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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When 100-year-old Mildred Kjoberg (CHO-berg) got together with a few of her friends and relatives at the Cloquet Senior Center on a recent Tuesday afternoon, the only thing flying faster than the playing cards was the friendly banter. Kjoberg, or just "Milly" to her friends, gave it back as well as she took it, and the result was a whole lot of laughter and fun for all. "You can see why we enjoy coming here," she chuckled. Indeed, Kjoberg seems content wherever she is, and with whatever life...
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Motorists traveling in Minnesota Wednesday afternoon through early Friday should prepare for a snow storm that will result in hazardous road conditions, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Heavy and drifting snow, ice accumulations and blizzard conditions means motorists should plan ahead, slow down and give the snowplows room to work. The National Weather Service indicates snowfall amounts could reach up to 15 inches or more across central Minnesota along and southwest of the Interstate 94 corridor. T...
Cloquet Schools Superintendent Michael Cary announced that school is canceled for Thursday, April 11, because of weather predictions that would cause students to be traveling home in the worst of the storm. "The morning will probably look OK Thursday, but they are predicting a huge spike in snow between noon and 2 p.m.," Cary said. "That's too late for us to do an early release, so it would mean kids would be traveling home from school at the worst time. After conferring with other Carlton...
Two recent resolutions in Minnesota Tax Court are part of a trickle that is expected to lead to a flood for taxpayers in Carlton County and in a swath of counties to the northwest. In early March, the tax court in St. Paul’s Ramsey County affirmed adjustments in how much two pipeline operators paid in taxes due in 2018 in 13 counties. The rulings mean Carlton County will need to pay back nearly $200,000 in property taxes. That amount is small compared to the total amount in paybacks expected when larger cases are settled, namely in overtaxed ye...
Between the time that 20-year-old Dakotah Abramowski was last seen on Jan. 5 and when he was reported missing Feb. 18, more than a foot of fresh snow had fallen, bringing the total amount of snow on the ground to close to two feet. On Friday, March 31, police finally found Abramowski, deceased, his body lying in the back corner of a yard on the 700 block of Poplar Avenue, less than 500 yards from the apartment building where he was last seen. Cloquet Police Commander Derek Randall said a...
The Cloquet school board met Monday, April 1, and approved a proposal to explore strategic planning coordination services, which would start the process of implementing a new 5- to 10-year strategic plan. Superintendent Michael Cary suggested that the board approve the proposal from Bruce Miles of Big River Group; the board has used Miles’ work in the past. Miles would schedule meetings within the school system and the community to gather information, likely this fall, and prepare a report to start the long-range vision planning process. C...
The College for Seniors Program at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is up and running with a new schedule of Spring Semester 2019 courses. College for Seniors is a unique program featuring a variety of non-credit courses that local seniors can enroll in for a small fee, and which take only a short amount of time to complete. The program was established to provide lifelong learning programs within a supportive environment, targeted at learners 50 years of age and over but open to everyone. Sprouted in 2009 and nurtured by a small group...
The annual Young Life 5K is set for Saturday, April 6. Registration ($20) opens at 8:30 a.m. at Journey Christian Church, 1400 Washington Ave. in Cloquet. Students under the age of 18 can enter for free. The race itself starts at 9:30 a.m. for walkers and 10 a.m. for runners. A kids’ run will start at 10:30 a.m. Proceeds from the race help with the Young Life budget and also helps kids raise money for summer camp. Contact Brian at [email protected] with questions....
Get ready, kids! The Easter Bunny is coming to Cloquet’s Pine Valley Park Saturday, April 20. Egg hunts begin at 11 a.m. Thousands of eggs will be hidden with special golden eggs for a few lucky prize winners. The free Easter egg hunt is age-based, with areas for ages 1-Preschool, kindergarten through second grade and grades 3-5. This annual event is coordinated by Cloquet Area Chamber of Commerce, Cloquet Community Education and the City of Cloquet. Kids can get their pictures taken with the Easter Bunny, too. Families are still encouraged t...
An Esko man was arrested following an ATV crash that resulted in injuries to his passenger late Saturday night. According to a press release from the Carlton County sheriff’s office, officers responded to a report of an ATV crash on Wagon Road, near the intersection with Larson Road, in Thomson Township at 11:47 p.m. Saturday, March 30. When they arrived, they found a 20-year-old female on the ground with injuries from the crash. Emergency medical services from the Esko fire department and Cloquet Area Fire District, along with officers from t...
The Fond du Lac Ojibwe School chapter of SOS (Students Offering Support) applied for and recently received a $250 Changemaker grant from the National Indian Health Board. Their funded project is to create an experiential learning booth, “How Climate Change Affects Mental Health,” at the Youth Climate Convening event next week at the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. FDL Ojibwe school students involved in the project include ninth-graders Nick Stapleton, Cordelia Shaugobay, Devin Bosto, Gabe Hudson, Aidan Murkerson and Gina Mis...
A 35-year-old Willow River man has been charged in Carlton County District Court with two felony counts for criminal sexual conduct. According to the Carlton County sheriff's office, Francis Lenard Marsh was under investigation in early March for engaging in penetrative oral sex with a girl who was under age 13. Police said a juvenile relative of the girl learned of the conduct and reported it to adults who contacted police. Marsh was taken into custody April 1 and is expected to make a second...
Early in March we spent an afternoon soaking up the sun and strolling in the stunning Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. It was quite busy, even for a weekend. Part of the draw was the butterfly house ... and the added crowd attractor was the annual plant sale. A plant sale? In March? Oh, to be a Zone 9 gardener. Our temperatures here in Zone 3 are finally creeping into the 50s, and the aching to see green and the urge to get our hands dirty in the garden are palpable. Despite the cold hard...
Carlton County will provide the final piece of funding for a 30-unit residential apartment building to be built on the north side of Carlton. At their March 25 meeting, the Carlton County board of commissioners approved $174,000 in Carlton County Economic Development funding to complete a funding package that includes $2.7 million in primary financing provided by Frandsen Bank & Trust. The City of Carlton has approved $655,000 in tax increment financing over 25 years for the project. The project is being constructed on commercially zoned land...
Do you get frequent emails from your political party, favored candidates and elected officials? I don’t. Not anymore. Last year, I signed up for updates from the candidates for Congress. I figured it would be a good way to keep track of the candidates and the issues they felt were important. At first, I got occasional emails, detailing upcoming campaign events and discussions of the issues they were running on. Soon, I was getting emails from everyone: Democrats, Republicans, candidates, s...
The Pine Knot is delighted to be exhibiting Dr. Lloyd Backus' watercolors in our downtown Cloquet gallery through April. I recently sat down with Lloyd, surrounded by his paintings. Lloyd was family physician for my Uncle Sidney, Aunt Laurel and cousins Martha, RuthAnn, Jana and David Markusen, helping them through births and a series of health challenges. The retired doctor has lived a fascinating life so far. Backus was born in China. His father was a medical missionary, working on behalf of...
My buddy, Bob Watts, died last week at the age of 96. I met Bob - as I do many people - because I wrote a story about him and his efforts to make sure every veteran's grave was decorated with a flag for Memorial Day. That interaction led to a longer story later, telling of his experiences in World War II, when he was part of a group of soldiers that served for more than 500 days in the 125th Field Artillery, 34th Red Bull Infantry Division and fought their way through North Africa and Italy....
To the editor: Our daughter Jordyn was one of the ninth-grade students who spoke at the recent referendum meeting in Wrenshall. She and her classmates surprised us (and other parents) by being adamant their voices be heard as part of this process. We thought it was great for them to describe, in their own words, what they are asking for from our community and the impact adult decisions have on the students. It’s tough for them to live and learn in a community that doesn’t want to support them. We are voting this May on a solid, no-frills pla...
To the editor: In Wrenshall once again, a $14.4 million plan for building improvements has been presented by ARI Architects and Kraus- Anderson, after already being defeated twice within 18 months. Recent news tells us of the Floodwood school district’s need to increase property taxes because their student population has declined, as families have fewer children, and without a surrounding area to draw from. As the speaker from Kraus- Anderson stated, students are dollars. Wrenshall has room as well for 100-140 more students, meaning $750,000 t...
To the editor: I read the recent article about the prospects of Essentia moving to Cloquet, into the Applebee’s and its neighboring buildings. I am not in favor of this at all. Now saying that competition is good, I must say that our Cloquet hospital has done so much to make it what it is for our community and we must support it. I am so proud of our hospital and it just keeps getting better. I am not in favor of the bigger businesses such as Amazon and Walmart just getting bigger and forcing out our smaller local businesses. Go on Amazon a...
To the editor: I read Pete Radosevich’s “Harry’s Gang” column last week in support of the Electoral College. His reasoning, as I understand, had to do with the impact of several large states overwhelming numerous smaller states. Being in my 70s now, I realize that my school years were a long time ago. However, I think I recall learning why the early political leaders and Congress formed the Electoral College. The average American male in the very early 1800s was uneducated and the politicians, being mostly of an aristocratic backgro...
As I type this week’s news, I am in a hotel in Alexandra, Va. I have been on a 10-day trip to Washington, D.C. with my son and grandson. We have seen most of the important monuments and memorials and are on our way home tomorrow. We were able to spend a lot of quality time together sharing the experiences of D.C. First, we stopped at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Penn., then on to our motel for the night in Bedford, Pa. We stopped at Gettysburg for a wonderful tour of the m...
Along with tender shoots of beautiful flowers sprouting, robins nesting, and snow melting comes fantastic news in the Minnesota Medicare world. Cost plans are not going away for 21 counties in Minnesota (see list below) for plan year 2020. I was notified at the end of March that the cost plans would continue through 2020 for those in approved counties. Those counties are: Aitkin, Carlton, Cook, Goodhue, Itasca, Kanabec, Koochiching, Lake, LeSueur, McLeod, Meeker, Mille Lacs, Pine, Pipestone,...
“Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else.” ~ Fred Rogers As with any life-changing event, retirement involves an ongoing process of emotional adjustment. While some people seem to transition seamlessly, others struggle. While reasons vary, some may include a loss of self image, the realization that retirement will be one of the last transitions in your life, the unsettling nature of change, or even uncertainty about what the future holds. One way to combat this is to reshape your outlook...
Alvina A. Merrill, 89, of Cloquet went to be with the Lord Wednesday, March 27, 2019, after a brief stay in the Solvay Hospice House in Duluth. She was born Jan. 14, 1930 in Bowlus, Minn. to Roman and Mary (Schelonka) Trettel. Alvina was united in marriage to Fred W. Merrill on Feb. 7, 1948 in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Cloquet. She loved the 80-acre farm in Wrenshall, where she enjoyed gardening, hunting, and her strawberry patch. Alvina won awards in bowling and spent a lot of time do...
