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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Nothing changed at Churchill Elementary School on Friday when U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the 2022 National Blue Ribbon Schools - and the Cloquet school as one of 297 to make the list. Teachers and staff at the school were still doing what they do, students were still attending classes, studying and hanging out with friends. But there was extra excitement in the air, a little sense of being recognized as something special. It's a big deal. National Blue Ribbon Schools...
Head to the West End of Cloquet on Saturday for a free outdoor, pedestrian-friendly street festival featuring artists, entrepreneurs, shopping and an outdoor food court with live music. Aimed at giving residents a feel for what the historic West End used to be, the West End Flourish is also a reminder of what it could be in the future. That’s the goal, said Ivan Hohnstadt, Pine Knot News advertising manager and the orchestrator of Saturday’s second annual West End Flourish event. “We want people to see and enjoy the West End,” he said. Avenues...
Until forced to close this summer to make way for a construction site, the Scanlon fishing pier off Highway 61 had been a popular, yet hard-to-quantify destination. "We had no idea how popular a fishing spot this was until we fenced it off," said LaRae Lehto. "Very popular," added Paul Adams. "A lot of high school and middle school kids were upset this summer," Lehto concluded. The reason for fencing off the fishing pier and canoe-and-kayak launch near the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District...
The girls soccer game in Esko kicked off under an impressive cloud bank Tuesday, as cooler weather rolled in following one of the warmer days this week....
A teachers union-led candidate forum for Wrenshall school board had a kumbaya vibe Tuesday. But conflict currently affecting the board wasn't far behind, as three current board members declined to attend. Instead, they authored a mailer telling residents that teachers were behaving "improperly" by being involved in the election process. It didn't stop candidates Eric Ankrum, Mary Carlson, Kristin Reinsch and Ben Johnson from greeting roughly 70 teachers and members of the public. The hour-long...
The Thomson Township board of supervisors defended itself this week after closing a public meeting to discuss applicants to fill an open seat on the board. The board went into what it termed “closed meeting” on Sept. 8 to discuss what was labeled on the agenda as “a personnel issue.” In fact, the board was meeting to discuss replacement of Jason Paulson, who resigned in August from the board with two years remaining on his term. Paulson cited a staffing shortage in the airline industry, causing him to work more hours as a pilot. In private...
For its latest production, the County Seat Theater Company dipped into the comedy stylings of Phyllis Diller, Lily Tomlin and Joan Rivers for "Spreading It Around." Written by Londos D'Arrigo, a hard-hitting comedy writer for the aforementioned celebrities, the play will debut at the Encore! Performing Arts Center in Cloquet beginning this weekend. Angela Drayton plays Deborah Weckert, a wealthy widow living in an upscale retirement community. She's tired of handing out money to her...
As countries, cities and groups from around the world mark Climate Week 2022, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa hosted state agency leaders to share actions the Band is taking to address climate change. The tour, held on Day 2 of Climate Week, included a visit to the Reservation's resource management center and the solar energy site. Leaders from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Board of Water and Soil Resources, and the departments of Natural Resources, Employment and...
What turned out to be a false 911 call reporting “an active threat of violence” at Cloquet High School Wednesday morning sent law enforcement racing to the building, where students and staff were unaware of any problems. “The phone call was a hoax, but it threw both buildings into lockdown,” Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary said. A news release from the Cloquet police department said the Carlton County Sheriff's dispatch center received a call at 10:37 a.m. from an unknown, unidentified person stating there was an armed suspect with an AK-4...
News that the police department secured a $110,000 grant to pay for a DWI enforcement officer came as welcome relief to Cloquet city officials Tuesday. Not only will it bring an increased focus on driving-while-impaired arrests and education, police chief Derek Randall said they will fill the position with a current officer, so city funds allocated to pay that salary and benefits will be freed up for other uses. That could mean purchasing police body cameras — which were discussed, but didn’t make the budget — or replacing the department’s stun...
You've heard of manna from heaven? Last weekend, 432 volunteers came to the Cloquet Armory and packed 109,080 special MannaPack rice meals for the Feed my Starving Children charity in a "mobile pack" event. "Our community is awesome," said host Alyssa Snesrud. "It's so fun to see everyone coming together to do so much good, and to have fun while doing it." Snesrud said she and her husband had brought their kids to several FMSC MobilePack events in the Twin Cities when they lived there, so she...
Cloquet Ward 3 city council candidate Pete Erickson has a unique challenge this fall: he has to get voters to do more than fill in a box next to his name. For Erickson to win, voters will have to actually write his name, and NOT fill in the box next to the listed candidate's name: Chris Swanson. In the meantime, Swanson is running his own informal "Please don't vote for me" campaign, after moving out of Ward 3 and stepping down as councilor in August. August was too late to change the ballots fo...
Superintendent John Engstrom confirmed Monday that the Carlton school district will proceed with further talks with Wrenshall on sharing sports and other after-school activities. Engstrom noted that both district boards have passed an agreement to split costs evenly. After Carlton approved the agreement earlier this summer, the Wrenshall board unanimously approved an agreement this month. “My recommendation is that the subcommittee gets back together and talks about when the agreement should officially take effect, and if there are some c...
Driving around town, you’ll find remnants of long-forgotten commercial activity in many neighborhoods, corner groceries and old gas stations that have evolved into residential space, as most commercial activity moved downtown or to the Highway 33 corridor over the years. The West End of Cloquet is one of those sites. Once the thriving center of Cloquet, it held City Hall, the police station, and many of the most important businesses in town. The original town square was in the West End. So was the train station, and the town’s movie the...
I recently read your article in the paper that discussed the upcoming bike race and the worry this has created for the ski club. As a mother of a member of our local cycling team, I was bothered by some of the comments and lack of acceptance or excitement about this upcoming race. We as a city tend to pride ourselves on supporting local sporting events, so to have cycling looked at as hindrance is rather disappointing. If we pride ourselves on accepting and encouraging our youth to be active and engaged in sports or other activities then we...
As a mid-70s-year-old male I’ve never witnessed a more divided America than today. While the insurrection was caused by a conspiracy crowd off misguided instructions by the former, twice-impeached president, Fox News anchors are claiming the IRS is coming with loaded AR-15s to take down small businesses. There is a cancer eating up our democracy and I believe Fox News, as well as most religious leaders, have steered their flocks to vote for the party for life no matter if the leader told 30-plus thousand lies, had three wives, tried to o...
For 24 football seasons, Dave Louzek has been at the helm of the Moose Lake/Willow River Rebels. During that time Louzek has clung to a philosophy that regular-season games are solely used to get a team ready for the playoffs. "That is one of the reasons we always try to schedule Hermantown in the first game of the year," said Louzek. "It allows us to play a good football team that exposes our weaknesses and allows us to learn more about what we have to do to get better." After an opening...
Trades are frequent in junior hockey, and to determine if one works can take weeks or months. But for the Minnesota Wilderness last weekend, the return was instant. The team went 2-1 after acquiring forwards Kevin Marx Noren and Noah Griswold on Thursday, including a record-breaking performance from Noren in his first game with the team. After scoring only five goals in losing its opening three games, the team went on to score 11 while participating in the four-day, 29-team conference showcase at the National Sports Center in Blaine,...
Entering Tuesday night's game against Two Harbors, the Esko girls soccer team sported a gaudy record of 8-1 and had the second best QRF ranking in the state. The Agates came in as the No. 30 ranked team with a 4-4-1 record. When the final horn sounded at the Esko Athletic Complex, it was the Eskomos who came away with a 6-0 victory. It didn't come easy at first. The Eskomos held only a 1-0 lead after the first half of play. "We struggled for possession and came out flat in the first half," said...
Now into her second season as coach of the Fond du Lac girls volleyball team, Larissa Littlewolf is seeing marked growth in the program. "We have 26 girls in the program," Littlewolf said. "In fact, we are looking at possibly adding a 'C' team to go along with our varsity and junior varsity teams." Last Thursday the Ogichidaag rewarded themselves, their coach and their fans with an impressive come-from-behind victory over Lakeview Christian Academy. After losing the first two games of the match...
The annual match between Cloquet-Esko-Carlton and Duluth East finished with a dramatic 3-2 win for CEC on Thursday, Sept. 15. The 'Jacks had early trouble, with Greyhound senior Pete Onchwari scoring just 4 minutes into the game. It didn't take long for a sharp East offense to find their second goal, coming in the 16th minute from an Evan Tomczyk long shot. Their domination continued throughout the first half as the Lumberjacks were unable to find a foothold. CEC closed out the first 40 minutes...
Betty Arlene Kubis, 88, of Saginaw passed away Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022, in Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet. She was born Oct. 3, 1933, in Wimbledon, North Dakota to Edward and Anna Christ. She married Arthur Kubis on May 9, 1952. Betty was a homemaker and also worked in a grocery store as a meat wrapper. She enjoyed her farm in Saginaw. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Art; and brother, Edward. Betty will be deeply missed by her family. She is survived by her...
Diane Lucille Johnson, 79, of Duluth passed away Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth. She was born on April 7, 1943, to Fred and Mary Sundin in Duluth. She attended Hermantown High School, and married the love of her life, Terrance Johnson, on May 11, 1963. Diane was a natural caregiver. She retired from the Viewcrest nursing home after providing 30 years of care to others. Diane was happiest spending time with her family and friends and being a mother. In her free time,...
Susan K. Modec, 80, of Cloquet passed away Friday, Sept. 16, 2022, at New Perspective Senior Living. She was born Feb. 16, 1942, in Eveleth, the daughter of Joseph and Jessie (Plattner) Peritz. Sue graduated from Eveleth High School and graduated from St. Scholastica with a teaching degree. She was united in marriage to Dennis Modec on Aug. 8, 1964, in Eveleth. Sue was a member of Queen of Peace Catholic Church, Journey Church bible study, and the Red Hats. She enjoyed writing cards to family...
Brad L. Wojtysiak, 40, of Culver passed away Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2022. He was born Feb. 12, 1982, in Cloquet, the son of Edward and Carolyn (Wood) Wojtysiak. Brad graduated from AlBrook High School in 2000 and worked as an operator for Union Local 49 and Northland Constructors. He especially loved his special relationship with his three nieces and spending time with them. Brad also enjoyed playing cribbage, grilling and cooking. Brad would cook for many family parties, graduation parties, and...
