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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Pull into Tamarack, 36 miles west of Cloquet on Highway 210, and it’s easy to locate the publicly traded mining company that wants to extract nickel from deep beneath the grassy swamps that surround the town. Visible from the city park, what’s notable about Talon Metals headquarters is that it’s located in a small yellow house. Across from the office on Warren Street, there’s an open garage where workers process the company’s core samples. For a mining company, it looks an awful lot like a co...
The candidate filing period for political races subject to a primary election ended on Tuesday, yielding a ballot with more than a few surprises. In Cloquet, councilors Lara Wilkinson, Iris Keller, Kerry Kolodge and Lyz Jaakola will all run unopposed, barring a write-in campaign mounted against any of them, on the Nov. 5 ballot. In Carlton County, the commissioners’ races are a tale of three different outcomes. To replace outgoing Dick Brenner in District 1, representing west Cloquet, Scanlon and Sawyer, Sarah Plante Buhs and Caleb Dunlap will...
Earlier this week at the group home, we experienced a harrowing moment. One of our residents fell from bed, screaming he was hurt. Lying tense on the floor as we assessed his condition, his vocalization turned to a new refrain, “I’m afraid!” We felt so bad for him. We know him well, and understand his history of traumatic falls. We consoled and comforted him until he calmed. The Cloquet Area Fire District paramedics were able to assess him, deem him unharmed, and help return him to bed. Our resident shared a cathartic conversation with Jorda...
Members of the Carlton County board and the Fond du Lac tribal council are scheduled to meet in June. The entities meet twice annually, and the topic of how the county ought to host the meeting came up during the board’s March 14 meeting in Carlton. When Fond du Lac conducts the meetings, attendees are greeted with a catered meal. Historically, that has not been the case when the meetings are hosted by the county. “When they come here, we get them donuts and strawberries,” said county coordinator Dennis Genereau, who sought state guida...
Standing atop a stool, the onetime jockey prepared to climb on board a horse for one of the first times in a long time. "This is when I have my problem," said the 91-year-old Jack Carter, crossing a leg over the horse's back in an unsure manner. "Never in my life did I dream I'd be using this (stool)," he added. "I used to jump on bareback." "Slow and steady," the volunteer hand reminded him at North Country Ride in Esko. The white-speckled, one-time show horse, Cisco, stood still as the helper...
A chance to celebrate roughly $7 million in improvements to the Cromwell-Wright School brought out students and community members Monday. Cromwell graduates Tracey Goranson, 62, Pauly Granholm, 65, and the Koivistos - Ken, 77, and Sue, 74 - gathered on the edge of the student body, bright blue skies overhead. "It's exciting to see the progress," Goranson said. "It's been a long time coming," Granholm added. "I've been looking forward to this, to see the expressions of the kids," Ken Koivisto...
A notice on social media last week from the Moose Lake Police Department indicated that the office would no longer be “open on a daily basis.” It was the sort of thing that can cause consternation in a community. In February, the city contracted with Carlton County for its law enforcement — a decision which meant disbanding its long-standing police department. The contract between the city and Carlton County is still being negotiated, as the county works toward bringing aboard the four deputies agreed upon to cover the city. But Carlton County...
Dick Brenner knows how to win an election. Eight of them, amounting to 32 years on the Carlton County board alone, to go with 17 years as a Cloquet school board member. "I have a philosophy," he said. "When you run you have to have a visible name and the best way to do that is to put out lawn signs. I had over 500 lawn signs in my district. Particularly, you need to get all the corners." Brenner also knocked on doors in his district twice each campaign season, receiving sandwiches, cookies and...
Longtime Carlton County commissioner Dick Brenner announced Tuesday he will not seek another term on the county board. Brenner is serving his 32nd year on the board, dating back to 1992. Prior to that he served on the Cloquet school board. "I am not running," Brenner said during the board's monthly committee of the whole meeting. "I've been hounded about it. I am done at the end of December." "I'm happy for you," board chair Susan Zmyslony said. Brenner resides in Cloquet and serves District 1,...
Brady Slater [email protected] Faced with growing enrollments and class rosters for the next school year, the Wrenshall school board did something Monday it hasn’t had to consider in years. It closed open enrollment in four elementary school grades. Superintendent Jeff Pesta recommended the action and, after much discussion, the board agreed. “It’s a good challenge to have,” Pesta said, “and one you haven’t wrestled with in quite a while.” He was confident that closing classes to outside enrollees would reinforce the image the school wan...
First, the bad news. The delayed arrival of a 700-pound, almost $60,000 electrical switch will delay the opening of Carlton County's new Justice Center by a few months. Instead of a July opening, the new 117,000-square-foot facility along County Road 61 in Carlton is now expected to open in October. "It was involved in a fire on its transport," Carlton County Jail administrator Paul Coughlin said of the switch. "It's heavily damaged. They had to reject it and build a new one that takes 26 weeks...
A renovated hotel and casino, a new tribal justice center and a cannabis facility near the intersection of Minnesota Highway 210 and Interstate 35 are among the projects in development by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The cannabis facility follows the direction of three other tribes - the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and Red Lake and White Earth nations - since marijuana was legalized in the state in August 2023. Caleb Dunlap, spokesman for the Fond du Lac Band, declined to...
In announcing he won’t seek reelection in November, Gary Peterson unofficially kicked off the local election season Monday during the Carlton County board meeting. “It’s time for me to graduate from my county commissioner job,” said Peterson, a longtime educator who still substitute teaches in the area. Peterson, 71, will have served 12 years, or three full terms, on the board by the time his term representing western Carlton County wraps up at the end of the year. “Twelve years is long enou...
A former psychologist at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program in Moose Lake broke her silence last week, two months after felony sexual assault charges against her were dropped on the precipice of a court trial originally scheduled to start this month. While relieved to no longer be facing criminal charges, Michelle Brownfield, 41, of Duluth, had counted on the trial for vindication, she told the Pine Knot News. “One of the most compelling aspects of this is how easily this can happen to anyone in a licensed profession,” she said. “An angry...
The Carlton County board is often audience to presentations on everything from treating invasive spongy moths to what the county's housing needs look like. Recently, the board heard a pair of presentations from local officials: an annual report from the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District on April 2 at the committee of the whole meeting, and another April 9 about how the county is spending its portion of opioid settlement money. The information-gathering sessions proved fruitful, presen...
Carlton superintendent Donita Stepan created a stir last week, when she announced April 3 to school district staff that a plan was being drafted that would move Carlton schools to a four-day school week as soon as next year. On Monday, during the first of three hastily scheduled public hearings announced Thursday, Stepan reflected for the school board on what she told teachers and staff. "I understand this is quick and I understand this isn't normally how we would do business, to move this...
The Cloquet school district is poised to cut 24 mostly teaching positions at a special meeting Friday, April 12, responding to lost revenue and evidence of declining enrollment. Superintendent Michael Cary outlined the cuts during the school board’s committee of the whole meeting Monday. None of the cuts are tenured teachers, and the nonrenewals will amount to roughly $1.6 million in savings. The district was responding to the end of what Cary called “soft funds” — grant-related state and federal dollars mostly from the sunsetting of pandemi...
Carlton County joined a chorus of county-based officials from across the state Tuesday, calling on the state department of revenue to pump the brakes on proposed changes to tax collections on utility companies. “Currently these types of properties are responsible for nearly 20 percent of all taxes paid in the county,” board chair Susan Zmyslony wrote in a letter to the Minnesota Department of Revenue. “So it is a great concern to us as to how any changes could affect our county.” The state legislature directed the department in 2021 to review...
A five-year plan for roughly 64 miles worth of paving and other road and bridge projects was outlined to the Carlton County board on Tuesday. The tentative list of projects presented to the committee of the whole included only a half-mile of roadway reconstruction work this summer, on 22nd Street from Washington to Prospect avenues in Cloquet, along with a number of repavement projects moving forward. The longest stretch, 9 miles of County Road 6 to Barnum, is scheduled for 2028 and will...
Retiring this week after 16 years as Carlton County land commissioner, Greg Bernu noted a pair of unfortunate trends on county lands: more people are illegally dumping items which ought to go to transfer stations, and recreational four-wheeling is ripping up forest roads too frequently. “It’s all recreational use causing this problem,” Bernu said. It leads to more maintenance work for county workers. “Between that and the garbage, you might be seeing more gates going up on our forest roads in Carlton County. It’s coming,” Bernu said. Bernu...
The first snowfall to hit like a heavyweight this winter found the county board meeting late in the afternoon Monday. Commissioners congratulated each other and staff for making it through in spite of the storm. Inside chambers in the Transportation Building, business flew by as fast as the flurries. Zoning and environmental services coordinator Chris Berg urged commissioners to consider the future of waste disposal in Carlton County. The landfill in Superior, Wisconsin is sunsetting as soon as 2026, Berg said, meaning Carlton County and other...
Jobs? Greg Bernu has had them. "This is the best job of my life and I've had a lot of them," said Bernu, who spent the last 16 years as the Carlton County land commissioner. "It was a lot better than I've ever dreamed," he added. "The county board has given me great latitude to get the job done." Bernu punctuated the thought with his trademark sense of humor. "It's my job to make them look good and stay out of jail." Retiring at the end of the month, Bernu leaves behind a lasting body of work...
Some time ago, during her workaday life as a wife, mother and corporate insurance manager, Santana Haggy heard a friend comment about joining a local volunteer fire department. "I laughed it off," Haggy said. But months later she found herself faced with sleepless nights, imagining herself doing it. "All of a sudden, it was like, 'What does that look like? How do you run a career and volunteer at the same time, and train and all that stuff?'" Haggy said. Soon, Haggy was volunteering for the...
The record snowfall winter of 2022-23 continued to reverberate at Carlton city council on March 13, when the council voted to use Donald Holm Construction, of Duluth, to repair Four Seasons Sports Complex. The city-owned arena suffered exterior damage from the ice and snow in the winter of 2022-23. The damage remains obvious to passersby, as the arena side facing Highway 210 features a long crumpled strip of steel siding. Ice and snow buildup came off the roof, and when it hit the ground it banged into the building and caved in lower parts of...
Call them hiccups or hurdles, the consolidation efforts between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts were bound to encounter them. But so soon in the process? A third meeting of the shared consolidation committee yielded an impasse on Tuesday, when the Wrenshall contingent pressed contract issues, while the Carlton contingent balked. "If that is where the line is drawn," Carlton board chair Julianne Emerson said, alluding to potential for a deal-breaker, "we can all have a really free...
