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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Freiberg family members tie ribbons on a banner to be carried at the front of the annual Suicide Awareness Memorial Walk, which happened in a light rain Oct. 12 in Carlton. Pictured from left are Tom, Jaxon, age 8, Jamie, and Jace, age 9, along with niece Jordyn Belden. Jamie said she survived a past attempt and participated in her first walk last year. "I put it on the calendar for this year and we came," she said. "I wanted to bring my kids. It's a good thing." People walk in memory of loved...
Work is ongoing at the Hotel Solem building downtown Cloquet as part of an extensive renovation that will remake the historic hotel — and former Mexico Lindo restaurant — into market rate apartments over the next 12-18 months. A crane was used earlier this month to replace roofing, while general demolition of the interior is continuing. Asbestos abatement is completed both inside and outside, according to developers C&C Holdings of Cloquet. Want more history on this project? Search for “Ho...
On a visit to the Cloquet Public Library Saturday, Oct. 19, Emma and Bruce Corrie stand with "The Circles of Belonging" canvas, an artwork which was colored or messages drawn by hundreds of people over the 12 days of Minnesota State Fair. "The richness of our human experience from all walks of life, of our diverse faith traditions, of our home towns or countries of origin, of our friendships and insights from life - all of them made this canvas a kaleidoscope with beautiful views of the human...
Armory Road will be smoother, safer and a little less steep at the end after a $1.8 million reconstruction project is mostly complete in 2026. For now, that project exists only on paper, but assistant city engineer John Anderson said construction is expected to start next spring during a public hearing at Tuesday's Cloquet City Council meeting. It's a well-used road, leading from Minnesota Highway 33 to the Cloquet Armory, McDonald's Restaurant and entrances to the Lumberjack Mall businesses...
Cloquet School Board members voted Monday against appointing a temporary replacement for Ken Scarbrough, who moved with his wife to North Dakota with less than three months left of his school board term. Superintendent Michael Cary said there was a former board member willing to serve the remainder of the term. He also explained there is a 30-day wait period for public comment, so even if the board had appointed a temporary member on Monday, they couldn’t be seated until Nov. 13, after the board’s first meeting that month. “So you would have...
When we started the Pine Knot News six years ago, people in the newspaper industry noticed. Admittedly, it was mostly shock — Who was crazy enough to start a brand-new paper? — mixed in with a flicker of hope. It all started after my previous employer, the Pine Journal, closed its office here and moved operations to Duluth. A group of us felt strongly that Cloquet and Carlton County needed a solidly local newspaper that actually cared enough to have an office here and a paper producing original...
Cloquet's Pine Valley Park was crawling with mountain bikers last weekend, as nearly 1,000 student athletes competed in the sixth Minnesota Cycling Association race event of the season. Add in their parents, coaches and fans, and the woodland recreation area was in constant motion, with fans hiking into the woods with cowbells or large speakers blaring music under a canopy of yellow, orange and red tents. The announcer's voice could be heard across the park and up to a mile away, as he...
After years of looking for a more economical way to distribute the school paper, Esko school board members approved a move to a digital-only newspaper starting in January. That means community members will no longer receive a paper copy of the Esko's Corner paper produced and distributed by Esko Community Education. The move is expected to save the school district thousands in printing and postage costs. Esko isn't the only local school making the move: Wrenshall switched to a digital paper effe...
Local author Katharine Johnson has published a new young-adult fiction book, "Belzi's Blizzard," a story about 12-year-old Belzi, who is unhappy about staying with a grandmother she barely knew in northern Minnesota. Belzi plans to run away until she is stopped by a blizzard and a long-ago mystery about her mom. Johnson is the featured author next week at the Cloquet Public Library starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17....
A new Cloquet/Scanlon housing study aims to build on the success of a similar study 10 years ago. That study led to support for more rental housing: both Carlton Lofts and the White Pine Apartments were created since then. But the need for housing here and across the region continues to grow, with an estimated 431 housing units needed for a range of incomes. At the same time, the blue collar manufacturing jobs that were the bread and butter here are stable, but lower-paid service sector jobs...
A 22-year-old man who hit and killed a pedestrian in Moose Lake in March admitted Wednesday he was driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs when the crash occurred. Brent James Keranen, of Pengilly, Minnesota, pleaded guilty to one count of felony criminal vehicular homicide while under the influence of cannabis/hemp edible products. Under the terms of a plea agreement with the prosecution, three other charges of felony criminal vehicular homicide will be dropped. Sentencing is scheduled for December, and defense attorney David Keegan...
For now, the bright green sashes encircling city ash trees are there to identify them as vulnerable to emerald ash borer - not to mark them for imminent destruction. But destruction is coming, whether by a preemptive strike by a chainsaw or death over time due to the bright green invasive insect. "It means it's an ash tree, that's all," said public works director Caleb Peterson. "What we will end up doing is yet to be determined." Emerald ash borer (EAB) is an insect that attacks and kills ash...
For the second time in less than a year, the Thomson Township board of supervisors approved the hire of a new township clerk/treasurer at its meeting Sept. 19. Beth Elstad will replace Deb Kaumunen, who was hired in March to replace Rhonda Peleski. Peleski retired after doing the job for 30 years. Elstad will earn $35 an hour for the full-time salaried position. Elstad brings a wide range of experience in the nonprofit world to her new job. She's worked in the region since 1996 as a financial...
While the tax levy for the city of Cloquet tax looks like it could grow by 11 percent in December, Cloquet school district levy numbers may actually decrease. District business manager Candace Nelis told board members that right now, the school district tax levy could actually drop 1.3 percent. That could change. “[The state] has been making changes to the levy every single day — sometimes they swing in multiple directions,” Nelis said. “So tonight I’m asking that the approval be at the maximum, so they can continue to make adjustments through...
Despite worries it would create another obstacle to consolidation with Wrenshall, Carlton school board members voted 4-2 Monday to extend business manager Angela Lind’s contract through June 2027. The three-year contract included a pay increase, and a year’s wages and benefits if the two districts consolidate during her contract and Lind is not selected as business manager for the new district. Lind was previously business manager for Wrenshall, which did not renew her contract in June 2023. Wrenshall school board members previously exp...
Tucked behind pine trees off Interstate 35 in Carlton, the Sweetly Kismet Candy Store turned its grounds into a hot air balloon festival Friday and Saturday evenings. It was the third year for the balloon festival, and the third location. Sweetly Kismet co-owner and balloon pilot Jon Parrott said this year's festival maxed out at six balloons Friday, with five on Saturday. Parrott said holding the festival at the candy store property worked well. "We really enjoyed it and I think the public was...
Cloquet city councilors set the 2025 preliminary tax levy at just over $3.9 million Tuesday, an 11.23 percent increase over the 2024 levy. Once a preliminary levy is approved, the figure can go down before it gets final approval in December, but it cannot be increased. City administrator Tim Peterson said the reason behind the jump is easy to pinpoint: wages. Salaries and benefits make up just over $6 million of the entire general fund budget of $9.5 million, he said. The total wage increases...
Sam Godbout (in the boom) and Drew Ristinen of Archkey Solutions work Monday to level and add outlets to a new streetlight on the 100 block of Avenue C in Cloquet. A total of 26 new streetlights will now illuminate the streets of Cloquet's Historic West End Business District, yet contribute less to light pollution than the old models. The new streetlights match the existing lights along Broadway Avenue, installed during previous work on Broadway Avenue and the city's Dunlap Island and Spafford...
Cloquet's historic West End will again become the bustling community center it once was on Saturday, replete with more than 30 vendors selling their wares, bouncy houses, free yoga classes, live music and three food trucks. The West End Flourish event runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday on Avenues C and B and Vine Street, which will be closed to traffic for the one-day street market. Organizer and Pine Knot advertising director Ivan Hohnstadt promises a pedestrian-friendly festival with plenty...
A 32-year-old Carlton County man was charged last month for allegedly groping a teenage girl known to him. Jake Alan Gould, of Tamarack, was charged with criminal sexual conduct, first-degree, penetration or contact with a person under age 14 in Sixth District Carlton County Court Aug. 26. According to the criminal complaint, Gould repeatedly and with sexual intent put his hand in the pants of a 13-year-old girl known to him, at a social gathering at his home in June. Initially too scared to say anything, the girl told her mother and grandmothe...
Enrollment at Cloquet Schools is up from the end of the previous school year, but lower than numbers at the start of last year, superintendent Michael Cary told school board members Monday. Cary said he has been digging into birth rates in the Cloquet area going back four to eight years, and it seems the decline in numbers is more about fewer babies being born and less about students choosing other school districts. “We appear to be bringing in smaller and smaller cohorts of young children each time,” Cary said. “It looks like the number of ki...
The Thomson Township board of supervisors followed the recommendation of both residents and an auditor when it voted to pay off a $400,000 loan in its entirety at its meeting Sept. 5. In turn, that vote led to a much less rambunctious adjourned annual meeting Tuesday, Sept. 10, when residents came together a second time for a final vote on next year's tax levy. Normally a quick meeting with just a final vote on the levy, last month's adjourned annual meeting was contentious following news from...
Districtwide, Cloquet saw a 3 percent increase in Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments scores in the 2023-24 school year. Superintendent Michael Cary was happy to see the numbers mostly improving, four and a half years after the pandemic shut down Minnesota schools, but only three since students were faced with at least partial online classes. "As we move further past the pandemic, we appear to be seeing the impacts slowly diminish," Cary said. "The turnaround has been slower in our upper grade...
A public hearing on a proposal to adopt the International Property Maintenance Code brought frustrated residents out of the woodwork Tuesday, with nearly 20 people turning out for the Cloquet City Council meeting. Complaints ranged from trashy properties to trash-talking neighbors, from people who never mow their lawn to junk cars sitting unmoved for years. Many of the complaints were not relevant to the International Property Maintenance Code. But they were in keeping with the idea of city...
The city of Cloquet is looking at a property tax levy increase of at least 11.23 percent for 2025, or nearly $398,000 more than last year, city administrator Tim Peterson told councilors Tuesday. Peterson said the 11-percent rise is a decrease from the original budget estimate, which would have required a 20-percent levy increase. "The No. 1 difference is wages," he said. Wages make up just over $6 million of the entire general fund budget of $9.5 million, Peterson said. The total wage...
