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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Cloquet High School principal Steve Battaglia has no doubt in his mind which generation is being targeted by e-cigarette manufacturers. He has only to rattle off the flavors - Fizzy Lemonade, Arctic Air, Blue Razz Lemonade, Iced Pink Punch, Really Berry and Straw Nanners Ice - of the many confiscated products to make his point. Then there is the appearance factor. Very few look like cigar- ettes. Instead, they look like pens or pencils, lipstick containers, compacts, key chains, chargers,...
There was no "third time's a charm" for Wrenshall referendum supporters, as 55 percent of school district residents who voted Tuesday rejected a $14.4 million bonding request for school facility improvements. With 513 "no" votes to 418 "yes" votes, superintendent Kimberly Belcastro pointed out that 48 more "yes" votes would have meant a different result. But that's not what happened. School board vice chair Janaki Fisher-Merritt announced the results just before 10 p.m., after a group of nearly...
n the Moose Lake School District, more than 61 percent of voters said “no” to athletic facility improvements at the PreK-12 school. After the voting polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 14 and the ballots were tallied, the final count was 610 “no” votes to 382 “yes” on Question 1 of the Moose Lake school bond referendum. Absentee ballots turned in by early voters came in at 38 “no” and 21 “yes,” bringing the total to 648 “no” and 403 “yes” votes. Question 1 proposed a bond referendum of $3.935 million for additions to Moose Lake School athlet...
Here at the Cloquet Library we are busy planning a variety of summer programs and events to celebrate reading and our community. Our summer reading season will run May 20-Aug. 2. Keiko Satomi, Cloquet’s children’s librarian, has spent the spring busily planning an exciting summer for children. The children’s summer reading program will be similar to that of previous years. Children will have a choice of completing either literacy activities or recording minutes spent reading. Prizes range from...
Carlton County authors and books will be well represented at the 31st annual Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards program next week, with history books about the 1918 fires in Thomson Township and Hermantown among the nominees, along with a fiction book by Thomas Peacock and a photo book by Craig Blacklock and Walter Mondale. The Pine Knot News interviewed Esko’s Connie Jacobson, who had a hand in both of the local history books. “I feel like I won a prize just by being nominated,” said Jacob...
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but the morning routine outside sure has changed from just a month ago. No more does it seem to be solemn and dark, and still past 6:30 a.m. Far from it, in fact, as I’m getting woken up by bickering birds and the intruding sun comes much earlier. Indeed, everything is stirring sooner than before, and hues of green are taking back the landscape. A welcomed invitation to me, and others, to get outside for morning activities, with going for a run or wal...
Minnesota fishing opener morning, my son Joseph and I arrived at Boy Scout Landing on the St. Louis River just past 5 a.m. The lower parking lot was already packed. We pulled in and found ourselves stacked a dozen rigs from the landing. We unbuckled our transom straps. Pulled forward one spot. Lifted the Honda 90 off the transom saver. Crept forward two spots. Fired up the graph. Nobody moved. Put the boat plug in. Slid forward one more spot. Grabbed the rest of our gear, loaded the boat and...
The Lumberjacks boys team continued its march toward tennis domination Tuesday, and captured the Lake Superior Conference championship as a result. The Lumberjacks shut out Hermantown 7-0 at Hermantown High School, squeaking the match in before the rains came Tuesday evening. Senior Peter Tomhave won over Ethan Halgren 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. At No. 2 singles, senior Kade Bender took a 6-1, 6-1 win over Nolan Brickson. No. 3 singles player Dennis Genereau (also a senior) defeated Chase Sams...
The Lumberjacks boys golf team dominated play at their home meet last week, with the team coming in 34 points ahead of the next-closest team and Sam Baker winning the individual play. The Cloquet-Esko boys actually won two meets this past week: the Lake Superior Conference meet May 8 in Cloquet and the Northern Invite at Giants Ridge Friday and Saturday, May 10-11. In the two-day Northern Invite event, the Lumberjacks posted a team score of 630 — 29 shots ahead of Woodbury, who finished in s...
The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton girls golf team has not participated in many meets this spring but they are growing into the game, now that the weather is cooperating. Last week the Lady ’Jacks competed in the Lake Superior Conference meet in Cloquet. While only Hermantown and CEC had enough participants on the girls’ side, head coach Matt Carlson said it was a great learning experience. “We have 15 girls out for this year’s team, which is the most it has been in years,” Carlson said. “We are very yo...
The Cloquet boys baseball team made the two-hour trip to Princeton Friday night and promptly handed the Tigers a 5-3 loss as the ‘Jacks picked up their fifth win on the season. “The boys have been playing better of late,” said Cloquet head coach Rick Norrgard. “We really had a tough stretch when we played seven games in eight days, which is very difficult for a high school pitching staff.” Sophomore pitcher Cade Anderson had a big day on the mound, pitching Cloquet to the win. “Cade threw well a...
Softball Friday, May 10 Cloquet-17 Princeton-3 The Lumberjacks scored five runs in the third, sixth and seventh innings to cruise to the road win in Princeton. The ‘Jacks bashed out 15 hits, including a three-run home run by Kiana Bender and three hits from Olivia Diver. Chisago Lakes-1 Cloquet-0 In a matchup of two top-ranked Section 7AAA teams, the Wildcats were able to slow down the normally hot-hitting Lumberjacks to take the win in Princeton. Cloquet loaded the bases in the first inning, but were unable to push a run across and took a t...
Finding and getting started on a great career right out of high school is rarely an easy task. Yet helping to make that happen is what Cloquet High School, through its building trades program, has set out to do with its students ... with a lot of help from some local trade unions. Vocational teachers Dusty Rhoades and Bret Gunderson led the way in transforming an already well-developed industrial arts program into a comprehensive building trades curriculum. While their diverse course offerings h...
In the largest individual investment in the Cloquet mill since 2013, Sappi North America announced last week that it recently completed a $25 million capital investment at the local mill to "debottleneck" areas of the pulp manufacturing process. Mike Schultz, managing director of the Sappi Cloquet Mill, said the bulk of the investment was made in the recovery areas of the pulp mill to "debottleneck" the mill's dissolving wood pulp production - which was the main focus of the $170 million...
The big kids went first. While Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College celebrated its graduation Thursday, May 16, the next couple weeks offer a flurry of high school graduation ceremonies in Carlton County. Graduations are listed chronologically below: • Cloquet Area Alternative Education Program (CAAEP): 2 p.m. Thursday, May 23 • Carlton High School: 7 p.m. Friday, May 24 • Cromwell-Wright High School: 7 p.m. Friday, May 24 • Wrenshall High School: 7 p.m. Friday, May 24 • Cloquet High School: 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 24 • Fond du Lac Ojibwe...
A BNSF Railway derailment Feb. 16 was caused by a broken wheel, BNSF reported to the Federal Railroad Administration. The broken wheel caused 40 (out of 121) loaded coal cars to derail from the train tracks about four miles west of Cloquet three months ago. Cleanup started almost immediately. The derailment dumped more than 4,000 tons of coal near or partially into the frozen St. Louis River. “BNSF conducts a thorough review of every incident because we want to understand what happened and why, and work to prevent it from happening in the f...
The Cloquet school board on Monday approved hiring high school business and technology teacher Chandra Allen as the next head coach of the cross-country teams this fall. Allen has been teaching in the district since 2013 and has coaching experience in track and field while working in the Floodwood district. She is a former competitive runner and has worked with the Lumberjack program as a parent of a runner. Allen told activities director Paul Riess that she wanted to “continue the strong tradition” of the cross-country program. Riess and for...
Well, it’s not exactly money well spent. But it’s essential to spend it. Our system depends on it. We’re talking about the money it costs the city of Cloquet to continually investigate complaints against city officials, police and councilors. We understand the frustration of taxpayers, who would prefer their funds be spent on roads, parks, protection and other essential city services. In recent years, the city has spent a significant amount of tax money investigating the former police chief, the current police chief, a council member and city...
Most of us take the mail for granted. For years, you dropped a letter into the mail and it reached its destination, for the small price of a stamp. “Lost in the mail” is a joke: Mail doesn’t get lost very often; it’s quite reliable and always has been. Until recently, that is. After the mail sorting station in Duluth closed, most of our mail is routed through the Twin Cities, and now takes longer than ever to get a simple letter from Moose Lake to Proctor. To that problem, I say: So what? I have...
Virtually everyone from east central Minnesota is familiar with WINDOW Victim Services in Carlton, Kanabec and Pine counties. They have been providing safe, specialized and accessible services to survivors of domestic assault and sexual violence for 33 years. WINDOW has been a triumph. Consider its 2018 results: in only one year, one in 50 people in the entire Senate district was directly helped by WINDOW’s services. This is a staggering achievement. Last year they advocated for 961 primary and 88 secondary crime victims, served 509 primary a...
We’re in the final days of this year’s legislative session, and as negotiations continue for what will be Minnesota’s budget for the next two years, I wanted to highlight the important investments we made in the DFL House, and our pathway ahead. The House’s budget proposal is the product of numerous values-based conversations my colleagues and I have had with Minnesotans all over the state. We’re taking our jobs seriously and addressing issues head-on, not burying our heads in the sand and hoping Minnesota’s issues resolve themselves....
Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me ... well, maybe just a little ... no, wait ... they definitely hurt me. Whether or not you voted for our current president, the greatest singular message that resonated with the American public, in my opinion, and likely the reason he was elected was the exaggerated vocalization of his antipathy towards “political correctness.” Speak all you will about his promise to “build the wall” or the fact that he was a political outside...
It seems that this column is made up of mostly area announcements, but that’s just the way it is. There are just so many things going on in our area and many folks have taken the time to thank me for putting these activities in the column so they don’t miss out on the ones they enjoy taking part in. You would think that there isn’t much to do in a small town, but you would be wrong. Because we are a small-town area, members of our community seem to keep busy helping each other and parti...
Wrenshall filmmaker - and a driving force behind the Free Range Film Festival - Mike Scholtz is making the rounds on the film festival circuit with his new documentary, "Riplist." On Wednesday, May 29, it will take the coveted 7 p.m. opening spot for the Duluth Superior Film Festival screening at the NorShor theater. The movie premiered at the Fargo Film Festival and recently played in Boston where the Boston Globe called it "morbidly whimsical." After screening at the Duluth festival it will...
Gerald "Jerry" Haller, 85, well-known musician and entertainer, passed away May 2, 2019 in the University of Minnesota Hospital ICU in Minneapolis with family at his side, from complications after surgery to repair a tear in the lining of his aorta. Jerry was born Dec. 27, 1933 to Alvin and Dorothy (Rapp) Haller of St. Paul, Minn. Much of his youth and summer vacations were spent with his beloved grandparents Chester and Ellen Rapp, on their farm by Forest Lake. As a teen he worked in his parent...
