will receive more than $700,000 in state disaster relief following the winter storm Dec. 12-16 which coated the region with heavy snow, breaking tree limbs and crippling power infrastructure for days. Carlton County gathered details from townships and jurisdictions throughout the county and submitted for $979,360 in costs associated with cleanup and repair. The National Weather Service referred to the storm as a “blue” blizzard becasue of the high water content in the snow tha...
A community member shouted questions at the teacher advisor to Wrenshall’s student-based Gender and Sexualities Alliance at Monday’s school board meeting. In doing so, the community member seemed to prove why the advisor wouldn’t let students address the board in person. “I did not feel comfortable inviting students from the GSA to come to this meeting, because I feel it would put them in an unsafe position,” advisor Ted Conover, an English teacher, told the board. Bill Dian repeatedl...
A fire at the site of Bergquist Imports along the Minnesota Highway 33 frontage road in Cloquet drew a large response Wednesday afternoon as smoke poured from the back of the complex of buildings. Steady smoke curled from the back, carrying across the four lanes of Highway 33 and blowing south. Firefighters with axes and steel wrecking bars were entering at the back of the complex, disappearing into thick smoke. "I'm a little shocked," said Barry Bergquist, who owns three buildings on the site,... Full story
A special school board meeting Feb. 1 featured an inquiry into rising technology costs, and revealed in startling detail “glaring security holes,” server updates that were missed, and antivirus packages purchased but not installed. “Nothing was done for four years,” contractor T.J. Smith told the board. “I’ll be point-blank honest and blunt: your previous tech director, I don’t know what that person did.” As if on cue, Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting featured business manager Angela Lind announcing she couldn’t access budgetary in...
"So, Kendra Kelley, you haven't lost a race in 2023." "I have not," said Kelley, the Cloquet native and North Dakota State University sprinter who is tearing up indoor tracks across the Midwest. Kelley owns top-of-the-podium finishes in every individual final she's taken part in since the start of the indoor season Dec. 2, going a perfect six-for-six in 60- and 200-meter sprints. She also takes part in a 4x400 relay that's posting top finishes nearly every time out. "It comes down to my support... Full story
Bolstering Carlton ambulance service, costs pitched to townships A proposal to create two full-time positions atop the city of Carlton's all-volunteer ambulance service was met with optimism by officials from surrounding townships Jan. 25. "You did a professional job here tonight," Silver Brook Township board chair Duane Laveau said. "You probably sold Silver Brook Township just by the professionalism here tonight." The proposal to beef up ambulance service came in front of more than 40 local... Full story
The Wrenshall school board agreed in a special meeting Wednesday to survey community members before posting the district’s open superintendent position. “I don’t think we can rush this,” board member Misty Bergman said. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for.” Superintendent Kim Belcastro announced her retirement in January after 11 years in the job. She and the board agreed to keep her on part-time through the end of the school year to maintain leadership in the school and administer to the business of the school. Belcastro and s...
'There's a lot of nice stuff there' In 30 years of auctioneering and conducting estate sales, Steven Wesely has never gone to a second weekend for a sale. Until this weekend. "This is by far the most unique place I've had," Wesely said of the sprawling property at 3698 Bayview Dr., overlooking Little Hanging Horn Lake between Barnum and Moose Lake. Hundreds of guests visited the estate sale last weekend and, when Wesely talked about the sale on Monday, he was preparing to put out another wave... Full story
Voters in the Cromwell-Wright school district will go to the polls Feb. 14 with a chance to weigh a series of school improvements, costing $6.45 million and including updates to the second gym and improved safety infrastructure. Voting for the referendum will take place from 1-8 p.m., at the Sno-Gophers Club building at 1247 Highway 73 near city hall. Mail and absentee options will be more limited than a general election. "This building is, conservatively, about a $40 million asset,"... Full story
A suspect in the burglary this month at the Esko post office was arrested Jan. 12 in Anoka County. The arrest came as a trail of evidence was located by investigators, indicating that the suspect was involved in a string of burglaries in the region. Steven Russell Macdonald, 37, of Willow River, is alleged to have been burglarizing and shoplifting seemingly at will across several days earlier this month, according to a criminal complaint filed in Sixth District Court in Carlton. Macdonald is...
Deeper cooperation between Wrenshall and Carlton schools was on the table Tuesday — and the Carlton school board promptly swept it off. The board members dismissed a letter from the Wrenshall board seeking greater collaboration, declining to move beyond the full sports and activities cooperative that’s already set to begin this spring. “We need to focus on Carlton,” board member Tim Hagenah said. “Wrenshall needs to work on their issues.” Hagenah described how the Jan. 9 letter, made public at this month’s Wrenshall board meeting, caug... Full story
Cloquet High School head football coach Jeff Ojanen pleaded guilty Jan. 13 to a single fourth-degree misdemeanor count of driving while impaired related to his arrest last month. Ojanen, 39, was arrested by Cloquet police early in the morning on Dec. 23, and was subsequently charged in Sixth District Court in Carlton with a pair of misdemeanors related to DWI. In his plea agreement, Ojanen admitted to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10, which is over the legal limit of 0.08. Ojanen declined to comment when reached by the newspaper, and...
Talking from his northeast Minneapolis residence, Tony Petersen described the home studio he named Double Pug after his dogs Patti and Doug. There are powerful microphones and compressors, good sound baffling, and windows facing his backyard to the west. "It's a really powerful one-man studio," Petersen said. "Generally, the music happens between 7 p.m. and 3 a.m., so I get to catch the sunset." Petersen, 33, is a Cloquet native and founder of numerous projects, including Social Animals, the... Full story
After receiving a single proposal to redevelop the 103-year-old Hotel Solem in downtown Cloquet, the city’s economic development authority is pumping the brakes on the future of the condemned property. “We’re putting it on hold for now,” said Holly Hansen, community development director. Requests to redevelop the three-story building that was formerly Mexico Lindo were due late last year. One developer offered a proposal and another toured the site while offering to wait and see, Hansen said. Hansen declined to get into specifics about the sea...
The newly constituted Wrenshall school board went straight to the heavy lifting this week, bracing for the end of its superintendent’s career, while posing the idea of sharing a top administrator with neighboring Carlton. In a letter sent to the Carlton school board this week, the Wrenshall board asked if there was interest in sharing administration, a school nurse, and grounds and maintenance staff. Last year, the districts agreed to consolidate all sports and afterschool programs beginning this spring. The letter comes as the Wrenshall b...
The man responsible for one of Carlton County’s most heinous crimes died in prison this week. Donald Blom, 73, passed away on Tuesday at a state correctional facility in Oak Park Heights, where he was serving a life sentence for the 1999 kidnapping and murder of Katie Poirier, 19, of Barnum. “It was one of those cases that will be with me forever,” Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake said Wednesday. “What that family has gone through is just unimaginable.” Poirier had been working alone when she encountered Blom, a serial offender, who forced Poi... Full story
The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office was investigating a break-in at the Esko post office on Tuesday. A sign on the window noted the post office was closed for the day, citing an “ongoing investigation.” Lt. Dan Danielson and members of four squad vehicles from the Sheriff’s Office were on the scene late Tuesday morning. They were shuttling boxes in and out of the office, and speaking with residents arriving to find the office closed. The sheriff’s office received a call early in the morning T... Full story
A lost or abandoned Siberian husky spotted by numerous people in Scanlon throughout December finally has a new home. The stray dog was trapped and rescued Dec. 26 by volunteers, and now resides in a temporary foster home for huskies in the Twin Cities area. The dog, first dubbed "Pete" for the way it was spotted around Trapper Pete's Steakhouse and Saloon, then "Petey" once her gender was discovered, has now been given the name Violet. "I felt bad for her," said Cindy Peterson, owner of Trapper... Full story
