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 176 - 200 of 295
Don't worry, Kids, Santa is making his way to Carlton County again. The Santa's Home for the Holidays festivities are back, thanks to the United Way of Carlton County. "The United Way is proud to support community events like Santa's Home for the Holidays. We are looking forward to a fun weekend full of holiday spirit," said United Way executive director Ali Bilden Camps. Of course, like any event during the pandemic, there were a few changes but all of the most important elements are intact....
A fire Sunday damaged an Esko apartment but no one was injured. According to a press release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, numerous 911 calls reported a fire at 157 West Highway 61 in Esko at 3:10 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 21. Esko firefighters responded and found light smoke showing from the building and no visible flames. Upon entry, they found fire in the front apartment, but no one home. They quickly extinguished the fire but there was significant damage to the apartment. The tenant w...
DFL legislators tour the fire district’s Station 1 last week. Segregated by party, state legislators have been cruising around the state on a tour of entities with projects vying to be included in the next round of state bonding. One of those stops was Cloquet on Oct. 5. The Cloquet Area Fire District is asking the state to bond for up to $10 million — with a 50-percent local match — to build a new facility combining the Cloquet and Scanlon fire and ambulance stations. The money would also...
A man was in grave condition after being hit by a vehicle while crossing Doddridge Avenue near Eighth Street in Cloquet on Thursday, Sept. 16. Cloquet Police responded to the accident just after 8 p.m. Thursday along with staff from the Cloquet Area Fire District. The man was transported to an area hospital. CPD commander Dave O’Connor said they didn’t have an update on the condition of the pedestrian, whose name has not been released. Police interviewed witnesses at the scene and have not pursued any charges against the driver, O’Connor said...
The Cloquet and Fond du Lac police departments are investigating what they term a "suspicious death" earlier this week. Meanwhile, a 58-year-old man was arrested Tuesday and in custody in Carlton County jail on possible charges of manslaughter in the first degree, while committing a gross misdemeanor with violence. Officers from both departments responded to a 9-1-1 call at approximately 2:09 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 14, reporting an unwanted person in an apartment inside the Fond du Lac Veterans...
It's not unusual to see visitors to Cloquet snapping photos of the world's only working Frank Lloyd Wright-designed gas station and its cantilevered roof at the corner of Minnesota Highway 33 and Cloquet Avenue. When they're done, they might head east and stop by the historical society or downtown Cloquet to eat or shop. More often than not, they simply hop into their cars and continue their journey north on Hwy. 33 or back to Interstate 35. Rarely do guests realize a significant part of the...
One man is dead and another critically injured after a crash last week. According to a Carlton County Sheriff’s Office press release, deputies and first responders from Carlton Fire and Ambulance Department responded to a report of a truck leaving the roadway at 12:18 a.m. Aug. 30. The truck was southbound on the 200 block of Thomson Road when it left the road and struck a tree. Passenger Cuong Hang, 38, was ejected and killed. The driver, Hung Hang, 39, was critically injured and transported to Essentia Health in Duluth by Cloquet Area Fire D...
The Esko Fire Department has had a busy week fighting the Greenwood Fire, alongside various departments from across northern Minnesota. After a request for equipment on Aug.16 from the state, the Esko Department has had two to six firefighters and various trucks assisting with fighting the dangerous and growing wildfire that was sparked by lightning and detected on Aug. 15 about 40 miles north of Two Harbors. Cloquet Area Fire District fire chief Matt Ashmore said CAFD sent a Type 1 "normal"...
It’s not only metro area police departments that are seeing a rise in public safety employees claiming disability since the state changed its rules about job-induced post traumatic stress disorder. As reported in the July 30 issue of the Pine Knot, Cloquet has seen seven officers retire on disability since 2019 — when the new ruling went into effect — nearly a third of the department. Although the Public Employees Retirement Association covers approved disability payments, according to state law the employer is required to continue to provi...
The old building at 219 St. Louis Avenue burned with a fury once firefighters finished their final practice sessions Saturday morning, torching one of the few remaining structures on Cloquet's Dunlap Island. From 8 a.m. to nearly noon, they lit fires and practiced putting them out in the many rooms of the apartment building, until the roof started to sag and it wasn't safe to be inside anymore. "I think we got 18 cycles in before the building got too unstable," said Cloquet Area Fire District...
Two people are dead after a vehicle went off an Interstate 35 bridge near Scanlon and ended up in the St. Louis River. The crash happened at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the car was traveling southbound on I-35 when it left the highway near milepost 239 and "submerged into the St. Louis River." First responders donned water rescue gear to reach the vehicle, a 2004 Ford Explorer, which was mostly submerged but partly visible in the water underneath the...
At least one person died after a vehicle went off an Interstate 35 bridge near Scanlon and ended up in the St. Louis River. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the crash happened at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10. First responders donned water rescue gear to reach the vehicle, which was mostly submerged but partly visible in the water underneath the bridge. Killed in the crash was the female passenger, Barbara Jean Kimber, age 78, of Carlton. The driver of the 2004 Ford Explorer, an...
While Cloquet finance director Nancy Klassen painted a mostly positive picture of the city’s financial position last week, one number in particular stood out: a $3.2 million actuarially determined increase in the city’s long-term public safety expense, to cover ongoing and future insurance benefits for former police officers on disability. The issue is complicated because it involves actions by both the State of Minnesota and the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) which resulted in t...
Despite some recent rains, things are still pretty dry in these parts. So dry that firefighters were called to Athletic Park Monday afternoon for two grass fires: one on the outfield of the baseball field, the other next to the playground. Cloquet Area Fire District crews quickly extinguished the fires with assistance from the Cloquet DNR. There were no injuries, but CAFD officials would like to remind people of the abnormally dry conditions. "An unintentional spark in these conditions could be...
Where there's smoke, there's fire ... unless you happen to be a firefighter in training. For a couple weeks now, firefighters from the Cloquet Area Fire District have been putting on their gear and driving various fire trucks and emergency vehicles to Dunlap Island to practice on a real building that they will burn in their final practice sometime in August. It's a two-story wooden building with a long history -- as a bar, a boarding house and more -- but in recent years it's simply been an...
A woman who was severely injured in a fire at Cloquet’s Larson Commons apartments last month has died. Nancy Carlson, 70, was a tenant at the senior high-rise on Cloquet Avenue; the fire started in her apartment the morning of June 13. The Cloquet Area Fire District responded to a 911 call around 9:30 a.m. June 13, for a fire and possible trapped victim. Upon arrival, CAFD crews forced entry into the apartment and found the residence full of smoke with zero visibility. Crews found and removed Carlson, then extinguished the fire. Carlson was t...
It’s official. Nancy Klassen, longtime finance director for the city of Cloquet, is retiring. And she will be missed by city administrators. “I already tried to tell her no. That didn’t work,” city administrator Tim Peterson joked with council members during Tuesday’s unusually short meeting, which lasted all of 23 minutes. Klassen, who wins accounting awards like clockwork for her work for the city of Cloquet and the Cloquet Area Fire District, said her last day will be Sept. 30. The personnel committee will conduct interviews and the city hop...
Although it squeaked through at the very last minute, Carlton County had a lot to celebrate in the final budget bill passed by state legislators and the governor last week. The agreement (see Page 1) that the state would cover Enbridge tax repayments for counties, schools and townships was a tremendous relief for local officials. Additionally, legislators also approved two different local sales tax requests and the fire district’s ongoing plea for appropriate taxing authority for emergency m...
Carla Cresap picks up some free life jackets for her grandchildren at a drive-thru life jacket giveaway Tuesday at the Perch Lake fire hall. The Cloquet Area Fire District partnered with Fond du Lac Human Services Division and Safe Kids Northeast Minnesota to offer up to two free life jackets per household for Carlton County kids ages newborn to 16 years old. CAFD educator Sarah Buhs said they gave away 150 life jackets in 30 minutes Tuesday. With the warmer weather, families will be spending...
Do bad things really happen in threes? This was definitely my third bad Memorial Day. On May 31, I had just traveled home with my mom from visiting family in Illinois, about a seven-hour drive. It was a beautiful afternoon and since I had been sitting all day, I decided to wash my car. This was no surprise to my husband, Sean. He knows my mind is constantly processing what I can accomplish next. Plus, I am self-diagnosed with a "little" obsessive compulsive disorder and living on a dirt road...
Firefighters responded to a call from Mark's Salvage and Recycling at 8089 Highway 2 in Saginaw Tuesday afternoon, after it was reported the business was on fire. Signs on the property indicate the business accepts used appliances and electronics, along with waste oil. The initial cause of the fire is unknown. According to a press release from the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office, the owner of the property was uncooperative and the incident remains under investigation by the Cloquet Fire Marsha...
A fire Sunday morning at Larson Commons senior apartments in Cloquet left one woman with severe injuries and her apartment damaged. It also raised questions about what would happen in case of a bigger fire. According to the Cloquet Area Fire District, a call came in around 9:30 a.m. June 13 about a fire inside an apartment with a possible trapped victim. Upon arrival, fire crews forced entry into the apartment and found the residence full of smoke with zero visibility. Crews found and removed...
I retired in 2020 after more than three decades as a firefighter, the last nine years as Cloquet Area Fire District fire chief. And while I carry with me many positive memories of my time serving the community, I also often think about my colleagues in the Minnesota fire service we lost along the way. Firefighters protect us, but what many people don’t know is that they often struggle to protect themselves, especially from cardiac, cardiovascular and mental health issues. Those issues have i...
Although first responders in Minnesota got to jump to the front of the line for the Covid-19 vaccine, some have said "no" to getting vaccinated despite their elevated risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus. Like other states, Minnesota is giving high-risk groups priority access to the vaccine during the first phases of vaccination. That includes all health care workers - including doctors, nurses, firefighters, paramedics, and other public health officials and emergency personnel -...
A public safety alert went out to cell phones across Carlton County after 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, alerting people to avoid the area near Cary and Enger Roads to Mission Road. According to a press release, just before noon Friday, Fond Du Lac police responded to protest activity blocking Ditchbank Road. As people were dispersing from the area at 12:40 p.m., Carlton County 911 Dispatch received a call that three people had thrown suspicious packages out and left the area. Deputies from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office responded. A bomb s...
