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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A Cloquet man pleaded guilty to four felony counts of disseminating pornographic work of a minor under the age of 14 on Wednesday in Sixth District Carlton County Court. James Thomas Tuttle, 31, agreed to the plea deal in exchange for a sentence of 12 years, 9 months in prison and no federal charges. Carlton County Attorney Lauri Ketola also agreed to drop two other dissemination charges, plus one charge of possession of pornographic work of a minor under 14. According to the criminal complaint, the Cloquet Police Department was tipped off...
As residents continue to clean up trees damaged by heavy winter snow, Cloquet city councilors voted Tuesday to help its citizens dispose of that debris. Starting May 30, local contractor 3D Construction will drive every street within city limits to pick up brush, tree branches and tree trunks (in pieces no longer than 5 feet) from the roadside. “The contractor won’t skip your house because you have a 6-foot tree, but we want to be able to load it into a truck without having someone working out...
The Cloquet Area Fire District brought its ladder truck to the Bergquist Imports complex again Monday, but there was no fire. This time investigators were taking aerial photos of the roof of the large warehouse that burned in February, said CAFD lead investigator Jason Maki. By the next day, much of the roof was gone, as a number of investigators from CAFD, the state fire marshal's office and more than one insurance company worked their way through the burned-out remains of the warehouse. The...
A Cloquet man was charged last week with seven counts of criminal sexual conduct for allegedly assaulting a juvenile. Bradley Loren Owens, 40, was charged and appeared for a remote hearing in Sixth District Carlton County Court on May 11. He faces one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct (sexual penetration), five counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct (contact) with a juvenile under the age of 14, plus one count of soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct. According to the criminal complaint, the Cloquet Police...
An estimated 1,500 people showed up for the Sjodin family Saturday, packing the Four Seasons Sports Complex and Event Center in Carlton to demonstrate their support for 18-year-old Janae Sjodin, badly hurt in a car crash six weeks ago. The parking lot outside was packed. Cars overflowed onto Chestnut Street for blocks in either direction. More and more people streamed into the arena throughout the afternoon, dropping money in the donation jar by the entrance and buying raffle tickets inside....
When Bill Stone started Venture North Aviation at the Cloquet Airport in 2009, it was just Stone and one airplane in a one-room office at the airport. As of last week, Stone announced Venture North now boasts nine aircraft and 15 employees and taught accelerated flight courses to more than 200 customers last year. This year they expect more than 360 customers. Stone made the announcement at an open house event held to celebrate the grand opening of a multi use hangar that houses airplanes as...
Staff at the Cloquet schools won’t have to pay to attend ballgames and other athletic events next year, a move district officials hope will make it easier for teachers and staff who carry a district photo ID to attend and show support. Cloquet school board members debated the loss of funds from admission fees and passes versus the benefits and elected to at least try the new policy for a year. The district’s family engagement office and activities director Paul Riess recommended the move. “It’s good for the kids,” Riess told the board. “I...
The Cloquet Middle School gymnasium was transformed into a powwow grounds Saturday for the seventh annual Ziigwan (Spring) Powwow. "It's a way we can honor our students, our program and our school," said Cloquet American Indian Education program director Teresa Angell. "And we invite the whole community." Angell counted 300 people at the feast, plus others who came and went during the daylong event. It was a happy occasion, the first school powwow after a three-year hiatus because of Covid-19....
Tired of waiting for summer blooms? Step into The Green House in Carlton, and prepare for a visual feast that starts with the 5,000 hanging plants and spreads out in waist-high rows in nearly every direction. Eye-popping flowers in every color imaginable are offset by the greens of herbs, houseplants, ivy and other growing things. "We get a lot of people popping in just to get a breath of spring," said Heather Bergherr. "Everyone is coming in, looking around, getting excited. They can't wait...
The snow may have finally melted, exposing the effects of December’s devastating storms. The heavy snow left some young trees bowing like monks while older trees fell or dropped limbs that were overwhelmed by the weight of the wet snow. The freeze that followed froze many in the same position much of the winter. Strong winds this spring are finishing the damage in some cases; people armed with saws and clippers are doing the rest. In an effort to help citizens who are now cleaning up the m...
The Cloquet High School spring play, "Noises Off" is a play within a play, a comedy that gives the audience an inside look at a dysfunctional cast during three different performances, a final dress rehearsal, during a matinee performance and in the tour's final stop, from more than one angle. The New York Times called the play "spectacularly funny" and a "festival of delirium." Sardines feature prominently in this farce written by Michael Frayn, where lines are forgotten, love triangles unravel...
Cloquet High School senior Hannah Sandman was still a youngster when she spotted kids doing tricks at the terrain park at Spirit Mountain. Still relatively new to snowboarding, she instantly wanted to join those kids as they flung themselves off jumps and down rails, doing stunts that combine the twists and turns of a gymnast with downhill daring. Her younger sister, Addison, followed in her footsteps, but with skis rather than the snowboard. Both sisters and another Cloquet student and...
'God always takes the good ones first' Hundreds of people packed the National Guard Armory in Cloquet Tuesday morning to pay their respects to a Cloquet dad, husband, father and coach who died earlier this month. Master Sgt. Noah Feehan, 39, died of glioblastoma, a brain cancer likely caused by exposure to toxins emitted by burn pits and jet fuel while serving in the Air National Guard as an avionics technician for 18 years. Before the service started, the line of folks waiting to get in snaked...
Unique unit highlighted at hospital U.S. Senator Tina Smith visited Community Memorial Hospital earlier this month and delivered a baby. Neither the mother nor the baby were real - both are part of the hospital's birth simulation training program, a high-tech lifelike experience that allows doctors, nurses, students and even senators to practice a wide range of live birth scenarios, from a cesarean section to breech birth to postpartum hemorrhaging. "At 3 a.m. it's them and the nurses,"...
Carlton County's emergency management director isn't yet willing to concede the county dodged a bullet with the spring flooding this year. He's worried about what Mother Nature could bring next. "I'm always worried about the weather," Marlyn Halvorson said, chuckling. "Snow, cold weather, rain, all those things play into it." Water levels in the St. Louis River rose dramatically late last week, going from 10 feet in Scanlon at 4 p.m. Thursday to more than 13 feet only 24 hours later, thanks to...
Carlton County voters likely remember passing a local-option sales tax last November to pay for construction of a new jail and courts facility in Carlton. The half-cent addition onto the sales tax was passed overwhelmingly, garnering 89 percent of the vote. With collections starting this month, the sales tax will collect $60 million over 30 years - specifically to pay for the new justice center. Part of the appeal of the sales tax was billed as spreading the cost of the justice center onto visit...
City engineers wanted to talk about flooding Tuesday, but not the kind of flooding that's been plaguing northern Minnesota since the snow started melting last week. "This isn't related to the river itself ... this is more storm sewer and drainage throughout the city," said assistant city engineer John Anderson, describing ongoing steps toward developing a Cloquet stormwater resiliency plan. It's been 40 years since the city last completed a stormwater plan, and with climate change a factor that...
The fire station in Scanlon will be eliminated as part of a new long-term plan for the Cloquet Area Fire District. Fire District chief Jesse Buhs is aiming for a financially leaner fire district in the coming years. He and other staff spent the past year coming up with a plan to make the district more financially sustainable, build reserves and ultimately save taxpayer dollars, Buhs said. Board members approved the changes unanimously Wednesday at their monthly meeting, with CAFD chairwoman...
There were a lot of smiling people at the dentist in Carlton last week, as the Lake Superior Community Health Center (LSCHC) celebrated the completion of its dental practice expansion, along with a new chiropractic center. With the expansion, the nonprofit health care center will now be able to offer double the services for dental patients. The difference between LSCHS and most other dental practices in the area is the Carlton clinic serves primarily a low-income population. "Anybody is welcome...
With the possible exception of 22-month-old Callahan Broneak, the Broneak and Kalash cousins were thrilled with their celebrity ice skate Saturday in Cloquet. "They were excited when we told them they would get to skate with the Easter Bunny. We still believe," said April Kalash, telling how her middle son, 6-year-old Luke, even brought a dyed Easter egg to Northwoods Credit Union Arena as a gift for the Easter Bunny. His cousin, Callahan, on the other hand, gave the tall white bunny a hard star...
Firefighters responded to a home on one of Cloquet's shortest streets after a resident smelled smoke around 9 p.m. Saturday, April 8. The response was quick and damage was minimal, thanks to the early notification by the resident, said Cloquet Area Fire District battalion chief Jason Maki. Police arrived first at the home on 6 ½ Street and doused the flames with a fire extinguisher. Cloquet Area Fire District firefighters extinguished the fire a second time when it flared back up. Due to...
A barn fire in rural Carlton County left numerous miniature goats dead and two farmers suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. Jody and Fast Eddie Westerberg of King Creek Hobby Farm, located on M T Nelson Road between Mahtowa and Barnum, don't know what started the fire. By the time they got to the barn, it was burning too fiercely to enter. They were able to save seven of their miniature silky fainting goats in a pen next to the barn. A total of 16 goats and two rabbits died inside the...
When a group of community members formed in 2022 with the goal of bringing a million dollars’ worth of artificial turf to Bromberg Field, they could not have predicted that the Cloquet school board would approve a nearly $5 million project to overhaul the outdoor athletic facilities at the high school a year later. But that’s exactly what happened. Cloquet school board members voted unanimously Monday to approve a $4.99 million project. The plan includes replacing the current grass football and...
Before Russia invaded Ukraine last year, her baby, Stefa, was beginning to talk, said Anastasiia, a Ukrainian woman now living in Carlton. Then the air raid sirens started. Sometimes they would go off for seven hours in a row. "She became numb and stopped talking," Stefa's mom said through translator Galyna Tuttle. On this particular Saturday morning, however, the now 2 ½-year-old was running around upstairs at Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli, taking advantage of the wide-open space. She...
In a way, Katharine Johnson's writing career was sparked by a dislike of washing dishes. The Cloquet author recounts how she was always trying to figure out ways to not do the dishes when she was a little girl. "So when it was my turn one time, I just scooted upstairs and hid from my mother," she said. "I don't know what possessed me, but I said: 'I can't, I'm writing a book.' And lo and behold, she did the dishes for me." She started, but never finished, that particular mystery novel, and...
