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 police chief Jeff Palmer resigned last week, something which will change operations at the police department very little, as he had already been on “voluntary paid leave” since April 16. Palmer, whose salary was set at $102,096.37, submitted his resignation Thursday, Aug. 8, effective the same day. Patrol commander Carey Ferrell has been acting police chief since Palmer went on leave April 16, and city administrator Aaron Reeves said he expects him to continue in that role for now. Ferre...
Cloquet city officials got some unexpected news last week. It appears that Cloquet city administrator Aaron Reeves had no authority to make any decisions regarding the CAT-7 cable access station - including closing and moving the studio, cutting staff hours and spending reserve funds to equip the city's new council chambers for live streaming video - because the authority for the management of CAT-7 staff and resources lies with the cable commission. Former Carlton County commissioner and... Full story
Historic Minnesota events that took place Aug. 16-22. August 17 1862 Five young Dakota men murder the Baker family on a farm near Acton in Meeker County. Upon hearing this news, some Dakota leaders decide to launch a general attack on settler-colonists near the Lower Sioux Agency, beginning the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. August 18 1929 A 350-pound bear is killed in the Hotel Duluth's lounge. The bear followed truck driver Arvid Peterson and his shipment of fish into the city, and, attracted by the...
A Pequot Lakes man was arrested early Saturday on charges of possession of methamphetamine. Brandon James Salgy, 34, was charged Monday, Aug. 12, with first-degree possession of drugs in Sixth District Carlton County Court. According to the criminal complaint: Fond du Lac police officer Nils Hansen spotted a male and female walking on the Black Bear Casino floor wearing backpacks, which is against policy, and told casino security, which made contact with the two. Security then advised Hansen...
A singer and pastor from Iowa was arrested Saturday, Aug. 10, by Cloquet police officers on a warrant accusing the man of fondling two minor girls. Emanuel J. Rodriguez, 44, was charged in Douglas County, Nebraska, with two counts of third-degree sexual assault of a child. An affidavit filed Friday accused Rodriguez of fondling two girls between Jan. 1, 2017, and May 17, 2019, inside two homes in Omaha previously owned by Rodriguez. The girls are now ages 12 and 11. Cloquet acting police chief...
About a dozen people gathered at Thomson Town Hall Thursday evening for a brainstorming session on both the present and the future. On Tuesday, at the National Night Out celebration in Esko, community members of all ages were standing in line to voice their opinions on the place where they live, go to school, play and maybe even work. It’s all a part of developing the township’s next Comprehensive Plan, an effort that last happened in 1999. A lot of things have changed since then. The tow...
It was quite a first meeting for interim Ward 3 Cloquet city councilor Chris Swanson last Wednesday. The agenda appeared simple and uncontroversial. Then Ward 2 councilor Sheila Lamb made a motion to deny a routine donation from Enbridge Energy to the National Night Out celebration put on by Cloquet police, asserting that if the company's Line 3 pipeline goes through, sex trafficking will increase in Cloquet and other Carlton County communities. "A $1,000 donation is not worth putting a single... Full story
The Highway 210 project through Cromwell is unable to be delivered in 2020 as planned, and MnDOT staff will attend the Cromwell city council meeting Aug. 21 to give an update and field any questions. The project is now scheduled to be constructed in 2021. MnDOT staff will attend the Cromwell city council meeting Wednesday, Aug. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Cromwell Park Pavilion and provide more information. The public is encouraged to attend and ask questions. For more information on the project, visit http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/hwy...
The Eighth District VFW and its 22 member posts are holding two events this weekend. Attend a picnic in Cloquet’s Veterans Park 5:30-8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17. Open to all VFW members, auxiliary members and their families. The cost is $7 per person. There is a meeting Sunday, Aug. 18, starting at 9 a.m. at VFW Post 3979, 210 Arch Street, Cloquet. Lunch will be served after meeting....
The Minnesota Department of Health is encouraging Minnesota health care providers to be on alert for novel cases of severe lung disease potentially related to vaping and e-cigarette use among teens and young adults. Children’s Minnesota has reported finding four cases of severe lung injury in the metro area, potentially related to vaping. These cases are similar to lung disease cases recently reported in Wisconsin and Illinois, though it is too early to say whether they are connected. In Minnesota, symptoms have resulted in hospitalizations l...
With little public input, the Carlton County commissioners unanimously voted to change the Office of Auditor/Treasurer from an elected to an appointed position. Cloquet’s Clarence Badger was the only person to address the board during the public hearing, and he opposed the change. “It is not right to have just five people choose an important county leader,” Badger said. “Elected offices should not be taken away from the people’s right to choose.” The hearing was held during the Aug. 12 regular board meeting of the county commissione...
The stalemate over a joint powers agreement between the Big Lake Area Sanitary District and the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa required a mediation session this week. Results of that effort, which began Wednesday, were not available when this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press. The mediation was agreed upon by both bodies in an effort to finalize a deal that would allow a release of funding and construction of a new sewage collection system in the Big Lake area in order to...
A look at the good and bad in the area this month: Cheers: To good folks at Kingdom Builders Ministries who organized the annual Wood City Music Festival last week. It’s a positive event for our city, an excellent use of Veterans Park and draws visitors to our community. How they manage to put on such a great show, attract thousands of people, and not charge a dime for admission is amazing. Lee Harris, president of the group, also knows how to make a great cup of coffee at the group’s Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli on Avenue C. Jeers: To the...
The “Help Wanted” sign is out again at City Hall. Not only does Cloquet need to hire a new police chief, we also need to find a good city administrator. Those are two of the most important city positions, and we need to proceed carefully and deliberately. Let’s hope the new employees will be in their jobs for a long time. Hiring is a tricky process. There’s a reason why selecting new employees starts with a resume but ends with an interview — we’re looking for the right person for the job. While...
Now that we have the insane wolf hunting stopped, what about adopting a sane policy regarding the unnecessary bear hunting season? ... And while we’re at it we might take notice of the beauty of our woods and lakes and rivers while they’re still here because, don’t look now, but Mr. Peabody’s big trucks are hauling it away, every day. Speaking of the woods ... the woods are the home of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, all around us. I know it’s true and so do many of our friends and neighbors. They are not apes, animals. They are some sort of human, an...
At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, the council voted 4:3 to refuse a $1,000 donation from Enbridge to help defray expenses for the city’s National Night Out event at Veterans Memorial Park and also any future donations. I am, among other things, the chairman of the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail Extension Committee, which is a group of local volunteers whose sole purpose is to raise money to extend the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail from its existing 2.3 miles to the planned 5 miles. There is $125,000 budgeted for this project. In the...
Last week I wrote about the problems we face when examining preventive measures in regard to the horrific acts at the hands of the mentally ill. Acts that have taken the lives of so many — needlessly — to fulfil a message of hate written into their manifestos, drawn with the blood of the innocent. I left off after briefly touching on where we stand in this society with gun ownership and what limitations should be imposed to prevent the deranged from having access to an instrument that can inf...
As a matter of civic duty, I share my thoughts. As our city continues to recover from bad politics, our newest interim police chief is perhaps demonstrating why he wasn’t picked as interim when former police chief Steve Stracek was forced into administrative leave while the false allegations against him were being investigated. As I read the Aug. 2 Pine Knot News article concerning former chief Lamirande’s complaint with the — clearly obvious — endorsement of Hallback by four of our officers, I am again in awe at the thickness of the thin bl...
Here are a few thoughts for consideration by our elected official and concerned citizens. With the departure of the city administrator and the police chief, the mayor and city councilors have many decisions ahead of them. The current turmoil and budget overruns need to be dealt with to eventually establish an efficient and dependable police department. Does the current police study include not only the issues with the Cloquet police department, but also a look at the city’s option to hire the Carlton County sheriff’s department to provide law...
It's fair time! With the official start of the 129th annual Carlton County Fair only a couple days away, on Tuesday the 4-H students were showing off their projects in hopes of impressing the judges enough to earn a spot down at the Minnesota State Fair. Each project eventually goes before a panel of judges who interviews the child and rank each project. The judge's job isn't easy, as each project must be checked and graded based on factors such as quality and the interview. The judges must... Full story
Stephen Richard Krogh, 72, of Duluth died at St. Luke’s Hospital April 22, 2019. Visitation: 1 p.m. until the 2 p.m. memorial service Saturday, Aug. 17 at the Cromwell United Methodist Church. Debra Louise Kucera, 58, of Cloquet died peacefully at home on Sunday, Aug. 11, 2019. Visitation: 5-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18 in the Atkins Northland Funeral Home, Cloquet, and resuming at 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. Celebration of Deb’s Life Monday, Aug. 19 in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Cloquet. A time of lunch and fellowship will follow in the church socia... Full story
The second joint board meeting this summer to broach the idea of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts, in Wrenshall Monday, went much like the meeting in July at South Terrace in Carlton. Until it didn’t. After a series of statements about goals and visions for the districts, and talk of how each district could use its facilities in a school pairing, Wrenshall’s Michele Blanchard had heard enough. It was her sentiment, soon agreed on by other Wrenshall board members, that the Carlton board seemed to keep thr...
In light of cuts to academic programs earlier this year to help with budget costs, Cloquet school board members said Monday that they were happy to vote in favor of increasing fees to help cover costs for additional coaching and theater staff. At last month’s July 8 meeting, board members had approved adding five extracurricular positions to help cover teams heavy on student athletes but light on coaching. Board members then directed activities director Paul Riess to look into ways to raise a...
Author Tim Jollymore continues to evolve. He grew up in Cloquet in the 1950s and '60s and held many different jobs from tree planter to traveling salesman to corporate manager to teacher. He moved from Minnesota to California and today splits his year between the two states. He began his writing career at age 62 and has published four novels, and recently spent time in Italy and Tunisia to research his fifth novel. In this interview with Tim, he talks about his writing, his life, and what it...
Although it is summer and no classes are in session, much work continues at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College. We are looking forward to having students back on campus and to another great year. The college’s $1.157 million bonding project is nearing completion. The Maajiigi (Start to Grow) project involves remodeling three classrooms, two that will specifically be for FDLTCC’s elementary education program and will provide flexible learning space for students. Other updates include completion of the kitchen area with brand-new equipment,...
