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 35
While the parking lot outside Cloquet City Hall filled with union members rallying in support of project labor agreements Tuesday, councilors inside the building steeled themselves for a contentious discussion on the subject. Ultimately the Cloquet City Council voted 5-2 - with Lyz Jaakola and Sheila Lamb the two "no" votes - to remove the PLA mandate for private businesses from city code. At issue was a request by the city's Economic Development Authority that the council remove the private man...
The case of a fight between drunk friends that ended with one of them dead 18 months ago concluded Monday in Sixth District Court in Carlton County. In a departure from state guidelines, Judge Rebekka Stumme placed Joel Jay Ammesmaki, 59, on probation, but with a longer-than-usual sentence for second-degree manslaughter if Ammesmaki violates that probation. “The ball is in your court,” Stumme told Ammesmaki Monday, also dictating that Ammesmaki complete 150 hours of community service by speaking to groups about his experience. “You have a lot o...
The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa was featured this week in an announcement aimed at curbing food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service said Wednesday it signed a cooperative agreement with the Fond du Lac Band under the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program. The Band will purchase and distribute locally grown, produced, and processed food from underserved producers. Using LFPA funds, the Band will establish the Aandanjigewin Local Foods Purchasing Agreement p...
The Cloquet Public Library will continue its Genealogy Brown Bag Lunch Sessions noon-1 p.m. Thursday, April 6. Archivist Christopher Welter from the Iron Range Resource Center will share how and where to look for newsworthy items from your ancestors lives, including birth and marriage notices, obituaries, business successes and failures, scandalous affairs, criminal offenses, real estate transactions, out-of-town travel, house calls and social gatherings. Please bring your own lunch. Light refreshments will be served....
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College will host its first Woodlands Art Expo this weekend, March 24-26. The fun event will include woodland artists and demonstrations, workshops and seminars, plus traditional games. The three-day event is free and open to the community. "The Woodlands Art Expo is designed to bring contemporary and traditional woodland artists together in a teaching and learning environment where students of every age can appreciate and participate in the various art forms as...
Sunday, April 2 is the last chance this season to hear live music presented by Agate Encores Community Concerts. Agate Encores is hosting The Highland String Quartet, an accomplished string quartet from northern Minnesota. In the 38 years they have played together, they have received praise from a variety of admiring listeners. Members, all natives of Duluth, include violinists Steve Highland and Laurie Bastian, Ronald Kari, viola, and Betsy Husby, cello. Drawing upon their Duluth roots and Finnish heritage, the Highland String Quartet plays...
Cloquet Community Education will hold its second annual Easter weekend Skate with the Easter Bunny 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, April 8 at the Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Pine Valley. The free family event will feature a DJ, arts and crafts projects, bean bag toss and more. Even non-skaters can do the hokey-pokey on the track and enjoy more off-ice activities. Wilderness players and the Lumberjack mascot and Wilderness Wolf will be participating, and there are prize drawings for the kiddos. Before the event, the CHS Track Team will be...
The Cloquet Community Band is seeking new members. If you have played an instrument, please check out the band. Practice is 7-8:30 p.m. Mondays at the Cloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth St., Cloquet. The band provides sheet music, and you bring your instrument. The band performs at a variety of community events (spring and winter concert, parades, nursing homes and other events as requested). Questions? Contact Becky at 218-206-4441....
The proposal to update Cloquet's outdoor athletic facilities for nearly $4.6 million remained in flux this week, causing school board members and superintendent Michael Cary to set an April 10 date to formally approve the project. "We are, in theory, a month away from breaking ground," Cary said. "[Contractors] need lead time to be able to order material and supplies. They were extremely nervous about pushing it to [April 10]. Beyond the 10th, they won't be able to do the project this year....
Jana Peterson [email protected] Wrenshall School Board members have been busy, with greater insights as a result of all their efforts. In addition to nearly weekly meetings to study school issues and finances, different board members climbed on the school roof Saturday and/or traveled to St. Paul for a "day at the capitol," arriving back in Wrenshall in time for Monday's regular school board meeting. The various excursions provided some vital information to the board: 1. Although Saturday's...
The Carlton school board formally hired Donita Stepan for the position of superintendent with the approval of her contract Monday, March 20. Stepan will start on July 1 of this year, earning a salary of $134,859, which includes $10,000 for elementary principal duties at South Terrace, health insurance and other benefits. The package is an increase over the amount current superintendent John Engstrom makes. "I took a haircut," he explained, meaning he accepted lowered salary expectations as his...
After 38 years, Beth Ninneman worked her last shift at the Cloquet Pizza Hut on Monday. As usual, she was doing a little bit of everything: waiting on customers, taking orders, cleaning, hiring, cooking, doing dishes, joking with staff and generally making sure all was well at the 46-year-old restaurant. "The customers and my crew kept me here this long," said Ninneman, a Yooper (from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan) who moved to Cloquet to manage the Pizza Hut here. "There are people here I've...
and neighboring Fargo can no longer put glass in their curbside single-stream recycling bins. Glass can still be brought to recycling drop off sites in both cities, but it will be reused locally rather than being shipped to a Twin Cities recycling company. MinnKota Recycling, which handles curbside materials collected by Fargo and Moorhead, said it made the change after Twin Cities area businesses where it sent material decided they would no longer take shipments of glass, plastic, aluminum,... 
Website
There is a fine line between public duty done right and dereliction, and currently the city of Kettle River is skating on it. After a lengthy letter from the state auditor’s office in February outlining a long list of questionable procedures by elected city officials and city employees, the city found itself in trouble with procedure once again. This time it was in the process of declaring a vacancy on the city council. That’s all well and good, since member Monique Doward has missed meetings for more than 90 days. State statute allows a cou...
It was August 8, 1991, before I ever called my buddy Rolf’s dad “Bud” like everyone else did. Until that date, he had been “Mr. Kragseth” to me for over 20 years. This memory came back last week. I frequently drive the neighborhood kids to school along with my own; the five of them are pretty good buddies and it’s fun to hear them discuss the important issues of the day as we make our way to the middle school and high school. I used to participate in the conversation but as the kids have gotten...
Lawmaking in Minnesota is moving rapidly this year, and Carlton County farmers are pushing to make their voice heard. Several members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) met in Barnum on Feb. 17 and planned a call for area citizens to join in a Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day at the Capitol April 13. Affordable health care, expanded meat processing services, augmented farm-to-school programs, and soil enrichment are key issues. The LSP is a statewide, private, nonpartisan, nonprofit...
Steve Olson did a good job of relating the history of the various laws that affected the Fond du Lac Band in his March 3 column. But I wonder how far back in history we want to go. After all, the Ojibway seized the land from the Sioux. There is a reason why some of the lakes north of Deer River are called Cutfoot Sioux. There was a sign, now removed, on the Chippewa National Forest about the battle between the two tribes and a wounded Sioux warrior. The Cloquet Forestry Center was established with the 1909 law that resulted in the land being...
As a retired school teacher, I’ve thought a lot about school shootings over the years and I would like to suggest an unconventional idea — incorporating service dogs into the school environment. School service dogs would add a dimension that human resources lack. The dogs would be trained to react not only to the sight of guns or body armor but especially to the smell of gunpowder and gun oil. These two odors would be the primary motivation for the dog to go into the attack mode. The dogs could be trained to corner and detain, but not attack an...
I got on the phone to find out more about Cloquet High School senior Ellie Evenson, who was involved in the first year of girls wrestling at Cloquet. Evenson broke barriers and brought confidence to herself and teammates as they'd never imagined. In a November Pine Knot story, Kerry Rodd introduced readers to Evenson and the new sport at CHS. I wanted to find out more about her drive, purpose and motivation. It didn't take me long upon meeting her to recognize what a great (and busy) kid Ellie...
The next Ma & Pa Kettle meeting is 1 p.m. Sunday, April 2 at the Kettle River Senior Center. The first Finnish Luncheon for the season is noon, Wednesday, April 19 at the Kettle River Senior Center. It will be catered by the Rustic Diner. The Kettle River fire department is looking for more firefighters, EMTs and first responders. While I was a student in Chicago, one of my friends, Carol, who was born and raised in Chicago, would join me for meals. I would always give her the tomato from my salad. She asked if I didn’t like tomato. I told h...
It sure is nice to have more daylight in the evenings. Now maybe the snow will stop falling and we can get onto the season of spring. Congratulations to the UMD women’s basketball team on making it to the Division II Final Four. We can be proud of Cromwell’s Taya Hakamaki, as she is a key member of the team. A great number of folks attended the gathering of family and friends for Gary Oja on Saturday, March 18 at St. John’s. I heard that at least 16 of his classmates from Cromwell-Wright School attended in support of the family. Gary was laid...
Alice J. Johnson, 94, of Cloquet passed away March 18, 2023, at Sunnyside Health Care Center. She was born May 22, 1928, in Cloquet to Lawrence and Violet Johnson and was a lifelong Cloquet resident. Alice was a 1946 Cloquet High School graduate. She married Paul Johnson on Sept. 4, 1950, in Cloquet. She worked as a cook for the Cloquet School District for 26 years. Alice was a member of Zion Lutheran Church in Cloquet and was active with the church's funeral food circle, newsletter, bulletin,...
Kathleen Faye Marciniak, 83, of Cloquet passed away peacefully on March 14, 2023. She was born on April 17, 1939, to Joseph and Esther Blair. Best known to her family and friends as Faye, "Gramsie," a loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she is survived by her sons, Kevin (Beth), Todd (Beth) and Patrick (Kim); grandchildren, Kirsten (Donnie), Amber (Mike), Arianna (Jason), Max and Sam; and great-grandsons, Axel and Teddy. She was a lifelong resident of Cloquet and enjoyed working...
Edward Lee "Ed" Gotzh, 57, passed away in Springdale, Arkansas surrounded by family on March 18, 2023. He was born in Cloquet to Gerald "Jerry" and Phyllis Gotzh. Ed's career as a professional truck driver started in 1984. He worked in Hibbing and Duluth, later moving to Minneapolis, where he worked for ABF Freight for several years. In 2007 he moved to Bella Vista, Arkansas, and worked as a contract driver for FedEx. Growing up in Minnesota, Ed enjoyed the outdoors and especially the yearly...
Ryan K. Nelson, 40, of Mound, Minnesota, passed away March 14, 2023. He was born Feb. 11, 1983, in Duluth to Keith and Judy (Mecl) Nelson. Ryan grew up in Esko with his parents and brother, Chad. The brothers were the best of friends. He graduated from Esko High School in 2001, where he excelled at baseball and basketball. Ryan spent one year at Hibbing Community College continuing his athletic pursuits. He graduated from Lake Superior College with a degree in electrical engineering technology....
