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
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 28
Jobs? Greg Bernu has had them. "This is the best job of my life and I've had a lot of them," said Bernu, who spent the last 16 years as the Carlton County land commissioner. "It was a lot better than I've ever dreamed," he added. "The county board has given me great latitude to get the job done." Bernu punctuated the thought with his trademark sense of humor. "It's my job to make them look good and stay out of jail." Retiring at the end of the month, Bernu leaves behind a lasting body of work...
A quick clipper was expected to bring snow to Carlton County late Thursday and into Friday, with a few inches expected. Despite it being meteorological spring, winter doesn’t seem to be quite done with the region despite some record warmth and a dearth of snow all season. The National Weather Service in Duluth predicted a “messy spring storm” to hit the area Sunday into Monday, with total snow of 4 to 6 inches, which would be the largest drop for the winter. There is a 70 to 90 percent chance that Carlton will get hit by the storm at the end of...
Wearing fluorescent yellow vests and armed with whistles and broomsticks to help them comb through brush and other terrain, volunteers fanned out last week in search of 31-year-old Peter Michael Martin. Martin was last seen and heard from on Friday, March 8. A Fond du Lac Band member who grew up in the Reservation's Mahnomen neighborhood, Martin graduated from Albrook High School in 2011. A news release described Martin as approximately 5-foot-10, 185 pounds with dark brown eyes. He also has a s...
Carlton High School grad and former Jeopardy game show champion Sam Kavanaugh will compete in the first-ever Jeopardy Invitational Tournament. Kavanaugh had his first run of wins on Jeopardy in 2019, when he won five straight games and $156,202 during Season 35. Kavanaugh then won the 2021 Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. The upcoming invitational tournament will feature 27 former players - four of those from Season 36 and earlier joining the three relegated players from Season 1 of Jeopardy...
Easter meets ice later this month when the Easter Bunny comes to Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. Kids of all ages are invited to skate with the Easter Bunny from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 30 at the arena. The free event will include music, kids activities, face painting, prizes and the Cloquet Pep Squad, courtesy of Community Ed and the city of Cloquet. Concessions available for purchase. No hockey sticks allowed, helmets are encouraged but optional. Grab some breakfast before the skate 8-11 a.m. at Carmen’s Restaurant on B...
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is restricting the open burning of vegetative debris due to increased wildfire risk resulting from unusually warm temperatures and exceptionally dry conditions across most of Minnesota. Beginning Monday, restrictions apply in Carlton, Chisago, Isanti, Itasca, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pine, and St. Louis counties among counties in the north. The DNR will not issue permits for open burning of brush or yard waste in these counties until restrictions are lifted....
The final investigative report of the deadly Jan. 8 shooting at the Super 8 hotel in Cloquet revealed new information, including that the shooter had subcontracted with the city of Cloquet and recently relapsed into drug use. It also expanded information already released. Shooter Nicholas Elliot Lenius, 32, appeared to be having mental health problems and did not know his two victims: Cloquet resident and Super 8 employee Shelby Trettel, 22, and Patrick Jeffrey Roers, a 35-year-old Deer River...
This year's Mojakka Cook-off featured 15 varieties of soup and the largest crowd since the Carlton County Historical Society became beneficiary of the annual fundraiser at Cloquet's NorthEastern Hotel and Saloon. Attendees honored both St. Patrick's Day on Sunday, and St. Urho's Day, which was the day before. The made-in-America Finnish holiday celebrates the fictional St. Urho ridding Finland of a scourge of grasshoppers, and the NorthEastern was selling purple and green beer in honor of both h...
The Cloquet school board meeting turned into a mini science fair Monday, with students taking turns explaining a host of projects examining everything from lake water, to study and sleep habits, to using traditional indigenous cures to solve modern medical issues. After that, it was time to get down to business. With spring break coming up next week, superintendent Michael Cary said the administration team is close to completing its budget proposal, to be presented at a board work session April 8, including staffing cuts. The board won’t t...
Join a group hike on the North Country National Scenic Trail at the Wisconsin-Minnesota state line on Saturday, March 30. The North Country Trail Association’s Brule-St. Croix Chapter is sponsoring a 5-mile hike on a new section of trail in the Nemadji Valley. The new trail follows a historic rail grade, visits overlooks of Clear Creek and crosses the MacQuarrie Wetlands. Hikers can meet at 10 a.m. at the State Line Trailhead, 6 County Road 4, Wrenshall, Minnesota. More information is at www.meetup.com/sscbhikers....
Some time ago, during her workaday life as a wife, mother and corporate insurance manager, Santana Haggy heard a friend comment about joining a local volunteer fire department. "I laughed it off," Haggy said. But months later she found herself faced with sleepless nights, imagining herself doing it. "All of a sudden, it was like, 'What does that look like? How do you run a career and volunteer at the same time, and train and all that stuff?'" Haggy said. Soon, Haggy was volunteering for the...
Spring load restrictions are in effect. The restrictions are as follows: • Unpaved roads are restricted to 5 tons per axle. • Paved roads that are restricted will be posted with the maximum axle weight. Paved roads that are not posted remain at 10 tons per axle. • School buses, vehicles transporting milk, public and cooperative utility maintenance vehicles, recycling and garbage vehicles, and cargo tank vehicles delivering home heating fuel are provided special allowances by Minnesota Statutes. The ending date for spring load restr...
Carlton school board members got some healthy news this week: enrollment numbers in the district are on the rise, and the American Indian Parent Advisor Committee gave the school district a passing grade, both things that haven’t happened in recent years. Superintendent Donita Stepan reported enrollment numbers had shot up to 315 students as of the beginning of this month. Carlton had begun the school year expecting 295 students. If sustained, the new numbers are a reversal of a years-long trend. Last year, the district lost more than 50 s...
Some came for the entertainment, while others came to wander and shop locally. No matter why they came, thousands of people attended last weekend's Cloquet Area Home, Business and Sports Show at Black Bear Casino Resort. The annual free event expanded this year, with more booths and a wider range of businesses featuring everything from pickup trucks, pontoons and docks to seamless gutters, shoes and kitchenware. A wide range of local services and businesses filled the Otter Creek event center....
The “mud bog” is coming back to Ma & Pa Kettle Days. More than 40 people attended the Ma & Pa Kettle meeting March 10 and showed their support of the mud bog event, signing up to be members. At the meeting, Eric Senarighi of the Carlton County ATV Riders presented an environmental mitigation plan to handle potential problems for the Kettle River Mud Bog, scheduled Aug. 10 in conjunction with Ma & Pa Kettle Days. Senarighi has had extensive environmental mitigation training as an employee of Minnesota Power, based out of the Thomson Dam hyd...
The record snowfall winter of 2022-23 continued to reverberate at Carlton city council on March 13, when the council voted to use Donald Holm Construction, of Duluth, to repair Four Seasons Sports Complex. The city-owned arena suffered exterior damage from the ice and snow in the winter of 2022-23. The damage remains obvious to passersby, as the arena side facing Highway 210 features a long crumpled strip of steel siding. Ice and snow buildup came off the roof, and when it hit the ground it banged into the building and caved in lower parts of...
The annual rite of spring in Cloquet is the opening of Gordy's Hi-Hat on the hill in Cloquet. Customers will notice little change in the decor there, and, according to the Lundquist family, perhaps never will. Meanwhile, next door at Gordy's Warming House, the all-year coffee shop and eatery, there has been a total reimagining of the interior. "It needed a facelift," said Sever Lundquist, third-generation Gordy's owner. The Warming House opened in 2005 and was outfitted like many coffee shops...
It’s no secret rural ambulance services are struggling. Called a “quiet crisis” by the state health department as far back as 2002, rural ambulance services across the state are being confronted with their own mortality: Continue forward in the face of endless budget deficits, or fold, and let neighboring or private ambulance services take over, sometimes coming from much farther away. It all makes what the city of Carlton has accomplished so impressive. Instead of waiting for legislative solutions, city officials and leaders in Carlton spent t...
The Esko boys basketball team met its Achilles' heel in the Section 7AA championship Friday, falling to Pequot Lakes, 55-42, at Romano Gym on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth. It was the fourth year in a row Esko met Pequot Lakes in the playoffs, and the fourth year the Patriots came out on top. Esko found itself in a big hole early, falling behind 14-0 after a sluggish start. "We just didn't come out ready," said Esko coach Derek Anderson. "I didn't expect that to happen. There...
The Minnesota Wilderness staged comebacks in both games in its series in Anchorage last weekend, finishing with two points after Saturday’s victory. In both games at Ben Boeke Ice Arena in Anchorage, the Wilderness (27-21-4) fell behind 2-0 in the first period, but rallied to a tie in the second period. On Friday, the cardiac revival was not enough as Anchorage (34-13-5) won, 4-3. On Saturday, the Wilderness completed the effort with a 5-4 shootout triumph, said a team news release. Defenseman Beau Janzig led Minnesota with four points (one g...
The jug game is back. After basketball teams from Carlton and Wrenshall merged as the Raptors this season, it signaled the end to the boys and girls annual jug game rivalry. "I thought, why not, as a fundraiser, continue playing jug games but as alumni," said Emma Grover, Raptors girls basketball coach and Wrenshall alum. She talked with other coaches about the idea and "everyone was on board," she said. Last Saturday, 45 alumni took part in the men's and women's games. The Wrenshall grads won...
The Section 7A boys basketball season came to an end for local teams March 13 in Hibbing, where both Carlton/Wrenshall and Fond du Lac bowed out of the playoffs after semifinal games. In the first semifinal game, Carlton/Wrenshall dropped a tough 79-70 decision to Mountain Iron-Buhl. Playing in their first season as a basketball cooperative, the Raptors ended with an impressive 21-8 record. Carlton/Wrenshall trailed 35-32 at halftime and were still very much in the game. But the Rangers rode a...
Last month, when I was at the Carlton County Historical Center perusing old Cloquet skiing information for a story, director Carol Klitzke brought me a big box of files she asked me to review. They were scrapbooks from the 1950s, donated by legendary Cloquet coach Angelo Pergol and his wife, Blanche. It was a perfect record of Pergol's team coaching heroics. There were newspaper clippings, congratulatory letters, telegrams - wow, telegrams - testimonials, birthday cards, speaking invitations,...
Gage Stankiewicz is now an All-American in track and field after the NCAA Division III meet in Virginia Beach, Virginia, earlier this month. A junior at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the 2021 Esko High School grad had the longest throw of his career at 57 feet, 5 inches to gain fifth place and All-America status during the March 8-9 meet. "Early in the year I was still overcoming an injury from last year and it affected me along with putting too much pressure on trying to hit 17...
Rae Marie Elizabeth Sylvester, 82, passed away peacefully Sunday, March 3, 2024, at Inter-Faith Care Center in Carlton with her children at her side. Rae was born Sept. 19, 1941, in Perham to Mike and Mayme Rebuck. She graduated from Perham High School in 1959 and went on to attend Moorhead State College, graduating with a teaching degree in 1962. She accepted a teaching position in White Bear Lake. Shortly after, she met Dave Sylvester, and they were married in 1966. In 1968, Dave took a...
