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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By the end of next week, Paul Gassert will retire from his job as Carlton County auditor/treasurer. Gassert has been with the county since 1990 and is one of the longest-serving elected officials in the county. Gassert announced his decision to retire effective May 31 at the tail end of the Carlton County Board of Commissioners meeting on May 14. Chairman Dick Brenner said Gassert's announcement caught the County Board completely by surprise. "Thinking about it after the shock was over, I...
Richard Allen Likness Sr., 63, of Madison, Wis. passed away Wednesday, May 22, 2019 in Agrace HospiceCare. He was born on June 19, 1955 and was adopted by Joseph and June Likness. He grew up in Saginaw and attended AlBrook School. He started working on the farm at the age of 15, and went on to work at the Diamond Match Co. in Cloquet. He moved to Madison where he married Yvonne Seabury on Sept. 16, 1989. Richard worked at Certco Inc. as a high forklift operator until retiring in 2016. Richard...
On Memorial Day weekend, we honor those who have died serving in the U.S. military. While Esko's Dale Erickson survived his stint in the Korean War, he came home a different person. "Some Marines never find their souls again," he writes in his memoir. "A part of them remains missing for the rest of their lives and they forever struggle." The memoir details relentless battles, dead bodies and near-death experiences. As we approach Memorial Day, a time when we honor our military veterans for the...
Hardcover with dust jacket 288 pages - 80 original and historically significant photos/images, many in full color including scenic photos, battlefield images, and flight plan and target maps. 8.5 x 11 portrait orientation Author: Gerald I. Reponen, Lt. Col. USAF Ret. $29.95 Website: www.savpress.com Contact the author at [email protected]. Gerald I. Reponen, a gentleman who grew up in Duluth as well as the Esko area, has documented his literal life and death experiences in the air and on...
Robotics teams from Cloquet and Esko got a taste of the big stage spotlight in Detroit in late April during the FIRST Championship. FIRST, an acronym for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" was a new experience for Cloquet students this year. Ripsaw Robotics coach Cameron Lindner said he is excited to see where things will go after the inaugural season. "We need to focus on ... finding mentors for the next season." That means the team will be looking for adults with...
Memorial Day begins early for Honor Guard members each year, as they stop at the various cemeteries dotted across the county. It’s important to make that effort, said Cloquet Combined Honor Guard Captain Rich Chasse. “What we do, what people do when they go to these programs and cemeteries, it honors those veterans who died in combat,” said Chasse, who joined the military during Vietnam, but is a Korean service veteran, having served three tours there. “They made it possible for us to be able...
After some debate Tuesday, Cloquet city councilors unanimously approved a temporary pay raise for Cloquet police commander Carey Ferrell, who has been fulfilling the duties of police chief since Chief Jeff Palmer went on “voluntary paid leave” effective April 16. The increase will take Ferrell’s pay rate from $85,722 per year to $102,096 a year, prorated for each month. The raise will be backdated a month, and the council approved two additional months of extra pay but asked that the arrangement...
Last week, I was able to attend a two-day workshop on stormwater practices geared towards teaching the best ways to inspect and maintain green stormwater infrastructure. No doubt, the workshop is tailored to a niche community which I happily take interest in but understand that many others do not. This meant getting deep into the weeds about various runoff management devices and techniques that help us alleviate the problems with uncontrolled runoff while also examining the nuances between...
Work on an extensive habitat restoration project will take place this summer in the St. Louis River estuary, where the river enters Lake Superior. The two-part project will restore 240 acres of coastal wetland habitat in the upper St. Louis River estuary, a wetland complex between Duluth and Superior. The Kingsbury Bay and Grassy Point project areas were identified in 2013 as two of 17 sites located in the St. Louis River "Area of Concern" in need of habitat restoration. Construction is expected...
A late rally by Cloquet helped propel the Lumberjack baseball team to a 7-5 win over next-door neighbor Esko at Ed Mettner field in Cloquet Tuesday evening. The 'Jacks trailed 4-2 entering the bottom of the sixth inning, but plated five runs to take a 7-4 lead and then hung on in the seventh inning for the win. "That was nice to see because we have been struggling to score runs at times," said Cloquet coach Rick Norrgard. "We have left a lot of runners on base. It does seem that when we score ru...
The Cloquet boys tennis team opened the Section 7A boys tennis tournament by thumping Duluth Marshall 7-0 on Friday and then being bounced out of the playoffs 4-3 on Saturday by Virginia. "Getting that 7-0 quarterfinal winner over Duluth Marshall was nice," said Cloquet coach Derek Johnson. "They beat us 4-3 in playoffs last year so it felt good to return the favor this year with a sweep. The team played great all around." Peter Tomhave got the ball rolling in the right direction by taking an...
Cloquet senior Peter Tomhave is the Section 7A champion, again. Individual sections play began Tuesday in Duluth at Longview Tennis Center where Tomhave, Cloquet's No. 1 singles player, steamrolled the opposition. Tomhave demolished Hermantown's Nolan Brickson 6-0, 6-0 before moving on to defeat Marshall's Andrew Pavlova 6-0, 6-2 on Tuesday. He capped that performance Wednesday, defeating Virginia's Joe Hafdahl in the semifinals, to advance to the championship match against Eveleth-Gilbert's Rob...
The Eskomos boys track team captured the 2019 Polar League Track and Field Championship crown last week in Esko while the girls team took a close second to Two Harbors. The Esko boys finished ahead of Two Harbors with a team total of 145.5 points while the Agates ended with 88 points, one point ahead of the third-place Moose Lake-Willow River Rebels. Barnum took fourth place for the boys teams. Esko’s Sam Rengo was a two-event winner on the boys side, capturing the 800-meter race with a time o...
Baseball Baseball Thursday, May 16 Barnum-9 East Central-6 Ryan Weller pitched the Bombers to the win by giving up just three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings of work in Barnum on Thursday. Weller picked up seven strikeouts in the win on the mound. Colton Porter, Jacob Hultgren, Isaac Golen and Dawson Sample all had two hits with Sample adding three RBIs. Friday, May 17 Carlton-5 Cook County-3 Kaden Crane continued his hot pitching streak by shutting down the Vikings and allowing seven hits while striking out six in the win. The Bulldogs trailed...
Jamie startled me awake in the middle of the night. She nonchalantly informed me, “You have something in your trap.” We peered shoulder-to-shoulder into the backyard. The moon illuminated a rectangular silhouette just off the back steps. Sure enough, the live trap I had set was tripped. The trap door was slammed shut, and the skunk we had been after for weeks was locked inside. Great, now what? Admittedly, I hadn’t played the scenario completely through. When we decided the skunk had to go, n...
The Cloquet boys and girls track teams ran away with the Lake Superior Conference titles May 14, in Superior. The Lumberjacks boys took first place with 192.50 points with Denfeld finishing a distant second with 129.50. The Cloquet girls team easily outdistanced second-place Hermantown, outscoring the Hawks 201.50 to 153.50. On the girls side, sisters Kendra Kelley and Katelyn Kelley went 1-2 in the 100-meter dash with Kendra winning in a time of 12.94 and Kaitlyn finishing in a time of 13.24....
The Carlton school district is flirting with the possibilities of consolidation with Cloquet as discussion with Wrenshall has ebbed and flowed over the past few years. At the school board meeting Monday, there was some back-and-forth about how Carlton superintendent Gwen Carmen is approaching Cloquet. School board members Ann Gustafson and Jennifer Chmielewski said they thought the board agreed last month that it was going to devise a letter to send to Cloquet. Instead, they heard this week that Carmen met with Cloquet superintendent Mike...
Cloquet had 29 students participate in the Minnesota Academy of Science State Science Fair in March. The annual competition showcases Minnesota's best and brightest students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math. Six students from Cloquet received Grand awards - the top award at state - recognizing excellence in scientific research. Students are ranked according to their poster and presentation score. There are gold, silver and bronze Grand awards. Eighth-grader Emily...
Have you heard the old saying, "How do you eat an elephant? ... One bite at a time." I heard this saying often when I was young and wondered what it meant, and: Who would want to eat an elephant? As I got older, I found the explanation was quite simple. How do you do anything that seems like a huge task? One bite at a time. So take the "elephant" and apply it to the big tasks in life. How do you spring clean your house? One room at a time. How do you advance your career? One skill or...
Our region is flush with great food. From the Fond du Lac Band's indigenous gardeners to Mahtowa beekeepers, Wrenshall sustainable farmers, Carlton shiitake mushroom growers, Esko picklers, Moose Lake brewers, and Cromwell orchardists - the "grow, shop and eat local region" is prospering here. Meet our food lovers and enjoy the favorite dishes they actually cook and eat at home. Meet Francois Medion Growing up in a farm family north of the Bordeaux region in southwest France - where wine and...
Anyone who has driven through our neck of the woods lately will know that the Wrenshall General Store has been continually improving and expanding its business. “We have a lot going on here” said owner Jeff Bloom. He and his wife Elizabeth have been operating the general store since the fall of 2016. They have a storage facility, online auction site and live bait for sale. The latest addition also left them a bit of topsoil to sell. The couple has been building an above-ground facility to sel...
The Floodwood VFW Post 8299 will perform its annual Memorial Day military rites at Veterans Memorial in Wright at 11 a.m. Monday, May 27. Coffee and goodies will be served at Bethlehem Lutheran Church after the ceremony, since we do not have a café in town yet. The VFW will be at the Memorial Day service at Forest Hill Cemetery in Cromwell at 8:05 a.m. Monday. The coffee will be on at Bethany Lutheran in Cromwell on Monday, May 27 starting at 7 a.m. Come and enjoy DeeDee Debele’s homemade bi...
It may sound like the real deal, but the Federal Trade Commission and the Social Security Administration are warning people to beware of fake calls that claim to come from Social Security. According to the FTC, the caller usually says your Social Security number has been suspended because of suspicious activity, or because it’s been involved in a crime. Sometimes, the scammer wants you to confirm your SSN to reactivate it. Sometimes, he says your bank account is about to be seized — but if you go put your money on gift cards and then give him...
Do you love to go for walks to see the emerging wildflowers, to hear the call of frogs in our ponds, to listen to the songs of the birds newly arrived from the south? Perhaps you find joy in nature all year long. If so, the Minnesota Master Naturalist program may interest you. It is an opportunity to learn about our woods, waters and wildlife, to meet others who share your interests, and to encourage people to appreciate nature's gifts at our door. The Master Naturalist program is sponsored by t...
This past fall, cross-country skiers performing trail maintenance in Carlton County's Fond du Lac State Forest came upon a mess. Loggers earlier in the year had obliterated our sturdy ski trail marker. A tenth of a mile of trash wood smothered our trail. We asked the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forestry office in Cloquet to require the logging company to remove the trash wood. We were told the contract was closed. It took several of us on two daylong trips to restore a makeshift...
