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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It was a "build it and they will come" moment ... Minnesota style. The Hockey Day Cloquet headlining Lumberjacks varsity boys and girls hockey games took place Saturday in front of roughly 2,000 people. They packed the metal bleachers (with seating for 1,300) and stood three and four deep at each end of the outdoor hockey arena built especially for the event. Clusters of mostly young men and boys stood on the hillside, respectfully placing hands on hearts as a giant American flag waved in the...
Cloquet city councilor and local funny guy Warren "Bun" Carlson passed away Sunday, Jan. 12, from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a genetic heart disease. In his second term on the council, Carlson was first elected to the Ward 1 seat in November 2018. Well known for his involvement in local hockey programs - as player, coach and radio personality - Carlson easily won reelection in 2022. Carlson grew up playing hockey in Cloquet, graduating from Cloquet Senior High in 1974. He served as senior clas...
A good-sized crowd turned out for Monday's open house highlighting Esko high school's new flexible learning space for juniors and seniors, a place students can gather to study for their various College in the Schools classes. Guests at the open house got a bonus on Monday: free samples of coffee from the new student-run Kahvia Coffee shop opening soon inside the learning center. Kahvia means coffee in Finnish, and is a little more straightforward than Esko's "sisu" motto (which has no direct tra...
Hockey Day Cloquet encapsulated more than hockey. There were food trucks, fire pits, hills to slide down, friends to see and a true sense of community, no matter whom you were cheering for. The result of years of talk, months of planning and weeks of building the arena, Hockey Day Cloquet organizer Nate Knutson and his band of volunteer hockey parents and others thought of just about everything. Giant heat-duct hoses snaked from Frost Fighter heaters to team boxes and the press boxes above, keep...
Two curious canine buddies watch the world go by their Sixth Street home on Hockey Day Cloquet Saturday....
Longtime Cloquet school board member Nate Sandman was appointed to fill the vacant seat on the school board Monday. The vacancy was created by the election of former school board member Sarah Plante Buhs to the Carlton County Board of Commissioners District 1, with two years left in her school board term. Sandman - who hadn't filed to run again after eight years on the board, the past two as board chairman - was one of six people who applied. Current board members Hawk Huard, Dave Battaglia and...
Three experienced Cloquet city councilors were sworn into office Tuesday. Kerry Kolodge, Lyz Jaakola and Iris Keller all ran unopposed in the November election, and rejoined a council of veteran elected officials. The group had plenty of suggestions for State Representative Jeff Dotseth, R-Kettle River, when he shared his priorities and asked for input from the council for the upcoming legislative session. Ward 2 councilor Sheila Lamb responded with several concerns. "I'll throw some at you," sh...
Thomson Township welcomed two brand-new board members Thursday, Jan. 2, swearing in Nathan Barta and Logan Saline. Elections were held for town board offices, with Tony Compo elected board chair and Ruth Janke as vice chair. The first meeting of the new year was largely dedicated to organizational tasks, once the new board members were seated. The two new supervisors quickly settled in, volunteering for a number of committee and liaison positions. The youngest member of the board at age 21,...
What was supposed to be a pretrial hearing Tuesday turned into a plea hearing immediately followed by a sentencing at the Carlton County Justice Center. Loren Roy Van Vickle, 37, of Cloquet, pleaded guilty to one charge of using minors “in sexual performance/pornographic work” in court Tuesday. In accordance with the terms of the plea agreement, Sixth District Judge Rebekka Stumme dismissed seven other counts relating to sexual performance work/porn or soliciting a child through electronic communication to engage in sexual conduct. Per the agr...
Come next week, Veterans Park in Cloquet will be transformed into an elite hockey facility - outdoors, the way the hockey gods intended it - with seating for 1,300. Hockey Day Cloquet promises to be unlike anything seen before in the Wood City. The homegrown hockey extravaganza will span eight days, from Jan. 8-15, peaking with the Lumberjacks varsity boys and girls hockey games on Saturday, Jan. 11. The timing couldn't be better: the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team is currently ranked...
It's a Friday morning not long before Christmas break, and several groups of Esko high school students are sitting - chatting, studying and looking at their phones or tablets - in a new "flexible learning space" built just for them in the center of school. Tables sit along the wall and in nooks in a large open carpeted area, with talking, drinks and snacks allowed. The open space is surrounded by five glassed-in conference rooms for small-group work and a coffee shop is opening soon. Esko...
Thomson Township supervisors bid a fond farewell to board members Bill Gerard and Dave Sunnarborg, who finished their terms in office at the final meeting of the year on Dec. 19. Gerard wrapped up 21 years on the board, while Sunnarborg finished up a two-year appointment after previously serving for 19 years starting in the early ‘90s. Gerard said he got his 600th 6-foot-tall tree planted in the township at the end of the summer. Board chairwoman Ruth Janke presented both men with certificates of service. She praised Sunnarborg as “the go-to pe...
During Cloquet's taxation and budget hearing on Dec. 3, frustrated resident Shannon Kesner asked city councilors to think outside the box rather than raising taxes, sharing that her property taxes have gone up over $1,200 a year since she purchased her home in 2020. "I know there's all kinds of funding sources out there," she said. "I implore you and others to take a look at all the different opportunities and see if something can help this." There's good news for Kesner and other residents:...
Nearly 50 Thomson Township residents crowded into the town hall Thursday, Dec. 5, worried the board of supervisors was going to address the long-delayed private roads and shared driveway resolutions. In the end, board chairwoman Ruth Janke addressed the issue only once — at the start of the meeting — and that was to tell residents they were misled by a social media post. The controversial resolutions were not on the agenda and wouldn’t be discussed. An update to the township’s road policy and engineering guidelines that was on the agenda under...
Mary Beth Peter plays Christmas carols and other holiday tunes Saturday on a 1910 upright grand Hamilton piano recently donated to the Carlton County Historical Society. One of the piano’s original owners, Joanne Pearson, was in the crowd Saturday. Pearson gave it to former Cloquet resident Mark Hanratty, who brought it back to Cloquet from Oklahoma on a trailer earlier this year after taking it with him on moves around the country. “It’s extremely heavy so we’re grateful to two men in a truck...
Despite being sympathetic to citizens who can’t afford higher taxes, Cloquet city councilors unanimously passed an 11.23-percent property tax levy increase Tuesday, an increase of nearly $398,000 over last year’s levy. “This is the cost for the level of service that we have right now,” said city administrator Tim Peterson. “If we want to decrease the level of service, that will lower the costs that we have presented in front of you, but this is what it costs to have what we have right now.” Peterson focused much of his explanations Tuesday on...
Sixth District Court judge Rebekka Stumme called it the most “remarkable” victim impact statement she’d ever heard, after Brandon Westby asked the judge to be lenient. Westby’s father, Justin David McNeil, died after being hit by 21-year-old driver Brent James Keranen on March 21. “As a Christian, I reflect on the many examples of forgiveness found in the Bible,” said Brandon Westby. “My father was a devoted Christian. With that in mind, I forgive the young man [sitting] here.” Stumme listened to Westby — and also spent weeks pondering her deci...
A rural Carlton County man who posted a sexual image of a minor online was sentenced to prison for more than 17 years for one count of production and attempted production of child pornography. The sentence was announced in U.S. District Court last month. Cord Cameron Schipman, 34, of Blackhoof Township in Carlton County, pleaded guilty in June and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz on Nov. 21 to 210 months at the federal prison in Sandstone, requested by the defendant so he could be closer to family. Schipman was...
'Tis the season ... for making and serving massive meals, if you're a member of the Carlton County Disabled American Veterans or one of their faithful volunteers. Last week's annual DAV Thanksgiving dinner and deliveries saw close to 1,000 meals served, starting at 3:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 28 when the first turkeys went in the oven at two locations. Head "Vetsgiving" organizer Raffy Johnson estimated they served 350 sit-down meals plus another 325 takeout meals at Zion Lutheran Church on...
With wax in hand, Greg White is ready to take his swirling moustache to the next level, aiming to win the title of "saltiest 'stache" in a national competition. The Cloquet Area Fire District firefighter/EMT competed in his first moustache competition last year, and became a brand ambassador for 'Stache Salt - which sells moustache and beard products and sponsors the competition he is aiming to win. White shared a secret revealed only after he decided to grow a moustache during the pandemic....
School Board members voted Monday to appoint a new board member rather than holding a special election when Sarah Plante-Buhs steps down on Jan. 3. The replacement board member would be appointed on Jan. 6, but wouldn't take their seat until the first board meeting in February. Plante-Buhs submitted her letter of resignation halfway through her term, after she was elected to serve as District 1 Carlton County Commissioner in November. Whoever replaces her will serve through Jan. 1, 2027. Board...
Updating infrastructure can be costly. That's a lesson Thomson Township officials learned earlier this month when they got bids ranging from $303,000 to over $440,000 for a Randall Avenue sewer extension project. The bids were close to double what the township expected. After delaying the decision earlier this month to explore the idea of staff doing the work instead, Thomson Township supervisors took the plunge at their meeting Nov. 21, accepting the low bid. "Three hundred thousand is a lot...
New grant money will help Volunteer Services of Carlton County continue and hopefully grow many of the services it already provides. The local non-profit will receive $494,000 over two years from the state's Live Well at Home grants, plus a $250,000 dementia grant from the Minnesota Board on Aging ... but more volunteers are also needed. Volunteer Services of Carlton County, Inc. (VSCCI) provides and coordinates an array of services, using volunteers and resources to meet the needs of local...
Rip Olson, 7, and his dad, Isaac Olson, make a snowman Tuesday morning outside their home on Avenue C in Cloquet. The snow was nice and sticky for the first snow of the year. It will be around for a while, as the region had its first days this week with highs under 32 degrees to usher in the holiday season....
This year's Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District Outstanding Conservationist award was not presented to a person, rather the award went to an entire department. The public works department for the city of Cloquet was recognized by the Carlton SWCD on Nov. 12 for going "above and beyond" in implementing numerous conservation projects. Those projects included working with the SWCD to manage more than 10 acres of buckthorn and other invasive species on city property with the help of the...
