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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Dick Brenner knows how to win an election. Eight of them, amounting to 32 years on the Carlton County board alone, to go with 17 years as a Cloquet school board member. "I have a philosophy," he said. "When you run you have to have a visible name and the best way to do that is to put out lawn signs. I had over 500 lawn signs in my district. Particularly, you need to get all the corners." Brenner also knocked on doors in his district twice each campaign season, receiving sandwiches, cookies and...
The kids kept coming, but you didn't need to see it to notice it. What started as a few scattered horn blasts from big equipment at South Terrace Elementary school in Carlton last Thursday evening, May 9, soon crescendoed into one constant blast from a bus, semi, dump truck and various other vehicles at the annual Transportation Night. Kids were taking turns on a makeshift swing on the back of a Cars Towing truck, with a toy tow truck and a flag as added bonuses. They climbed into the empty...
Thursday, May 9 Baseball Hibbing 9 Cloquet 1 Cromwell-Wright 10 Barnum 9 Cherry 11 ML/WR 1 Softball Cloquet 5 Grand Rapids 0 Silver Bay 8 Carlton/Wrenshall 4 ML/WR 8 Aitkin 4 South Ridge 15 MIB 2 Boys Tennis CEC 5 Duluth Denfeld 2 Friday, May 10 Softball Esko 12 Denfeld 4 Rush City 2 Esko 1 Princeton 2 Cloquet 0 Cloquet 7 Chisago Lakes 6 Rush City 7 Barnum 0 McGregor 14 Carlton/Wrenshall 0 ML/WR 19 Cherry 7 South Ridge 5 Hinckley-Finlayson 0 Baseball ML/WR 10 Two Harbors 0 Barnum 14 Two Harbors 3 Esko 10 Roseau 0 Carlton/Wrenshall 9 McGregor 3...
On a bright, sunshiny spring afternoon, my wife and I were assigned to pick up our grandkids after school from Churchill Elementary in Cloquet. The school is within walking distance of home. I usually wait for my grandson, who is in first grade, outside of the door where he’s released. My wife goes to a second building to meet my granddaughter, who is 4 and in preschool. Max came running out of the school doors, saw me and gave me a big hug, then asked if he could go to the playground. With p...
Our sympathies to the family of Dale H. Borchardt, 78, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who died April 16. He was born in Carlton and grew up on the family farm with his brother, and two sisters. He attended school in Cromwell. Cromwell-Wright graduation is at 7 p.m. Friday, May 17. The Floodwood VFW and Auxiliary will honor our veterans at 11 a.m. at the city park in Wright on Memorial Day, May 27. Lunch will follow at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. They will be honoring Don Hutar and Marvin Aho this year....
A chilly wind raced across the strawberry fields Monday evening as the Lambert family and four young teenagers meticulously planted rows of strawberries. Together, they were a picture that could have been taken any time in the past 100 years. Slowly, the tractor rolled across the field: Amanda driving with two younger kids inside the cab, protected from the wind, and three or four older kids behind the tractor. Two teenagers sat with their backs to the tractor, taking turns feeding a planter...
Longtime Carlton County commissioner Dick Brenner announced Tuesday he will not seek another term on the county board. Brenner is serving his 32nd year on the board, dating back to 1992. Prior to that he served on the Cloquet school board. "I am not running," Brenner said during the board's monthly committee of the whole meeting. "I've been hounded about it. I am done at the end of December." "I'm happy for you," board chair Susan Zmyslony said. Brenner resides in Cloquet and serves District 1,...
Four Cloquet City Council positions are up for election in November, including Wards 3, 4, 5 and the at-large council seat. Ward 3 would be for a two-year term, the others are four years each. Residents may file affidavits of candidacy May 21 through June 4 at Cloquet City Hall, 101 14th St. in Cloquet. Office hours are 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The filing period is the same for Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District 1, 4 and 5 supervisors and Carlton County Board of Commissioner seats in Districts 1, 3 and 5....
A 50-year-old Cloquet man faces eight felony counts of child pornography after being turned into police by a person residing in the same home. Richard Craig Carlson appeared in Sixth District Court remotely from jail on Wednesday, making a first appearance before Judge Amy Lukasavitz. Carlson’s attorney, Veronica Surges, asked for a speedy, uncontested omnibus hearing to be scheduled. Lukasavitz said the time before the next hearing at 10:45 a.m. May 22 would give Carlson an “opportunity to work with Ms. Surges … [to] come back and see where...
A wanted man led law enforcement officials on a chase through two counties last month, before being apprehended and allegedly found in possession of both methamphetamine and fentanyl. Robert William Pladson, 53, of Eagle Bend, Minnesota, was charged April 14 in Sixth District Carlton County Court with two counts of first-degree felony drug possession, for allegedly possessing 25 grams or more of fentanyl and 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. He was also charged with felony fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. According to the...
A case alleging that a former Cloquet police officer exploited an elderly woman suffering from dementia is headed to court in November. The Minnesota Attorney General’s office charged Laci Marie Silgjord in July 2023 with financially exploiting a vulnerable adult — someone she befriended after responding to a call — and attempting to swindle the woman’s estate and her estranged husband after she died. Silgjord was dismissed from her job at the Cloquet police department in February 2022, after the Cloquet PD did its own internal investi...
A Carlton County man is in jail after allegedly holding, assaulting and threatening a woman — known to him — against her will for five days at his home northwest of Cloquet. Dennis Alan Oberg, 27, was charged April 29 with four felonies in Sixth District Carlton County Court, including kidnapping, felony domestic assault, threats of violence and false imprisonment. He remains in jail, with bail set at $7,500 with conditions or $75,000 without conditions. According to the criminal complaint, the woman told police that she willingly went to Obe...
Thursday, May 2 Boys Baseball Cromwell-Wright 8 Cook County 1 Proctor 7 Cloquet 5 Girls Softball Cromwell-Wright 16 Cook County 6 Friday, May 3 Boys Lacrosse Cloquet-Esko-Carlton 11 Bloomington Kennedy 5 Girls Softball South Ridge 17 Ely 7 Hinckley-Finlayson 6 Barnum 5 ML/WR 13 Crosby-Ironton 2 Esko 11 Mesabi East 1 Cromwell-Wright 6 MIB 3 South Ridge 11 North Woods 1 Baseball South Ridge 18 Ashby 13 Mille Lacs 12 Barnum 11 Rock Ridge 10 ML/WR 0 Braham 10 Cromwell-Wright 0 New York Mills 5 South Ridge 2 Boys Tennis CEC 4 Mora 3 Saturday, May 4...
A controversial split with Two Harbors Monday saw the Cromwell-Wright boys baseball team end on a high note, defeating the Agates 21-1 in five innings after dropping the first contest 10-9. "The first game I thought the game was tied," head coach Dean Levinski said. "Our book and the umpire I thought had us tied, but their book gave them a one-run victory. "It was two bizarre games against Two Harbors." Two Harbors jumped out to an early 9-1 lead through five innings, but the Cardinals rallied b...
The Cloquet Men's Retiree Darts league concluded its 2023-24 season April 29. Meeting on Mondays at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet, the league reflects the old bowling league schedules going from fall to spring. "Some come for the competition, but for most, it's just a chance to get out of the house, have a cup of coffee and cookie, and laugh and converse with friends," said league commissioner Ray Wiles. Usually 20-30 gents come weekly to test their right arm and dart baseball...
The Minnesota fishing openeris Saturday and local Department of Natural Resources Fisheries staff have provided some advice on having a fun and successful opening day of fishing. The web The DNR has a fishing page to help answer angler questions. The page links to LakeFinder, which provides maps, special regulation information for individual lakes, other detailed information on lakes throughout the state, and the StreamFinder tool that provides a description, species list, regulations and access information for trout streams throughout...
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is reporting that trout are once again finding a home in two small coldwater streams in Carlton County after water quality conservation work in the Nemadji River watershed. Watershed studies completed by the MPCA during the past two decades have shown that Skunk and Elim creeks, which begin in the west in Blackhoof Township, were degraded by excess sediment, the result of historical logging and other human activities that altered stormwater runoff and...
First, the bad news. The delayed arrival of a 700-pound, almost $60,000 electrical switch will delay the opening of Carlton County's new Justice Center by a few months. Instead of a July opening, the new 117,000-square-foot facility along County Road 61 in Carlton is now expected to open in October. "It was involved in a fire on its transport," Carlton County Jail administrator Paul Coughlin said of the switch. "It's heavily damaged. They had to reject it and build a new one that takes 26 weeks...
A renovated hotel and casino, a new tribal justice center and a cannabis facility near the intersection of Minnesota Highway 210 and Interstate 35 are among the projects in development by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The cannabis facility follows the direction of three other tribes - the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, and Red Lake and White Earth nations - since marijuana was legalized in the state in August 2023. Caleb Dunlap, spokesman for the Fond du Lac Band, declined to...
Although University of Minnesota administrators say the transfer of the Cloquet Forestry Center is essentially a done deal, Carlton County legislators say they won't vote for bills proposed in the Minnesota House and Senate that would support the land transfer to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. In response to questions posed by the Pine Knot News, Rep. Jeff Dotseth (R-Kettle River) and Sen. Jason Rarick (R-Pine City) both said they would "not support" any measures to move this...
A Cloquet man was sentenced April 12 for physically abusing a 2-year-old child in his care, pleading guilty to felony third-degree assault. In a plea deal with the Carlton County Attorney’s Office, Travis Dean Thrun, 22, was sentenced to four years, with a stay of adjudication, resulting in supervised probation. Thrun was arrested in November by Cloquet police. According to the criminal complaint, witnesses, including other caregivers, reported the child suffered through a series of three strangulation events, as well as a weeks-old anal cut t...
District 3 commissioner Tom Proulx of the Carlton County board announced his reelection bid last week. A campaign statement April 26 said: “Proulx looks forward to serving his constituents for another term, offering a commonsense approach to addressing the everyday issues facing the county in these unprecedented and difficult times.” Proulx represents most of Cloquet, including downtown and north along Minnesota Highway 33 to the county border. Proulx has been in office since 2009, winning the first election with 63 percent of the vote against...
Fair warning out there, with spring comes a spirit of optimism, and the Pine Knot News is not immune. Thus, we give only positive feedback this week. Enjoy. Thumbs up to news that the legislature adopted compromise language for school district public notices that will keep them in local newspapers and allow only certain school districts — which unexpectedly find themselves without a local newspaper — to publish notices on their own websites until Aug. 1. Like Swift County Monitor-News publisher Reed Anfinson said in last week’s guest editorial:...
Is Rep. Jeff Dotseth about to stumble again as he did last year with the bonding process that nearly cost Carlton County taxpayers $10 million in lost funding for the law enforcement complex in Carlton? In my opinion, Dotseth proved at that moment he cannot be trusted with issues directly affecting property taxes in Carlton County, and advancing our community’s needs should never again be left in the hands of his incompetent representation. Here we are again. In the current legislative session, Dotseth appears to have ambitious intentions f...
Thursday, April 25 Baseball Cloquet 2 Hermantown 1 Esko 6 Warroad 1 South Ridge 5 Hibbing 1 Barnum 4 Two Harbors 3 Boys Lacrosse CEC 13 Duluth Marshall 6 Softball Esko 11 Duluth East 1 Superior 13 Cloquet 3 Carlton/Wrenshall 8 ML/WR 6 Silver Bay 16 South Ridge 6 Friday, April 26 Softball ML/WR 6 South Ridge 5 Randolph 2 Barnum 0 Cloquet 4 Carlton/Wrenshall 1 Tuesday, April 30 Baseball Carlton/Wrenshall 3 Northwoods 1 Cook County 9 Carlton/Wrenshall 2 Esko 13 Two Harbors3 ML/WR 12 Barnum 7 Cloquet 4 North Branch 3 Silver Bay 8 Cromwell-Wright 4...
