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 501 - 525 of 3301
All Carlton County residents are, once again, invited to enjoy a free Christmas meal 11 a.m. -2 p.m. Dec. 25 at Zion Lutheran Church, 1000 Washington Ave. in Cloquet. The Christmas menu features appetizers, salad, dessert, meatballs, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and beverages. The Carlton County Disabled American Veterans is the force behind the free meal, just like at Thanksgiving. So expect to see many of the same faces at the church, making sure there’s enough food for both s...
For a minute, the demolition field outside of a home on Third Street in Cloquet made it appear as if an explosion had taken the porch clean off. Come to find, it was the work of Lagom Restoration, of Duluth. "We're going to restore it and sell it," said Josh MacInnes, one of the Lagom owners and three workers onsite at the small home located at 217 Third St. "We want to see good stuff happen in our communities. It needs some TLC, but it'll have a second life." Upon meeting earlier this month,...
Given the choice between watching his wife continue to suffer or ending her life, Raymond Julian told the courtroom that he chose to honor her request to die. He would do it again, given the same circumstances, the 67-year-old man stated. Emotions ran high during the sentencing hearing Monday, Dec. 18, held at the Carlton County Courthouse two years to the month after Tracy Julian's death. As with the murder that led to Raymond Julian's arrest, there was no easy choice, said Sixth District...
The Carlton/Wrenshall Raptors had some momentum going into the inaugural boys basketball season for the paired schools, reeling off four straight victories in wins over Cook County, East Central, Mille Lacs and Hinckley-Finlayson. The team finally met its match Monday, losing to Cook's North Woods Grizzlies, 81-66. The loss to the Section 7A powerhouse marred what had been a perfect start for the Raptors. "The guys have really come together and are excited about the progress they are making,"...
For much of the history of this country, rivers, lakes and waterways served as our sewers. That is until the Cuyahoga River in Ohio caught fire for the 13th time in 1969. This prompted the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 and launched programs nationwide to clean up our surface waters. Under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, national standards regulating pollutants and the restoration and monitoring of all surface water began. However, as the understanding of water poll...
Carlton schools superintendent Donita Stepan plans to relinquish her role as elementary principal at South Terrace Elementary and focus solely on her superintendent duties. Stepan wears two hats now, part of an arrangement conceived earlier this year as a cost-saving measure. With Stepan holding two positions and high school/middle school principal Warren Peterson working part-time, savings to the district could be in the range of $85,000 to $90,000. As the mid-school year approaches, it has become apparent to Stepan that South Terrace needs...
Carlton County residents are encouraged to recycle Christmas trees during Treecycling, a free program with drop-off locations throughout the region. Christmas trees, like yard waste, are banned from landfills in Minnesota. Dispose of trees properly by bringing them to a Treecycling site. Remove all ornaments, tinsel, lights, tree stands and tree bags before bringing trees in. Here are the locations: -SAPPI Fine Paper (gatehouse entrance), Avenue B in Cloquet through Jan. 31. -Moose Lake Compost and Recycling Site, 2-6 p.m. Wednesday through F...
More people phoned Carlton County to complain about tax increases than attended the Dec. 12 Truth in Taxation hearing. More than 30 people called the county to deliver messages about “unsustainable” increases, or to say, “you’re taxing us out of our home,” said auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt. Only about a half-dozen people spoke briefly during the hearing, and only one rose to the dais to plead his case. “This is the kind of increase that’s not treating our elderly population with respect or dignity,” said Jim Kuklis, who owns Trails Edg...
Welcome to the final newspaper of 2023. For the first time in our five-year history, the Pine Knot News will be closed for a week, taking off the final week of the year, meaning there will be a two-week gap until the publishing of the Jan. 5 edition. 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 five years since we printed our first edition in October 2018, we’ve...
Obviously, it has been a strange winter. I didn’t (but could have) rake leaves in Cloquet on Dec. 18. There was no snow, but it was too windy. It’s wacky. The Rugged Spruce Senior Golf League in Mahtowa played competitively on Nov. 15. Greens were a hair slow, but it’s still pretty lucky to be hacking outdoors near the end of the year. The course was playing a little easier because the water hazards were frozen. The Twin Cities area, just last week, had golf courses opening for play and all t...
Thursday, Dec. 14 Girls Hockey MLA 3 Duluth 2 Boys Hockey International Falls 5 MLA 4 (OT) Girls Basketball South Ridge 69 McGregor 30 Hinckley-Finlayson 72 Carlton/Wrenshall 31 North Woods 60 ML/WR 58 Boys Basketball Carlton/Wrenshall 79 Hinckley-Finlayson 59 Barnum 85 South Ridge 43 ML/WR 92 North Woods 85 Cromwell-Wright 78 Braham 64 Denfeld 82 Cloquet 65 Friday, Dec. 15 Boys Basketball Cromwell-Wright 66 Cook County 63 McGregor 64 South Ridge 56 Girls Basketball MIB 68 South Ridge 37 Pierz 68 ML/WR 43 Cromwell-Wright 61 Ely 51 Esko 73...
With the holidays on the near horizon, so too is the long-standing tradition of holiday sports tournaments between Christmas and New Years. Hockey and basketball take center stage over the break, but there are also scattered wrestling meets and a few ski meets — weather permitting — during the break. Following are some of the holiday highlights: Hockey The Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team will open play in the Heritage Holiday Classic in Duluth against Apple Valley at 11:30 a.m. Wed...
Remote Carlton County land west of Cloquet will be used to hold wild elk during the establishment of a herd, beginning as soon as 2026, following a vote by the county board Tuesday. “They’re not asking for permission to bring elk here, they’re asking for us to sign a lease on a particular parcel,” commissioner Marv Bodie said, directing the board to stay on task during another meeting that featured a wide-ranging discussion on efforts by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Min...
Moose Lake residents will help decide whether to maintain the city’s police force or contract with the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office for the city’s policing needs. The city scheduled a public hearing at 6 p.m. Jan. 24, and will also solicit public opinion by sending out a mailer and polling residents on the topic. The hearing will take place at the city council chambers at 313 Elm Ave. “A city councilor requested a public hearing on the matter to gather community input,” city administrator Ellissa Owens said in a statement. “Consensu...
The Cloquet school board approved a maximum levy increase Monday after a Truth in Taxation meeting that had no input from the public. Taxpayers can expect a 4.79-percent increase in the school portion of their taxes for the year 2024. District budget manager Candace Nelis said a huge factor in the increase is the delicate dance of state aid in contrast to property values in school districts. Values on property in Carlton County increased by up to 7 percent, Nelis said, meaning that even a “zero” increase in school taxes would leave res...
It began with a group of parents in the early 1960s looking for something - places to go, things to do - for their grown children, all of them adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Pinewood, Inc. grew out of that early effort at Zion Lutheran Church. Formed in 1964, the nonprofit organization offers employment and day support services to adults (over 18) with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Some may be born with the disability, others may qualify because of a...
It’s free to dispose of your unwanted or no longer working holiday lights at the Carlton County Transfer Station located at 1950 Highway 210. Rope lights, extension cords, appliance cords and telephone cords are also accepted. The transfer station is open 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays. Before recycling, please remove all decorations and remove lights from any type of plastic spool, cardboard packaging, or plastic bags. Place the clean string lights in the correct box at the Transfer St...
Carlton County earned one of six outstanding achievement awards for exhibiting excellence and innovation at the annual conference for Minnesota's 87 counties earlier this month. Carlton County was celebrated for establishing a formal agreement with the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. "In 2023, Carlton County, (the) Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and Arrowhead Regional Corrections completed a 12-page agreement that guides agreed-upon best practices, protocols and...
Boycott the deer hunt? That was a suggestion from Carlton County commissioner Gary Peterson last week, during a widely attended meeting in Carlton about wolves and their supposed impact on the declining deer population. Peterson was quoted by a Duluth media source as telling the crowd of roughly 300 attendees, "Boycott the deer season," as a way of hitting the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in its pocketbook. When reached for further comment this week about his suggestion, Peterson...
Ken Schloer has been a retired Cloquet coach and educator for more than 20 years, and I recently visited with him to find out what drove him to having such a successful teaching and coaching career. Schloer was born in Red Wing, grew up in the Twin Cities area, and graduated from the now closed Minneapolis Central High School. He had an older and a younger brother. They were all together in Boy Scouts growing up, but he was the only one who played organized sports. By the 10th grade, he quit...
The city of Moose Lake is weighing a proposal that would eliminate its police department in favor of using the Carlton County Sheriff's Office to conduct the city's policing. The Carlton County proposal would staff the city with four dedicated deputies along with a half-time clerical position at a cost of $574,220. "This is not a decision that the city council takes lightly," city administrator Ellissa Owens said. During a tense Nov. 8 city council meeting, councilors and Owens described being...
When Anthony Uzarowski set out to write a biography about Cloquet native and world-famous actress Jessica Lange, he planned to visit Minnesota, retrace her steps and meet the sources for the book when he could. Instead, the Covid-19 pandemic struck while Uzarowski and his boyfriend were isolated in a tiny village along coastal France. “I ended up doing all of the research from my office,” Uzarowski told the Pine Knot, this time in a Zoom interview last week from Thailand, where he was vac...
Roughly 300 hunters sat rapt Wednesday at Four Seasons Sports Complex in Carlton to hear a new grassroots group's plan to pressure the state to act against federal protection of the gray wolf. The group, Hunters For Hunters, formed earlier this year, in front of the Minnesota firearms deer season, which unfolded with disgruntled hunters throughout northeastern Minnesota complaining about seeing more wolves than deer. "Everybody coming out of the woods [was] going to be mad," said Steve Porter, o...
Soon the rest of Minnesota can find out what Cloquet residents already know: Pine Valley is special. City officials learned last week that Cloquet's Pine Valley Recreation Area - home to ski jumps and woodland trails for skiing, walking and mountain biking - was designated a regionally significant park. That means the woodland park will be included on various statewide maps and online resources. More importantly, it makes the park eligible for Minnesota Legacy funds, statewide sales tax dollars...
I recently had the fun of chatting with some members of the local Rotary Club. Rotary, for those of you who don’t know, is a service club of local professionals and business people, whose mission seems to be networking with fellow members, coupled around public service. They meet for lunch weekly, and get themselves involved in community projects from providing books for young readers to maintaining Fauley Park in Cloquet. When I first got to town in 1999, Cloquet schools superintendent Russ Smi...
