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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Cloquet city councilors and mayor Roger Maki approved a smaller budget Tuesday than they expected three months ago. That means the levy increase for property taxes will also be smaller than reflected in recent estimates, with a 2.85-percent levy increase versus 4.53 percent. One local business owner spoke during the Truth in Taxation hearing that preceded the vote. Jim Kuklis, who owns Trails Edge subdivision - consisting of two-family townhomes available for rent by residents over the age of 55...
The shirts said it all: Vetsgiving. Once again, the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 18 of Carlton County organized a massive Thanksgiving campaign here: cooking, serving and delivering a record 950 meals to local residents. It was the seventh year the DAV has taken charge of the community meal, after the College of St. Scholastica consolidated its Thanksgiving efforts into one giant meal in Duluth in 2016, leaving Cloquet with no local community meal. The DAV has seen attendance wax and wane...
Firefighters in the area were busy the past week with a spate of fires surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday. The most serious incident was a garage fire on Wednesday, Nov. 22, at a home in Brevator Township north of Cloquet in St. Louis County. A 64-year-old man suffered serious burns when trying to retrieve items from the burning garage. He was in stable condition by early this week. Deputies and the Cloquet Area Fire District were called to the 3500 block of Nelson Road, just west of...
A Cloquet man who served time for raping and kidnapping an ex-girlfriend is now facing five felony charges for attempted sexual assault of a minor. Tony Allen Gohl, 40, was charged last month in Carlton County Sixth District Court with first- and second-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct with a person under age 14, kidnapping or attempting to confine a person without consent, indecent exposure while restricting a person’s freedom and soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct. He was also charged with misdemeanor fifth-degree a...
Expect lots of shoppers in downtown Cloquet Saturday, as a growing number of businesses are actively participating in Small Business Saturday. In part, that's because the number of businesses across Cloquet is growing, shifting, or under new ownership. But it's also due to a change in attitude among shoppers and business owners, said Holly Hansen, community development director for the city of Cloquet. "People want to support their town," Hansen said. "The last couple of years, people have been...
The group of 16 Wrenshall students quickly separated into small groups outside the Carlton VFW last week, as they hammered and cut the final pieces of the walk-in cooler they'd been building since September. Carter Woodall climbed a ladder to hammer nails into the fascia above, while Tyler Scott held the ladder to make sure his classmate didn't fall. Another group added trim - a job they had to start over - while others took turns drilling, sawing and hammering elsewhere on the tan and sage...
A small pocket of Cloquet homeowners and Diamond Willow Assisted Living residents can rest easier now, knowing the Cloquet City council voted against rezoning nearby property from residential to highway/commercial. Councilors voted 5-1 Tuesday to deny a request by local business owner Ken Maki to change the city’s comprehensive plan as well as rezone residential property in order to allow him to construct a large building — to hold two dump trucks and a shop for his business — on land next to his home. Maki had been running his trucks from his...
The first Lumberjacks diver to go to State since 2005, Esko junior Rilee Durovec took 20th place at the Minnesota State High School League Class A Swimming and Diving meet last week. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls diving coach Nannette "Newt" Snyder said Durovec kept her cool and did well. "But the caliber of diving really escalates when you get to State," said the longtime diving coach, a member of the first girls swim team in 1972. "A lot of metro area kids are diving all year long." According to...
A 21-year-old Mahtowa man is faced with unrelated charges of child pornography and sexual abuse of a child following new charges after his arrest this summer. Ricky Onefeather Tobolaski, 21, of Mahtowa, was arrested June 16 and charged with possession of pornographic work involving a minor under the age of 14, along with possessing pornographic work electronically. Late last month, while in jail on the pornography charges, additional charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct were filed against Tobolaski. According to the criminal...
With 1,284 students this year, Esko schools may be at its highest K-12 enrollment ever, superintendent Aaron Fischer told school board members Monday. "That's a lot of students, more than we projected," Fischer said. "And they all fit into our current class size targets and programming and elective schedules, so we had no more expenditures to bring those in." That's 25 more students than last school year; each one brings more dollars for the school district from the state, which funds schools...
Toward the middle of a long swim season, Lumberjacks diving coach Nannette "Newt" Snyder had a talk with her divers. "'Where do you want to be, in the middle of the pack? Or do you want to be champions?'" she asked them. "'Because I can help you be a champion if you really want to.'" After that challenge, she saw a change in diver Rilee Durovec. "It's from then on that she kind of buckled down and just started getting more and more consistent," Snyder said. "Then we started increasing the...
Get ready for a horrifying, hilarious and toe-tapping treat, theatergoers, "Little Shop of Horrors" will be presented by Cloquet High School students next week. The horror comedy rock musical tells the tale of Seymour, a meek nerdy floral assistant who finds success and romance by nurturing a plant that thrives only on human blood and flesh. As the audience grooves to the music, the plant grows larger and larger and Seymour more anemic. Then people start disappearing. In his second year at the...
The countdown to Santa’s Home for the Holidays has started, with the annual celebration set for the first weekend in December. Events actually kick off the evening of Nov. 30, with Storytime with Santa at the Cloquet Public Library, and with a free chili feed sponsored by the Cloquet and Fond du Lac police departments. On Dec. 1, enjoy a spaghetti dinner, crafts and photos with Santa at Queen of Peace. Saturday, Dec. 2, is the biggest, busiest day. Events include breakfast, lunch and a huge c...
Jana Peterson [email protected] A Cloquet man convicted of murdering his pregnant girlfriend and her toddler is appealing that conviction to the Minnesota Supreme Court, on the grounds of prosecutorial misconduct, claiming the prosecutor created a scenario in her closing arguments that wasn’t supported by the facts of the case. Sheldon Thompson was found guilty by a Carlton County jury of eight counts of murder in June 2022, after five days of testimony. Five of the eight counts were first-d...
Thousands of cross country fans descended upon University of Minnesota Les Bolstad Golf Course on Saturday, Nov. 4 for the annual Minnesota State High School League's boys and girls cross country state meet. The meet was a homecoming of sorts, as the cross country state meet was previously held at Les Bolstad 1964-90. The meet was then held at St. Olaf College in Northfield from 1991 through last season. Mounds Park Academy junior Eddie Snider had to hold off hard-charging Will Ahrens, from...
A local business owner, his neighbors and the city of Cloquet have at least two more weeks to try to find a solution that would “make more people happy.” Cloquet City councilors voted Tuesday to table a request from business owner Ken Maki to give Maki time to explore other options. The request came because Maki would like to construct an office/shop for his business, on land near his home south of North Road and Sunnyside Lane. In order to do that, he’s asking the city to change its comprehensive plan for that property from moder...
Former Cloquet mayor Bruce Ahlgren died Friday, Oct. 27, in the hometown he loved and affected in so many ways. Ahlgren's wife, Marla, said he had been waiting to have heart surgery for five weeks, but collapsed and died at home. Their daughter, Angie, honored her "sweet, loving, gregarious father" on Facebook later that day. Whether it was leading the city as its longest serving mayor, running the court system or the myriad other ways he got involved in public service, Ahlgren was charming, and...
Cloquet City councilors will likely vote on a business owner’s request to change zoning and land use at Tuesday’s meeting. Ken Maki would like to construct an office/shop for his business, on land near his home south of North Road and Sunnyside Lane. In order to do that, he’s asking the city to change the Comprehensive Plan for that property from moderate- to high-density residential, and then rezone the property from single family residential to regional commercial. The land in question is surrounded by mixed properties, with some singl...
The one thing Esko head coach Sharon Lahti didn't want was a state soccer game decided by penalty kicks. But that's what she got at the Class A quarterfinal game against St. Paul Academy on Oct. 26. The game ended in heartbreak with Esko losing, 2-1, at Irondale High School in New Brighton. "They're the hardest way to have a game end, and it happened to both the CEC boys and us," she said. "The kids gave it their all, but it wasn't in the cards for any of the northern teams." Like the Cloquet-Es...
Jack Riley had the moment he'd been waiting for last week, winning the Section 7A cross country meet Thursday, Oct. 26, and setting a personal record in the process. "It felt pretty good," the Wrenshall senior said in a phone interview Monday. "I've kind of been looking forward to that kind of thing since pretty early in my career, hoping to get there. It was pretty special." It was also redemption after a rough season last year. He made it to State then - this year makes three in a row - but...
Students who are not current on their vaccinations could be asked to stay home soon, Cloquet school superintendent Michael Cary said. State law requires that students be immunized, or that families who conscientiously object do that formally, he explained to school board members during Monday's meeting. "We're getting really close. [We're] at the point where principals are going to be contacting the last remaining families," Cary said, noting that there was a "sizable list" of students who are...
The Lumberjacks boys soccer season ended in a shootout Wednesday, in a Class AA quarterfinal game against St. Cloud Tech High School that remained tied 1-1 through two overtime periods and ended 2-1 as the Tigers missed only one penalty shot to win. It was a hard-fought game and one Cloquet-Esko-Carlton led for 75 minutes, 1-0, after senior Joe Bailey scored on a penalty kick in the 24th minute. The goalkeeper dove left and Bailey went right to score, after refs called a handball on a St. Cloud...
Saturday was the first time Isabelle and Josh Hamsmith participated in the Suicide Awareness Memorial Walk, but it won't be the last, said Isabelle. She and her father carried a sign to remember her mother, Autumn Rae Beck, who died by suicide in 2017. "I think just making the sign last night was kind of fun," said Josh. "It helped." They were with people who understood Saturday, because most of the nearly 200 attendees have been touched by suicide. They remembered friends, coworkers, children,...
Esko's Northridge Park could be getting a makeover next year, but township officials are looking for some input before making any large-scale changes. The 7-acre park along Canosia Road sits next to the Midway River. A wander through the park reveals wide-open green space and lots of trees with two play areas, park benches and a picnic area, and the pavilion, an indoor area with picnic tables and a kitchenette area. A small stage along the river is posted with an orange "danger" sign, warning...
The recent announcement that Community Memorial Hospital will close its Sunnyside Health Care Center came as a shock. The longtime nursing home serves some of our most vulnerable elders, and got high marks for doing so in a loving and compassionate manner. Being attached to the hospital was a plus — not only did it make emergency care more accessible, services such as occupational and physical therapy were only an elevator ride away. And ice cream at the Warming House was just down the hill. T...
