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
Sorted by date Results 251 - 275 of 293
Reelected in a landslide Tuesday, Carlton County sheriff Kelly Lake expects to be around for the end of her term in 2026. "I made a promise to the voters of Carlton County and intend to keep that promise," said the 53-year-old Lake, who will reach retirement age during the middle of her next term. Voters agreed to extend Lake's 17-year run as sheriff, while at the same time overwhelmingly adopting a half-cent sales tax to pay for the $66 million Justice Center. Under construction on County Road...
Three of five candidates were going to be elected to the Cloquet School Board on Tuesday. Sarah Plante Buhs didn’t have the faintest idea she’d be the top vote-getter. “I’m very appreciative, and I was very surprised with what the outcome was,” she told the Pine Knot the next day. “I was not expecting that much support. It’s nice to see; we have a great community.” Plante Buhs won 3,196 votes (25.9%) followed by incumbents David Battaglia, with 2,706 votes (21.9%), and Gary “Hawk” Huard at 2,367 (19.2%). Battaglia was “appreciative” of the four...
Suicide and foul play were ruled out after the body of a missing 38-year-old Carlton County man was recovered late last week. Authorities from Aitkin County located the body of Lucas Dudden early in the afternoon on Friday, Nov. 11, in shallow water on Rat Lake. The body was recovered within a half-mile radius of where the man’s unattended truck had been found. Dudden was reported missing Oct. 31 after he failed to show up for work in Superior. “We had good reason to believe he was by himself,” Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida said, descr...
Films focus on migration of people to and from Cloquet While researching a theme for seven short films he'll debut next week in Cloquet, Augustin Ganley drew inspiration from a French word, "cloque," defined as blister. The word features dual meanings, both the kind you get from walking in new shoes, and, when adjusted to cloqué, an irregularly raised pattern in fabric design. "We have histories that are woven together here that are an irregular or uneven pattern," the 35-year-old Ganley said....
When Chris Gustafson arrived at Wrenshall School, his predecessor teaching industrial arts had quit after the district cut the teaching position to barely more than half-time. "They realized if they were going to keep a shop teacher, they better offer a full-time position," Gustafson said, happy to have filled the job for the last 17 years. In that time, Gustafson has seen the pendulum swing back toward training students for careers which don't always require four-year college degrees. On...
Four of five candidates for school board weighed in at the Cloquet Area Chamber of Commerce candidate forum Oct. 25. In the wake of two lockdowns within the past year, the topic of school safety drew provocative responses from an incumbent and newcomer alike. Both advocated for a stronger security presence in Cloquet’s public schools. “I would support having professionals in the building, some of our professionals, carefully screened and carefully trained and able to use special tactics and tools to stop a threat,” incumbent Ted Lammi said....
Outside Barnum, where horses populate handsome stables and open fields, and scores of round bales tell of a robust hay harvest, the sale of 20 acres of land has sent Blackhoof Township residents into prolonged shock and disbelief. "We've been caught off guard," said Eric Braun on Wednesday, Oct. 19, during the latest in a series of township meetings on the topic. The property is located east of the firehall along Pioneer Road. It features a new wooden fence entry inviting visitors to walk in fro...
Mike Tusken grows into leadership role at college There were days as Duluth police chief when Mike Tusken was exhausted, yet still found himself driving to Cloquet to teach a three-hour night class on community policing. "You're going 150 miles per hour in that job and I was coming here dreading it, because I was out of gas," Tusken said. "But when you're doing education, you've got people who are anxious and excited about getting into this field. I got energy from that. I left here invigorated....
Struggling financially and facing declining enrollments, the Carlton and Wrenshall schools agreed to bring together all junior high and high school sports earlier this week. The move to combine sports gained approval from both school boards, with only one dissenting vote among the two boards. “We need to give this opportunity to our athletes,” Wrenshall board member Ben Johnson said, explaining there are seasons in which, going alone, the schools would not have enough players to field teams. “We...
Local and regional developers have until the end of November to submit proposals that will determine the future of the condemned Hotel Solem building. Located in downtown Cloquet, the 103-year-old building was condemned earlier this year and taken over by the city. The city issued its request for proposals earlier this week, and already it's received attention, with community development director Holly Hansen lining up the first tour of what she hopes will be many more. "(Monday), I outreached...
Assigned by the local diocese's bishop to Queen of Peace Catholic Church 15 months ago, the Rev. Nick Nelson praised his fortune. "For me, who thinks beauty, who thinks the physical appearance of the church, especially inside, is so important, I was really grateful to be here," Father Nelson said. "I would struggle at some of the more modern churches, to be honest. They're less sacred." Inside Queen of Peace's ornate nave, where parishioners gather for worship, a person can feel small...
Voters in Cloquet will see two sales tax proposals on their ballots during early voting and the midterm general election Nov. 8. Carlton County voters will have to pay attention, too, because they're part of half of this. The ballot questions both ask voters to raise the existing sales tax by 0.5% - half-a-penny per dollar to raise $8 million in project funds for the city of Cloquet, and another half-penny countywide to fund the $66 million Carlton County Justice Center already under...
An amicable gathering last week brought together most of the Wrenshall school board candidates in a public forum for the first time. As it concluded, the six candidates in attendance expressed pride in the school, and appreciation for one another. It stood in contrast to the tumult which has mired the board throughout the past year. But in subtler ways it also further illuminated the chasm between four relative newcomers and incumbents Deb Washenesky and Jack Eudy, along with board appointee...
There was a time Emily Lockling didn't know what she wanted to study or do with her future. But a nudge from her mother, Jodie Lockling, a language teacher at the Fond du Lac Ojibwe School, helped to unlock her daughter's potential. "I came home crying one day," Emily said, recalling her days as a first-year student at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. "I was like, 'I don't want to do this; I don't know why I'm in school anymore.'" Emily's mom asked her to summon one thing about...
When Cory Drickhamer pulled in for the start of business at the MarksMan Trading Post one day earlier this week, there was a customer right behind him. Within moments, the pawn shop had five more used rifles to sell, including a Remington .30-06 pump carbine - a well-regarded deer hunting rifle. "I bought five guns in the first 10 minutes I was open," Drickhamer said. "I didn't even count my cash register drawer yet." MarksMan Trading Post celebrates its one-year anniversary in November. When...
Gathering last week capped cemetery saga that began in 2017 The tribal chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa called for new protections for Native American burial grounds during a community gathering last week. Speaking alongside the St. Louis River, near a site where burial grounds were disturbed by a state highway project in 2017, Kevin Dupuis was joined by a crowd of more than 125 mostly Indigenous people in the Fond du Lac neighborhood in Duluth on Friday, Sept. 30....
The Cloquet City Council took up the topic of food trucks at its meeting Tuesday at City Hall, wondering if it should amend an ordinance to allow the cultural phenomenon better access to city park events. Councilor Kerry Kolodge raised the issue after having heard from a food truck operator who was denied access to a large bike race last month at the Pine Valley recreation area. The city currently doesn’t allow food trucks at parks unless it’s a city-sponsored event, such as the Fourth of Jul...
Earlier this week, Carlton County election officials mailed 600 absentee ballots to people who’d requested to vote in advance of the Nov. 8 midterm election. It was a far cry from the 2020 general election, in which roughly half of the county’s voters (10,900) used early voting and mail-in options during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I feel like the 600 we just mailed out will be the bulk of them,” said Kevin DeVriendt, Carlton County auditor/treasurer. Early voting began last week, 46 days prior to election day, and voters can vote at...
As a 23-year educational interpreter working at Cloquet High School, it's normal to find Iris Keller standing with the teacher at the front of the classroom. Keller delivers in sign language what the teacher is saying to a student Keller has worked with since he was in fifth grade. "There I am, looking out at this whole class," Keller said. "I go with the student to all his classes - college government, calculus, physics, German 4. He's really smart." Like the student, she carries a backpack and...
Jonas Peterson celebrated his 13th birthday Saturday by showing up to his first mountain biking race several hours before the start of his race. "I just wanted to hang out," said a smiling Peterson, who was surrounded by hordes of other school-age mountain bikers from across the state and as far away as North Dakota. Peterson, racing for Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, was among more than 600 school-age racers at the Pine Valley recreation area in Cloquet last weekend. He competed in the 3.6-mile eighth-g...
Until forced to close this summer to make way for a construction site, the Scanlon fishing pier off Highway 61 had been a popular, yet hard-to-quantify destination. "We had no idea how popular a fishing spot this was until we fenced it off," said LaRae Lehto. "Very popular," added Paul Adams. "A lot of high school and middle school kids were upset this summer," Lehto concluded. The reason for fencing off the fishing pier and canoe-and-kayak launch near the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District...
A teachers union-led candidate forum for Wrenshall school board had a kumbaya vibe Tuesday. But conflict currently affecting the board wasn't far behind, as three current board members declined to attend. Instead, they authored a mailer telling residents that teachers were behaving "improperly" by being involved in the election process. It didn't stop candidates Eric Ankrum, Mary Carlson, Kristin Reinsch and Ben Johnson from greeting roughly 70 teachers and members of the public. The hour-long...
The Thomson Township board of supervisors defended itself this week after closing a public meeting to discuss applicants to fill an open seat on the board. The board went into what it termed “closed meeting” on Sept. 8 to discuss what was labeled on the agenda as “a personnel issue.” In fact, the board was meeting to discuss replacement of Jason Paulson, who resigned in August from the board with two years remaining on his term. Paulson cited a staffing shortage in the airline industry, causing him to work more hours as a pilot. In private...
Surrounded by 8 lush acres of corn at the Ru-Ridge Corn Maze in rural Carlton, Angela Line noted there were 21 leaves on a mature corn stalk. "We know when the end of summer is coming," Line said. "We count the leaves." The corn maze opened last weekend and is taking visitors through Oct. 30, generally on Thursdays and Fridays after 4 p.m. and weekends beginning at 10 a.m. Admission is $8 (cash or check only). It's wheelchair-accessible. Now in its sixth year, the corn maze takes more than an...
The Wrenshall school board’s stamina for conflict proved unyielding Monday, when its regular monthly meeting devolved into bickering and generated new insights into ongoing turmoil. Board member Nicole Krisak revealed that board members looked into superintendent Kim Belcastro’s work emails, fishing for information without informing the superintendent or having a specific reason to do so. “We looked into her emails,” Krisak said. “She didn’t know that. We had no right to do it. We still did it.” It was a surprising revelation from a meetin...
