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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The University of Minnesota made public this week plans to give the 3,400-acre Cloquet Forestry Center to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The transfer of land was included in Thursday's University of Minnesota Board of Regents finance committee meeting docket, a meeting held in Minneapolis after this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press. It appears to be an informational notice only - with no action required by board members - but the docket notes the "real estate...
The 21st annual Blue Jean Ball brought lots of fun and lots of dollars for educational opportunities Saturday, as close to 400 people attended the fundraiser for the Cloquet Educational Foundation. An event that involves lots of games, dinner and both a silent auction and a live auction, the Blue Jean Ball is the largest fundraiser for CEF, said director Jody Acers. They raised an estimated $42,000 this year. That's money to fund grants submitted by school district staff for educational...
After 21 years without a section win, the Esko High School One Act play is now returning to the State One Act Play Festival Friday, Feb. 10, for the second year in a row. After placing second at subsections on Jan. 28, Esko took first place at the Section 7A competition on Feb. 4. The 19-student cast and crew performed "The Inexplicable Chaos Factor of Mia Gregory" by Emily Hageman. The play tells the story of Liv, a brilliant teenage mathematician, who struggles to understand the one person...
The Lumberjacks girls alpine team missed a trip to State by one place Tuesday, taking third place at the Section 7 meet at Giants Ridge. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton head coach Ryan Zimny said one skier fell on one of two runs. Although she walked back up and completed the course, it is impossible to make up for that missed time. "The fact that we had a fall and were still third out of 19 teams, that says a lot," Zimny said. Although the team won't be competing in Biwabik next Tuesday, two individual...
Over a week's time, the Lumberjacks Nordic ski team had its share of triumphs and losses, with temperature highs and lows to match. Fighting minus-5-degree temperatures at the Lake Superior Conference championship in Duluth on Thursday, Feb. 2, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys team won the LSC conference championship. On the girls side, Charlotte Ripp and Jazlyn Gunderson made all-conference Thursday, placing fourth and 10th, respectively. CEC head coach Tim Stark said last week's conference...
Cloquet Area Fire District board members started the new year by taking care of official business: selecting the Pine Knot News as the district’s official newspaper, and Frank Yetka as its official attorney. The board also elected officers for 2023. Leadership of the CAFD board will remain the same, with Brevator Township representative Linda Way serving as board chair, Fond du Lac Band rep Bruce Blacketter serving as vice chair and Scanlon rep Marshall Johnson serving as treasurer. Fire chief Jesse Buhs thanked the board members for their s...
Residents of Cloquet’s Aspen Arms apartments were alarmed last week when a large number of law enforcement officials parked in front of and behind the building, entering and remaining inside for a significant period of time, more than one resident told the Pine Knot News. In the end, police arrested James Thomas Tuttle on suspicion of possessing and disseminating child pornography. The 31-year-old was living with his mother in the 74-unit public housing building run by the Cloquet/Carlton Housing & Redevelopment Agency. According to the c...
Mother to three kids under age 6, Cloquet's Billie Thompson had a unique routine among mushers when she and her dogs reached the first checkpoint during this year's mid-distance Beargrease 120. "I took care of the dogs first, getting them fed and bedded. Then my next priority was to nurse him," she said of baby Camden, now five months old. Having a strong support team - mom and dad, Betsy and Charlin Diver, and husband, Cameron - helps. So does a great kennel partner/mentor in Rock Creek's Richa...
After January 27, it will be official: the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team will move to Class A hockey starting next season for at least two years, a move that 90 percent of parents in the hockey program supported when polled by the school district earlier this year. "Cloquet has played up since the state went to a two-class system, and even when there was a Tier 1 and Tier 2 system in the early '90s," Cloquet High School activities director Paul Riess said after Monday's Cloquet School...
It snowed the morning my dad died in Indiana earlier this month, big white flakes that weren't in the forecast, as if Mother Nature wanted to honor my Minnesota-born-and -raised father one last time. I will miss him dearly, but I take comfort in the fact that Lloyd "Pete" Peterson packed plenty of living into his 87 years of life. We grew up hearing about pond hockey games with magazines for shin pads, and Dad's secret way of turning on the lights at the Worthington city rink so he could continu...
During this month's 2023 FISU World University Games in Lake Placid, New York, Nordic combined competitor Aidan Ripp wore his Cloquet Ski Club hat for every competition. The Cloquet grad was one of six Americans competing in the Nordic combined event, which combines ski jumping and Nordic (or cross country) skiing. He estimated there were more than 200 Americans at the University Games, competing in a wide variety of winter sports, including downhill and cross country skiing, biathlon, curling,...
After close to five months without representation, Cloquet's Ward 3 voters have a new city councilor. Iris Keller was selected Tuesday by unanimous council vote, following interviews with her and fellow candidate Pete Erickson. Both candidates ran write-in campaigns this fall, after previous Ward 3 councilor Chris Swanson moved outside of his ward last summer. The move came after the election filing period, however, so Swanson's name could not be removed from the ballot. Despite news stories,...
Dwight Cadwell first realized something wasn't right during the annual Safe and Sober program at WKLK radio 11 years ago. The longtime sports broadcaster and other guests had been imbibing various alcoholic beverages for over an hour and being breathalyzed by local law enforcement to demonstrate how their blood alcohol content, and therefore their ability to drive, was being affected. Except for Cadwell, it wasn't happening. "By the end of the show, my blood alcohol content had never risen beyon...
With nearly 50 inches of snow recorded so far this winter, it's no surprise Cloquet residents feel like the streets are not up to their usual standards. Waits have been longer, and the piles of snow at corners and in parking lots (and everywhere else) are much higher. While people know there's been a lot of snow, many are still frustrated. Jeremy Johnson, who lives on the 300 block of 21st Street in Cloquet, told the Cloquet City Council Tuesday that he and his neighbors feel like second-class...
A Cloquet man accused of manslaughter resulting from a fight pleaded guilty Friday in Sixth District Court in Carlton. Joel Jay Ammesmaki, 59, was charged with first-degree manslaughter in September 2021 for “causing the death of another while committing assault in the fifth degree with such force and violence” that death or great harm was “reasonably foreseeable.” It was not alleged that he intended to murder his victim, just that he punched him so hard that death was a possible outcome. Under the terms of a plea agreement last week, the cha...
Twelve years ago, the death of a bat during a logging operation in Carlton County would not have caused much of a stir. Today - after white-nose syndrome has decimated bat populations here by as much as 90 percent - the death of one bat could impact the health of the entire population. "Prior to white-nose, if a bat was injured, it was one of thousands. It didn't make a big dent in the population," said Carlton County land commissioner Greg Bernu. "We want to make sure we don't accidently take...
Unlike the U.S. House of Representatives, it took only three votes and less than an hour Monday for the Cloquet school board to elect its new leader. Nate Sandman and Gary Huard were both nominated for the spot previously occupied by Ted Lammi, who was not reelected to the school board in November. The first two votes were a tie, with Melissa Juntunen, Huard and Sarah Plante Buhs voting for Huard, while Dave Battaglia, Sandman and Ken Scarbrough voted for Sandman. With Sandman already filling the role of acting board chair, the board then moved...
Jumpers from as far away as Chicago and Ishpeming, Michigan traveled to northern Minnesota last week for Central Division meets in Cloquet and Coleraine. The Cloquet Ski Club hosted its invitational on Friday, Dec. 30, at Pine Valley. The Cloquet ski jumps - built in the 1960s from steel donated by the railroads - join Coleraine as the only jumps left in Greater Minnesota. More than 50 jumpers competed in this year's meet. "We handed out 70 bibs, but some kids did more than one jump," explained...
Freshly fallen snow makes for pretty pictures but not the best racing conditions, skiers discovered at the Lumberjacks home ski meet Tuesday. Close to 300 skiers descended upon Cloquet's Pine Valley to race in the annual "Under the Lights" Lumberjacks ski meet, the only evening meet in the conference and usually a popular event for spectators. This year, winter weather hit the course and the snowfall occasionally made it difficult to see, "especially on the downhills," said Cloquet-Esko-Carlton...
The dining hall and kitchen at Cloquet's Zion Lutheran Church were filled with the Christmas spirit Sunday, as volunteers and community members came together to celebrate. Joanne Lehrke was dressed for the occasion, wearing an elf hat to top off her red and green Christmas sweater as she enjoyed some antipasti with Mae Line and Lillian Abrahamson, in advance of the ham dinner. Abrahamson couldn't believe how much food was on offer. "This is the Italian way," said Rosa Johnson, whose husband,...
What a difference a year makes. Last December, nearly two dozen upset Thomson Township residents attended the Cloquet Area Fire District truth-in-taxation hearing, many of them to address the board about a more than 300-percent increase in their proposed ambulance taxes. This month’s fire district truth-in-taxation hearing saw only four audience members, with only one — former CAFD board member Eric Rish — from Thomson Township. While Rish used the Dec. 8 meeting to ask several questions about how other communities supplement coverage of ambul...
Laura Mills Anderson was ordained Dec. 17, surrounded by friends, family and an extended church community who came together at Cloquet's Zion Lutheran Church to celebrate with joyful ceremony the next step in her journey. Zion was the church home to her and her parents Mike and Kathy Mills, and siblings Rachel and Dayle, while she was growing up, and later when she was the youth director there for several years before going to seminary. Asked when she knew she wanted to be something in the...
Oddly enough, the Lumberjacks' first Nordic ski meet was canceled because of too much snow, not too little, the usual reason early in the season. Despite that hiccup, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton teams competed in two meets entering the Christmas break, and are looking forward to hosting the third meet Tuesday, Jan. 3 at Pine Valley. "That one is unique because it takes place in the dark, since our entire trail is lighted," said head coach Tim Stark. "Parents don't have to take off work, so there te...
Cloquet Community Education and Recreation director Erin Bates told city councilors Tuesday that the city’s Beach at Pinehurst hit its largest deficit this summer, with revenues at $50,619 and expenses at $84,957, a difference of more than $34,000. Her presentation was informational only, intended to let the councilors know what’s happening. Graphs and charts going back more than 10 years showed the city swimming pond making money or close to breaking even from 2009 through 2018. In recent years, the gap between revenue and spending has grown....
Enjoy a free Christmas dinner Sunday, with good food, good company and a likely visit from the jolly old elf himself. Everyone is invited to enjoy a free sit-down or pickup meal from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Zion Lutheran Church in Cloquet on Christmas Day, courtesy of the Carlton County Disabled American Veterans. The only deliveries will be to Larson Commons and Aspen Arms, which have their own signup sheets. This year’s meal is being held in memory of Dave Johnson, who passed away in January. The well-known Cloquet businessman and former city c...
