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
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 3373
A Sturgeon Lake man was treated for non-life-threatening injuries on Dec. 26 after he lost control of the 2005 International garbage truck he was driving. Nathan Randel Bichler, 48, was driving westbound on Minnesota Highway 73, near the intersection with Jon Brown Drive in Moose Lake, around 2:28 p.m. Dec. 26 under wet conditions. He lost control of the truck, and it flipped on its side. Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the scene, along with the Minnesota State Patrol. According to the Minnesota State Patrol report, a...
A Cloquet woman was charged with first-degree driving while impaired on Dec. 20, after being found guilty of at least six other DWIs over the past 27 years along with four convictions for felony test refusal. France Margaret Smith, 61, faces new charges of first-degree felony DWI, felony refusal to submit to a breath test, not carrying proof of insurance and lack of illumination for rear license plates. According to the criminal complaint, Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputy Jon Stracek observed a truck stopped for a long time at the f...
Jamie Lund Moose Lake Star Gazette Joyce Hibke made history when she became the first female fire chief at the Moose Lake Area Fire District on Wednesday, Jan. 1. The 60-year-old has been inundated with congratulations on her achievement everywhere she goes and online. Former fire chief Jim Michalski, who is her brother, said he has faith in her abilities to run the department after working with her since she began 21 years ago. Hibke decided to put in the paperwork for the position when...
The Carlton County board approved a 2025 budget of $84.9 million on Dec. 23, but not before lengthy discussions on pay increases for the elected county sheriff and attorney. Sheriff Kelly Lake, in her 19th year in elected office, was approved for a nearly $20,000 pay increase, from $142,937 in 2024 to $161,387 in 2025. Twice-elected county attorney Lauri Ketola was increased from $152,734 to $163,800. “I do think it matters that you have people in positions who really care about what they do and commit themselves to doing really good w...
Roughly 40 miles of Carlton County roadway surfaces will receive new pavement in 2025, part of 17 projects costing $12.1 million. “It’s a big year,” said county engineer JinYeene Neumann, who joined assistant county engineer Rick Norrgard near the end of 2024 to discuss the upcoming projects. “Last year was a big dollar amount but a lower number of projects, because of the fact that the projects were more entailed,” Neumann said. “[This] year, we’re doing a large number of projects, but they’re paving projects and not as detailed. We do...
A $6,755,244 budget and $4,334,394 levy were both approved unanimously by the Cloquet Area Fire District board on Dec. 18. The district projects a $200,000 home will be levied $290 and $89 for the fire and ambulance areas, respectively. Board members Gary Harms and Dave Sunnarborg reversed their positions on the levy from September when they voted against the numbers. Linda Way, who also voted against the levy proposal, was not present at the December meeting. To pay off an ambulance bond early, the board voted to put $118,000 of emergency...
Thomson Township supervisors bid a fond farewell to board members Bill Gerard and Dave Sunnarborg, who finished their terms in office at the final meeting of the year on Dec. 19. Gerard wrapped up 21 years on the board, while Sunnarborg finished up a two-year appointment after previously serving for 19 years starting in the early ‘90s. Gerard said he got his 600th 6-foot-tall tree planted in the township at the end of the summer. Board chairwoman Ruth Janke presented both men with certificates of service. She praised Sunnarborg as “the go-to pe...
Here we are at the end of the holiday season, a time of “glad tidings, peace, and good will toward all.” How ironic it is that Merriam-Webster, the dictionary people, recently released “polarization” as their word of the year. The word is chosen each year based on how often it is searched and found online. In 2024, an election year, the word was at the top of the list. Even though the word has been around for a couple hundred years, the usage has changed, which often happens in our languag...
I was saddened to hear the news that Mary Murphy had died on Christmas Day. She was, for many years when I lived in Scanlon, my legislator in the Minnesota House of Representatives, from 1976 to 2022. She was the longest-serving woman in the House, and second-longest serving legislator ever. She lost her reelection bid in 2022 by 33 votes. She was a trailblazer and effective in what was - especially when she began - a man's world. Murphy's full-time job was as a social studies and history...
More than 400 people turned out for the annual community Christmas meal in Cloquet on Dec. 25. Carlton County Disabled American Veterans member and lead organizer Raffy Johnson said it’s important to keep the tradition going for him and for all the people who enjoy having their Christmas meal together, recalling the days that his late father, Dave, organized the meal with other Zion members. The meal has been served at the Cloquet church for more than 30 years. Johnson said volunteers help m...
The Carlton County Disabled American Veterans and its supporters are inviting everyone to enjoy a free Christmas dinner on Christmas Day Wednesday. No military service required, just a hungry belly and a heart for community. The annual Christmas meal will be served 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Dec. 25 at Zion Lutheran Church at 1000 Washington Ave. in Cloquet. The menu features a wide array of appetizers, salad, dessert, meatballs, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, beverages and lots of company....
What's it like to be a young farmer in Minnesota? For starters, there's an expanding variety of farms and they're being passed down to young people who supplement their agrarian passions with off-farm jobs. It's a challenge as hard as ever before, but it's not insurmountable. "Many have other jobs, where farming is not their full-time job," said Brainerd-based University of Minnesota extension officer Nathan Hulinsky. "They need help knowing how to borrow money to run their business and how to...
Cloquet school board members interviewed six people who applied to fill a soon-to-be vacant school board seat. Board member Sarah Plante-Buhs ran for and was elected to the Carlton County Board of Commissioners. She will take her county board seat and vacate her school board seat in early January. The school board will announce its choice Jan. 6 The six candidates — Ted Lammi, Jason Loons, Brendon McKeon, Robert Peacock, Nate Sandman and Shaun Williams — applied to serve the last two years of Buhs’ term. Only Sandman and Lammi have prior exper...
The city of Cloquet's holiday light display is up, outlining scenes of winter and holiday fun around Spafford Park campground, located on Dunlap Island next to the voyageur statue, who is now wearing his XXL Santa hat. It's an excellent place to cruise with a carload of kids or maybe just a mug of hot chocolate as you drive around the area looking at all the homes and businesses lit up for the season. The Butkiewicz Family Farm is another excellent destination in southern Carlton County. The...
Carlton County residents are encouraged to recycle Christmas trees during Treecycling, a free program with dropoff runs through Friday, Jan. 31. Christmas trees, like yard waste, are banned from landfills in Minnesota. Trees contain valuable resources that can be reclaimed through recycling. Collected trees will be ground up and composted by the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, saving landfill space while safely managing invasive species that may have been brought in on trees from outside of our region. Remove all ornaments, tinsel,...
A story in last week’s Pine Knot, “County explains 3% tax increase,” raised the eyebrows of Carlton County assessor Kyle Holmes. “Market values are independent from taxes and vice versa,” he said, correcting a passage in the Pine Knot report that suggested the factors were intertwined. “Rising property values and rising taxes are not intertwined, and should be kept separate,” he said. Levy increases are a function of spending, he said. Holmes attended the Dec. 11 Truth in Taxation hearing, at which the county heard from audience members and pre...
Welcome to the final Pine Knot News issue of 2024. The paper will be closed next week, so staff can spend more time with friends and family. That means there will be a two-week gap until the publishing of the Jan. 3 editionbut we will be updating the website more frequently. Creating a newspaper every week is a labor of love for all of us at the Pine Knot News, but it’s labor all the same. We could use the breather, but not before we tell you how much we appreciate your readership and support. In the six years since we printed our first e...
Thursday, Dec. 12 Boys Basketball Moose Lake/Willow River 0, North Woods 48 Cloquet 71, Denfeld 68 Girls Basketball Barnum 55, Moose Lake/ Willow River 22 Esko 59, Carlton/ Wrenshall 25 Boys Hockey International Falls 11, Moose Lake Area 1 Girls Hockey Rock Ridge 3, CEC 2 (OT) MLA 0, Hopkins/Park 0 Friday, Dec. 13 Boys Basketball Cromwell-Wright 67, Cook County 42 Esko 70, Superior 49 Willow River 71, Two Harbors 42 Mille Lacs 58, Carlton/ Wrenshall 51 Barnum 102, Ogilvie 31 Girls Basketball MIB 84, South Ridge 21 Esko 40 Pierz 37 Rock Ridge...
Explorer Ponce de León was on a quest to find the mythical fountain of youth in Florida in 1513. President John Kennedy inspired the United States in its quest to have a person walk on the moon in the 1960s. Although maybe not quite as daunting, Dan Rosen, formerly of Cloquet, set out on a quest to golf in every calendar month in Minnesota in 2024. On Dec. 7, he accomplished his goal. Rosen, a part of the formidable golfing family, grew up near the entrance to the Cloquet Country Club. He was...
Special Bulletin — We are hopefully having a white Christmas this year, and it certainly won’t be blue for area children. The North Pole News is pleased to announce that it has once again teamed with the staff at the Pine Knot News to deliver letters to Santa at the North Pole — on time, with room to spare. Santa has released statistics from his lists and it was reported that 99.99 percent of the children and pets in Carlton County made it on the nice list, making them eligible for speci...
Two familiar faces are among the six candidates set to interview for a spot on Cloquet's school board later this month. Cloquet public schools leaders on Monday, Dec. 9, agreed to interview Brendon McKeon, Robert Peacock, Nate Sandman, Jason Loons, Shaun Williams and Ted Lammi next week. Each hopes to replace Sarah Buhs, a board member who resigned effective in January after she was elected to the Carlton County board of commissioners in November. The current board members agreed to meet...
A man was rescued and later charged with driving while intoxicated Monday after his vehicle was submerged in the St. Louis River in Scanlon. A 35-year-old man from Ironwood, Michigan was arrested by the Cloquet Police after being medically cleared from the local hospital. At 10:30 p.m. Monday, first responders were dispatched to a vehicle that went into the river off River Gate Avenue, past the River Inn and Minnesota Whitewater Rafting businesses, CAFD battalion chief Jason Maki said in a...
The Cloquet Area Fire District’s 2025 budget has climbed and its proposed levy, which garnered three “no” votes from board members in September, remains unchanged. The district board presented this information at its annual truth-in-taxation meeting at which two residents participated Dec. 5. The state-mandated meeting allows for public comment ahead of levy approval. The total that could be levied on the combined fire and ambulance service areas at the board’s upcoming Dec. 18 meeting is $4,334,394. The amount individual residents pay may dif...
Only three members of the public spoke at Wednesday’s Truth in Taxation hearing conducted by the Carlton County board and administration. While small in number, the three speakers seemed to carry the concerns of a broad swath of citizens. Namely, why do taxes keep going up? “If I don’t have enough money, I don’t go to my employer with a levy,” said Cody Gilbert, 43, of Moose Lake, who reported his property taxes have doubled in the seven years since he’s owned his home. Gilbert was comparing how the levy on property owners is used to balance ju...
Thursday, Dec. 5 Boys Basketball Barnum 68 Hinckley-Finlayson 32 Bayfield 104 Fond du Lac 90 Cherry 96 South Ridge 45 Girls Basketball Northwoods 32 Carlton/Wrenshall 30 ML/WR 58 Hinckley-Finlayson 44 Cromwell-Wright 79 McGregor 17 Boys Hockey Moose Lake Area 6 WSFLG (Wisconsin) 5 Girls Hockey CEC 5 Hibbing/Chisholm 1 Superior 4 Moose Lake Area 2 Friday, Dec. 6 Boys Basketball Esko 86 Cloquet 69 Northwoods 80 Carlton/Wrenshall 48 Cromwell-Wright 73 McGregor 45 Girls Basketball Moose Lake Area 4 St. Paul Highland Park 1 Saturday, Dec. 7 Boys...
