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 Cloquet resident Robert Peacock got sick with Covid-19, he decided to share his experience with the world, blogging on Facebook, calling friends, sharing the unpleasant details of living through disease. Following in the footsteps of his friend Pokey Paro, who blogged about dying of kidney disease, he wanted to break down the walls, and let family and friends in Indian Country know they should go to the doctor when they feel ill, get tested, follow guidelines. "It's important because it is...
Normally, Labor Day in Cloquet is a busy day filled with all kinds of festivities, from parades to picnics to carnivals and rabble-rousing folk singers in the park. Add one more coronavirus casualty to the list. Instead of adding to more than a century of festivities, this year’s events were canceled to keep people from gathering in large numbers and potentially spreading the disease through close contact. It was about the time that the Labor Day events were canceled that Carlton County DFL party chair Patty Murto said she was driving by a b...
Historic Minnesota events with anniversaries this week. Sept. 4 1908 A forest fire burns Chisholm, causing millions of dollars in damage and leaving 6,000 homeless. 1939 Duluth’s Incline Railway makes its final trip. Built in 1891 for $400,000, it had carried passengers up Seventh Avenue from Superior to Ninth Street, a distance of 2,749 feet. Sept. 6 1889 Bob Younger dies in the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater, where he was serving a life sentence for his role in the Jesse James/Cole Younger gang’s Northfield bank raid on Sept. 7, 1876. F...
The nights are cooler and even daytime temperatures are dropping, so this tree on Washington Avenue in Cloquet got a head start on its autumn wardrobe. All the leaves except one branch near the bottom are already dressed in vivid red, while nearby trees are still fully green. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fall color guide shows the northeast and southern parts of the state with 0-10 percent change of color, with the rest of the state still in full summer mode. Keep track of fall...
Several Cloquet players including Mireye Moose and Katelyn Kelley (pictured) and Ilie Benson took a knee during the playing of the national anthem Tuesday before the girls soccer game against Esko. After the game, all three stressed that they were not kneeling to show disrespect for any current or former military members, but rather to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement and to protest police brutality and the unfair treatment Black people and People of Color receive more often at...
In a straw poll during the Sept. 1 work session, Cloquet city councilors gave hope to want-to-be chicken owners all over Cloquet. After a relatively quick rehash of the past seven years of chicken debates in Cloquet, city administrator Tim Peterson first asked councilors if they would allow chickens in the suburban residential zones of Cloquet, neighborhoods such as the Antus Addition by Hilltop and Erickson Acres, where lots are larger. While no one objected to allowing residents to keep...
With positive Covid-19 cases trending upward in Carlton County, some schools are taking a second look at the idea of all students attending school in person this fall. In Carlton, according to superintendent John Engstrom, school will still open the first week (Sept. 8-11) in person, but students in grades 7-12 will transition to a hybrid model — with students doing both distance and in-person learning — starting Monday, Sept. 14 through at least Oct. 2. As of last Thursday, the rate in Car...
Mark Lanigan has been named Bank President of the Frandsen Bank & Trust Cloquet office, effective Aug. 12. Lanigan, a native of Waterloo, Iowa has more than 30 years of banking experience, the last 19 years in the Duluth, Minnesota market. Prior to joining Frandsen, he spent 18 years with Republic Bank as a vice president/commercial banker. More recently, he served as a senior vice president/commercial banker for Bell Bank. "We're excited to welcome Mark to Frandsen Bank and the Cloquet communit...
National Bank of Commerce continues its growth and expansion with the addition of a new associate, hiring Roger Mischke as vice president-commercial banker. Roger is from Grand Rapids, Minnesota. He has a bachelor of science degree from Kent State University and 19 years of banking experience. Working out of NBC’s Hibbing office, Roger will build relationships with both current and new commercial customers to help local businesses and communities grow. National Bank of Commerce is headquartered in downtown Superior and also has locations in D...
On Friday, Aug. 28, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa welcomed Dr. Deborah Birx, the Whitehouse coronavirus response coordinator, to hear about the Tribe's experience and efforts around Covid-19. The pandemic has brutally swept through Indian Country. Fond du Lac has not been spared. The reservation recently experienced positive cases earlier this month. Keeping the virus away from FDL has been the priority since the beginning for the Band, FDL's Emergency Operations Center, and...
Positive COVID-19 cases continue to climb in Carlton County, with the Minnesota Department of Health reporting a cumulative (since March) total of 196 cases here as of Wednesday, Sept. 2, up 17 from the previous Wednesday. Over the past month, since Aug. 3, the number of cases here has risen by 71 cases. Anyone who has symptoms of COVID-19 or who has been exposed to someone they think may have the disease is encouraged to seek testing. Symptoms can include fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, headache, muscle pain, sore throat, fatigue,...
All Carlton County offices will be closed on Monday, Sept. 7, in observance of the Labor Day Holiday. This includes county courthouse offices, the transportation department, Public Health and Human Services, the motor vehicle license bureau, Veterans Services, and the University of Minnesota Extension Service. The Highway 210 transfer station will also be closed on Monday. City offices across the county and post offices will also be closed Monday....
St. Luke's opened its new emergency department and cardiac catheterization laboratories Aug. 25. The $37.5 million project includes a new emergency department triple the size of the current space. There are 37 exam rooms, which include 27 general treatment rooms, four trauma rooms, four mental health treatment rooms and two triage rooms, as well as a decontamination room with eight stations, a bereavement room and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner room. The 17-month project also provides the region's most technologically advanced cardiac cath...
Essentia Health’s Vision Northland project was selected for an Honorable Mention award in Healthcare Design Magazine’s 2020 Design Showcase. EwingCole, a nationally recognized architecture, engineering and interior design firm based in Philadelphia, led the design. The panelists noted the design’s “innovative use of materials, shapes and forms and leveraging daylighting, nature and views,” along with being “mindful of social responsibility, with passive solar, vegetative roof, etc. This project is probably the most advanced and conscientio...
A Scanlon man accused of holding a woman against her will and raping her repeatedly in July already had a criminal sexual assault case working its way through the court system. Dennis Michael St. John Jr., 53, was charged with domestic assault and third-degree criminal sexual conduct-force or coercion in August 2018, a case that is set for a jury trial in October. Additionally, in the most recent case, St. John is charged with three counts of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct and additional felony counts for kidnapping, threats of...
Cloquet and Carlton County have thrived on the back of labor since the first sawmills appeared at Knife Falls in the 1880s. It’s still an important presence in our community even after all this time. Last year, the annual Labor Day parade celebrated its 100th birthday (even though it was likely the 102nd). This year, we’re sad that the parade was canceled due to the pandemic. But just because there’s no parade doesn’t mean we can’t honor those who built our country, fought for the living wage and decent working conditions, and united the worke...
I’ve hired quite a few pizza delivery drivers over the years, mostly high school boys, but sometimes girls and adults. But, mostly, my delivery drivers are young. The first question I ask during the interview is: “Have you ever been in an accident?” Most kids are anticipating my preferred answer and respond, proudly: “No, I’ve never been in a car accident.” I tell them to come back after they have been. That’s because no invincible teenager ever really, truly appreciates the power and danger of...
Whoever thought of last year’s Washington Avenue project obviously doesn’t live on this street or own a business. Numerous times my neighbors and I have been almost run over either by trying to cross or get the mail. Putting in center turn lanes was useless. Trying to back out of the driveway is impossible. When emergency or law enforcement vehicles come, where are drivers supposed to move to? Up the curb and into someone’s yard? There’s no place to park for parishioners, or having sales or family events. This country is taking away our fre...
Over the past month, our area schools have had to redesign their spaces and curricula to cope with Covid-19 and submit their plans to the Minnesota Department of Education. Thanks to the size of the school, Cromwell-Wright’s leadership team, teachers and staff have opted for a fairly unique hybrid learning model, which allows all students to return to school on Sept. 8 but follows the state guidelines for a hybrid model (which has stricter social distancing requirements). The board adopted t...
When everyone’s drunk or getting there on a Saturday night and you’re not, there’s an island you inhabit where the intense loneliness of being surrounded by other humans stings less than during the sober, awkward daylight hours. This is because the innate ability of humans to sense another human’s loneliness is compromised, meaning they don’t treat you like a lonely person like they do when they see you in the grocery store, avoiding eye contact (thank God) or at the grad party or at church or...
Here we go again. We don’t need draconian measures to “fix” the postal service. What we need is to quit voting for Republicans until they sign a pledge to give up their harebrained schemes to privatize it. The postal service has worked well for 200 years, and it would be just fine yet, if the political tinkering just stopped. Before we insist on the postal service making a profit, we should insist that the armed forces should. Maybe the Air Force could start taking passengers, and the Navy could give cruises. I’m not sure what the Army could do...
According to a 2017 Minnesota Management and Budget report, Minnesota, with 780 fire departments, has the nation’s second-highest percentage — 88 percent — within the fire service that relies on more than 20,000 either paid on call or volunteer firefighters. Volunteer firefighters answer the call to service, yet it takes time for the volunteers to respond to the fire hall, obtain gear and the response vehicle. Please consider joining a volunteer fire department. The department will assist in obtaining the necessary firefighter and emergency med...
Steven Dale Twaddle, 68, of Virginia passed away peacefully on Aug. 26, 2020 with his loving family by his side. Steve was raised in Scanlon and graduated from Cloquet High School in 1970. He married Suzanne Gerard on Sept. 15, 1972 in Cloquet. Steve worked as a heavy equipment operator and service truck driver at U.S. Steel Minntac for almost 32 years and most recently was doing what he loved, driving special needs students for the Virginia public schools. An avid sports fan, he coached Little...
Kenneth Alan Suominen, 71, of Cloquet died Aug. 26, 2020 in St. Luke's Hospital. He was born on April 10, 1949 to Toivo and Muriel (Parenteau) Suominen in Cloquet. Ken married Barbara Maslowski on July 27, 1968. He was a U.S. Air Force veteran, serving on active duty 1973-79, and finishing his career at the 148th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard. Ken liked to tinker in the garage working on engines, his plane or other projects. He had a love of fishing and hunting; he always had a...
Janice "Jan" A. Menze, 82, passed away on Aug. 28, 2020 at Inter-Faith Care Center. Jan was born on January 14, 1938 in Moose Lake to Toge and Helen Anderson. She attended school in Holyoke, and Klamath Falls, Oregon. Jan retired from the Carlton Nursing Home in 1998. On Aug. 2, 1958 she married Jerry Menze in San Jose, California. The couple resided in the Twin Cities before moving to Holyoke. Jan was a member of St. Matthews Church in Esko. She recently lived in a senior apartment where she...
