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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Esko musher Alex LaPlante said the arc of emotions in a sled dog race or even training can easily go from terror to sadness to absolute joy. "If a dog isn't doing well, I'll get this feeling in the pit of my stomach," she said. "Then I'll make a change and if it goes well, then I'm happy and the dogs are happy. And it's simply amazing when you're gliding through the woods with no noise except their panting and the occasional jingle from their harness." LaPlante was one of two Carlton County...
Thomas Michael Bislow, 74 of Carlton passed away on Thursday, January 31, 2019 in his home. He was born December 18, 1944 in Two Harbors to Chester and Harriet (Ecklen) Bislow. Tom graduated from Crosier Seminary High School in Onamia. On June 5, 1971 he married Joanne Ruzic in Cloquet. Tom worked as a printer at the Pine Knot until 1977 when he and Joanne bought the old Co-op building in Mahtowa and started TJ’s Country Corner. He also had Country Printers that he operated out of the store f...
On Tuesday, voters in Minnesota State Senate District 11 will head to the polls, just like they did for the primary election exactly two weeks ago, to vote for their favorite candidates for state senate. It's been a whirlwind since Jan. 4, the day that incoming Gov. Tim Walz announced longtime District 11 Senator Tony Lourey was his choice to lead the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Suddenly there was an open state senate seat, and only 32 days to fill it. The Jan. 22 primary whittled...
The Pine Knot News sent a number of questions to the three candidates in the special election for Minnesota Senate District 11, which includes all of Carlton and Pine Counties, along with several precincts in both St. Louis and Kanabec Counties. Please take a moment to learn more about each candidate, and don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, Feb. 5. Republican Jason Rarick I am a lifelong resident of the Pine City area, residing on the farmstead settled by my great-grandfather. I graduated from Pine City High School in 1988, and Dunwoody I...
The fact that more than 400 mailed ballots arrived at the Carlton County Auditor’s office after the Jan. 22 primary election has not gone unnoticed, especially since the gap between the two DFL candidates was only 233 votes. Carlton County Auditor Paul Gassert said his office received five ballots on Jan. 23, 250-plus on Jan. 24, 50 on Jan. 25, another 50 over the weekend and another dozen or so on Monday, Jan. 25. As of Tuesday, they were more than 400 unopened mail-in ballots that were not c...
Plans for the near future of animal control in Carlton County don't include any kind of physical building - instead it's more about communication, cooperation and preventive measures by government as well as citizen volunteers. And any future plans definitely won't include the former Friends of Animals Humane Society building, which has been sold to a private party, Carlton County Commissioner Dick Brenner revealed during a meeting at Cloquet City Hall Tuesday morning. "There were actually two...
The Cloquet Area Fire District responded to a house fire in Stoney Brook Township northwest of Cloquet Monday evening, but the home was already fully engulfed by fire when firefighters arrived. CAFD Chief Kevin Schroeder said CAFD units and the Industrial Volunteer Fire Department were paged by St. Louis County dispatch after Culver and Arrowhead Volunteer Fire Departments did not initially respond. "The roof had already collapsed when we got there," said CAFD captain Jeremy Hutchinson, noting...
According to a press release from a law firm representing past Wrenshall Refinery workers, refinery workers employed before 1981 diagnosed with various cancers are entitled to special benefits. Lung cancer, esophageal cancer, laryngeal cancer, pharyngeal cancer, stomach cancer, colon cancer, rectal cancer, and mesothelioma are frequently caused by asbestos exposure. Asbestos-laced products were used for decades at Wrenshall Refinery. Neither employees nor management were aware of the asbestos risk. Asbestos is a mineral that in its natural...
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is hosting the 2019 Careers in Nursing & Health Sciences Expo from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 6, in the Lester Jack Briggs Cultural Center Gymnasium on campus. The event is open to the public and admission is free. The third annual Nursing & Health Sciences Expo is designed to provide information about current job openings with regional employers and the wide range of career opportunities available in health sciences fields. Representatives from more than 35 employers representing a variety of...
Wow, that was a real cold spell. But we made it through, just fine. The cold snap that just ended was one of the coldest seen in these parts in more than 20 years. And despite the problems it caused — broken pipes, cars that won’t start, and canceled activities — Carlton County showed true spirit these past few days. The dangerously cold temperatures may have slowed us down, but it didn’t stop us. From snow plows to police patrols to fire department calls, our local governments stepped up to the challenge and continued to provide the service...
Bob Williams, 63, of Esko and Prairie Lake, Minn. died unexpectedly Friday, Jan. 25 in Big Sky, Mont. Visitation: 9 a.m. until the 11 a.m. Celebration of Life on Friday, Feb. 1 at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Esko. __________________________ Coral “Hoots” Phelps, 95, of Wrenshall, Minn died Jan. 28, 2019. Visitation: 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 1 until the 11 a.m. funeral service at Nelson Funeral Care in Cloquet. Military Honors will be presented by the Nicholson-Sellgren VFW Post 2962 Honor Guard. __________________________ Frances “Fr...
I recently had the fun of attending the local Rotary Club meeting. Rotary, for those of you who don’t know, is a service club of local professionals and businesspeople, whose mission seems to be networking coupled with public service. They meet for lunch weekly, and get involved in community projects from providing books to young readers to maintaining Fauley Park in Cloquet. When I first got to town in 1999, then superintendent Russ Smith sponsored me in my membership, mostly as a favor to o...
To the editor: The Carlton School Board displayed the same division as the country Monday. Why did they waste the community advisors’ time if they won’t listen? Consolidation with Wrenshall School District was commuted highly. One member’s comments were the same as two years ago. I could tell what was to be spoken as the voice rose. OK, I get it, but listen to the community. Negotiating consolidation is a huge undertaking. I believe a neutral facilitator employed by both districts would be beneficial, as both boards seem to have indiv...
The lights dimmed, the projector switch flipped. A hot plastic smell wafted through the room as the clickity-clack of a Super 8 home movie began. Hubby and I were returning from our Yellowstone honeymoon, but had stopped in at my grandparents’ before embarking on the last leg of our journey home to Cloquet. I had grown up here in this small, rural town, before my dad’s job plucked us out of the familiar black soil of North Dakota, transplanting us into the foreign red ore of the Iron Range. I w...
To be a can-do attitude and solid people skills. Cromwell’s Mayor, Sharon Zelazny, has risen to the challenge, and she loves her job and her staff. Sharon and her husband Bill built a house on Cromwell Lake as their retirement dream home. In the fall of 2016 she made a last-minute decision to run for Cromwell mayor. Her husband and then city clerk LuAnn Freiermuth encouraged her. She won handily, and two years later was enthusiastically re-elected. Cromwell, with a small spatial footprint, is a...
Last month, retired lead forecaster Craig Sanders of the National Weather Service Duluth Forecast Office noted signs of the dreaded "polar vortex" returning in late January of this year. It sure looks like he was right! Several daily cold-temperature records were set for a few of our towns last month. There's even been talk of setting a new state record, after spending nearly 23 years in the hands of Tower-Soudan. This article was written just before the deep freeze hit, so if the record was...
I remember last winter our grandson-in-law took a pan of boiling hot water outside and threw it up into the air to see what would happen. Our granddaughter even recorded it with her cell phone, posted it on YouTube, and it was just beautiful. Almost looked like a mushroom cloud with hundreds of icicles falling from its center and edges. But the trick is to use boiling water, because cold water just won’t work for some reason, I guess it’s the intense heat mixing with the intense cold that really...
Milton Theodore "MT" Walli, 73, of Tamarack, Minn. passed away on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019 in his home. He was born June 19, 1945 in Duluth, Minn. to John and Henna (Johnson) Walli. The family moved to the farm in Tamarack in 1946. MT graduated from Cromwell High School in 1963. After high school he worked for the railroad for four years before starting his lifelong career in logging. MT was one of the last true lumberjacks. He was a member of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association. He enjoyed...
A new music class for kids is coming to Cloquet. It’s called Music Together of Cloquet and it’s designed for babies, toddlers, preschoolers and the grown-ups who accompany them. Each 45-minute session includes singing, dancing, playing and laughing while promoting music learning and overall development. The classes will meet in the Pine room at Community Memorial Hospital. If you are interested in learning what the classes will be like, there will be free demonstration classes on Feb. 11, 18 and 25 at 10 a.m. Actual music classes start on Apr...
The Groundhog Day Medallion Hunt sponsored by Cloquet Community Education, WKLK Radio and the city of Cloquet kicks off Saturday, Feb. 2 in the city of Cloquet. A 6-inch circular resin medallion bearing a photo of a groundhog and a penny will be hidden somewhere on city-owned land in the Cloquet Area. No climbing, scaling or digging will be required to find the medallion. It will also not be located within 1 foot of water or a roadway. There are two ways to get clues to the location of the medallion. Tune into WKLK 96.5 FM or WKLK 1230 AM for...
The Cloquet police department issued a reminder to Cloquet and Scanlon residents who want to drive their ATVs or UTVs on city streets to come to the police department and fill out an application and provide proof of registration and insurance to get a city permit. The permit costs $10 and is good for the calendar year. This requirement is per the new city policy (City Ordinance, Chapter 5.6.01) that was passed last year. For more information on this ordinance, visit the city website www.cloquetmn.gov or call the Cloquet police department at...
Four local Master Gardeners recently received awards for years of volunteer service. Roberta Leu, Richard Breitkruetz and Joan Arney have all given 15 years of horticulture volunteer service to Carlton County. Master Gardener Nan Lindquist started with the program in 1994 and has served for 25 years. What is a Master Gardener volunteer? Master Gardeners are from all walks of life and volunteer on behalf of the University of Minnesota Extension. They share gardening best practices with people in...
Unbeknownst to most Americans, National Religious Freedom Day is celebrated every year on Jan. 16, the anniversary of the adoption of the Statute for Religious Freedom by the Virginia Assembly in 1786. This legislation, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and guided to passage by James Madison, marked the first time in history that a legislature voted to disestablish religion, preparing the way for the American observation of religious liberty under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Each year, Religious Freedom Day comes and goes with littl...
The unexpected expense of a special primary and general election for the Minnesota Senate District 11 seat was an unpleasant surprise for more than one Carlton County official. “Why do the costs for a special primary and special election fall solely on the local counties and townships involved?” asked Carlton County Commissioner Gary Peterson at the Adjourned Session of the County Board Monday, Jan. 28. “The state of Minnesota should cover the costs.” Auditor/Treasurer Paul Gassert explained the makeup of the more than $50,000 in costs,...
Carlton and Wrenshall school districts got one step closer to discussing consolidation Monday, after several months of sending letters back and forth and delaying conversations for elections and new school board members. After one failed motion, Carlton school board members voted 3-2 Monday to respond to a letter from Wrenshall school board chair Matthew Laveau and suggest the two districts “move ahead with consolidation discussion.” Board member Ann Gustafson made the motion and said she wan...
