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 201 - 225 of 295
Sean Saddler went through a rollercoaster of emotions Thursday ... and then he went for a ride in a fire truck. Retirement is bittersweet, said the firefighter of 33 years. "This is my family and I'm gonna miss them," he said, gesturing at the gymnasium filled with upward of 30 people, most of them firefighters and emergency responders. "It's hard to leave the guys, it really is. I won't miss the job as much, since they've already told me the welcome mat will be out and I can come cook a meal...
Woodsmoke curled through the trees on a quiet winter afternoon at Camp Miigizi, just off Magney Drive on the Fond du Lac Reservation. An event called "Frybread Friday'' was scheduled here for Jan. 22, but it appeared no one was around the encampment of lightweight tents scattered randomly around a low-burning fire. A single, larger canvas tent stood out as a possible hub of activity, but all was silent inside. Farther on, a half-dozen women and men were found quietly assembling a wooden hut....
We value our fire protection in Carlton County, and we particularly like the lower home insurance premiums we enjoy thanks to having a fully staffed, 24/7 fire department with an excellent response time here in Cloquet. But another public building built on public tax dollars may tax our community too much at a time when we’re just not sure what other public buildings may be coming. In the past few years, Carlton County has built a new public works garage in Barnum and a Human Services building in Cloquet. Cloquet schools built a beautiful n...
The motto of the Cloquet Area Fire District when it concerns the state legislature could be phrased this way: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try, try, try again." For at least the fifth time since the district was formed by legislative action in 2009, the fire district is making a request of the state legislature. This time it's for a new building as it has outgrown its current home. In the past, requests have ranged from fixing mistakes made by the legislature when it formed the fire...
Three Esko Girl Scouts are hoping to make the world a safer place for pedestrians, starting in their own backyard. Annika Halvorson, Claire Fontaine and Carli Bloom, along with Troop 4079 leaders Sybil Halvorson and Joe Fontaine, reached out to the Thomson Township Board of Supervisors in a letter last week, asking for the board's support to make two particular crosswalks safer. Esko and Thomson Township as a whole are active places, the scouts said, "with people of all ages out walking,...
Cloquet's newest city councilor, Elizabeth "Lyz" Jaakola, was sworn in Tuesday in a most unusual format, with city administrator Tim Peterson asking councilors and anyone watching the virtual meeting "to imagine" a more conventional ceremony. In reality, Jaakola was not visible as she held her hand up and repeated the oath of office as "caller 02" on the GoToMeeting screen. Jaakola garnered the most votes for the Ward 5 council seat in November's election, beating fellow challenger Dennis...
A fly on the wall at the office of the Pine Knot News, during a meeting of the minds discussing year-in-review stories, may not have contained itself in screaming: "Covid. Done." But, being a fly with no means to discernibly communicate with humans, no one here at the office heard the plea. Not that we needed to. 2020. Covid. Pandemic. Restricted socializing. Masks. Illness. Death. Loss. Or, as we displayed in our largest headline of the year on March 20: Everything has changed. Yes, fly, 2020...
When I was growing up in Cloquet and Carlton county in the 1960’s, basketball was, in popularity, definitely the king of winter high school boys sports. Most of who were considered each school‘s “best athletes” played hoops (OK, I might get a few arguments here and slightly I’m looking through rose colored glasses as I played basketball). However, for the majority of county players, and for sure all females, there wasn’t a sports option. Basketball was the only winter sport offered at many of...
It’s the time of year when local governments are approving budgets for the coming year, and tax levies to go with them. Here’s a roundup of levies passed in the past week: Cloquet School District The Cloquet School Board members approved a 2.15-percent levy increase for taxes paid in 2021 following the truth-in-taxation hearing held Monday, Dec. 14. The increase brings the total local tax levy to $7,136,281, an increase of $149,993 over last year. That’s a smaller increase than most recent years, said district finance director Candace Nelis...
It took close to a year to find him, but the Cloquet Area Fire District has hired a new chief. Matthew Ashmore will start his new job full-time on Monday, Nov. 30. He comes to Cloquet from the Hibbing Fire Department, where he worked as a battalion chief and as emergency medical services (EMS) director. It was a long search process - actually two searches - but CAFD board member and succession planning committee chair, Linda Wey, said it was worth the extra time and effort. She explained that...
An investment by the federal government at the Cloquet Carlton County Airport is helping a local business. As a result, that business will be making its own investments with increased staffing and offerings at the local airport. That's exactly how the "opportunity zone" grants are supposed to work, said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, after announcing last month that the department's Economic Development Administration was awarding a $1.2 million grant to establish an aeronautics workforce...
Jason Paulson (incumbent) Background Born and raised in Thomson Township, graduate University of Minnesota, ten-year Marine Corps veteran, current airline pilot and assistant chief pilot/instructor at Lake Superior College. Husband of an environmental engineer, MN Water Quality designated cattle farmer on the Midway River. Steadfastly served the community as township supervisor for four years. I am the treasurer for our ambulance service provider- Cloquet Area Fire District, Arrowhead Regional...
In a straw poll during the Sept. 1 work session, Cloquet city councilors gave hope to want-to-be chicken owners all over Cloquet. After a relatively quick rehash of the past seven years of chicken debates in Cloquet, city administrator Tim Peterson first asked councilors if they would allow chickens in the suburban residential zones of Cloquet, neighborhoods such as the Antus Addition by Hilltop and Erickson Acres, where lots are larger. While no one objected to allowing residents to keep...
The nation marked 100 years this week since women finally won the suffrage battle. A key player in getting women the right to vote hailed from Cloquet, Anna Dickie Olesen. She was the first female nominee of a major party for the U.S. Senate and was a celebrated orator and passionate social reformer who became one of the most prominent Democratic women of the early 20th century. Anna Dickie was born on July 3, 1885, to Peter and Margaret Dickie and grew up in rural Waterville in southern...
A Thomson Township woman was airlifted to a Duluth hospital last week following an alleged assault by her daughter. Amber Rae Stonemark, 35, is facing charges of first-degree assault, great bodily harm as well as second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, both felonies, for allegedly assaulting her mother with a hammer Aug. 5. Stonemark was charged in Carlton County Court Aug. 7. According to the criminal complaint, Minnesota State Patrol and Carlton County Sheriff’s Office officers responded to a welfare check Thursday, Aug. 6, on East S...
Following a request for a welfare check at a residence in Thomson Township at 12:45 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, the Minnesota State Patrol located a seriously injured adult female who was determined to be the victim of an assault. Esko Fire, Cloquet Area Fire District, and Life Link III Air Ambulance tended to, and transported the victim. During the course of the investigation, a suspect, a woman, was identified and located in the Twin Cities metro area. The suspect was taken into custody and transported to the Carlton County Jail. Preliminary...
A 4-year-old girl driving an ATV was injured Thursday, July 23 after being hit by a pickup on Stenman Road in Esko, just south of Interstate 35. According to the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, dispatch received a 911 call at 1:39 p.m. Thursday about a girl hit by a northbound pickup at 45 Stenman Road as she came from a driveway on a child-sized ATV and entered the roadway. Carlton County deputies, Esko and Cloquet Area Fire District responders were dispatched to the scene along with the Minnesota State Patrol. A report states a Chevrolet p...
The morning of June 21, Father's Day, broke hot and humid in the Twin Cities. I was visiting my daughter and son-in-law and three of my grandsons. My work quarantine was over and, for the first time in three months, I was able to see my grandsons and play ball with them. Little did I know it came close to being the last time. After a quick breakfast, we all headed to a ballpark where we played catch, hit grounders and I pitched to them as we finally got a little normalcy back in our lives. The f...
A bicycle accident at Pine Valley Park around 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning left a 25-year-old Cloquet woman with her leg impaled on a branch stub of a decaying tree. While it sounds horrific, she is OK and left a hospital in good shape Monday. "Nothing was broken and there's no nerve damage," said Morgan Warbalow Wednesday. "I got pretty lucky." Warbalow said she was biking on a narrow part of the mountain bike trail with a client from the foster group home where she works when the accident...
A civil lawsuit filed by former Cloquet police detective Scott Holman is working its way through the courts, but the case is also shedding light on the inner workings of the police department he served for 22 years. The Complaint was filed by Holman and attorney Mike Padden earlier this year in U.S. District Court following Holman's dismissal from the Cloquet police department in 2019. Holman's Complaint claims that the detective's termination was the result of a Brady policy created by the...
Cloquet police officers responded to a call reporting a teenage bicyclist struck by a car just after 1:20 p.m. Tuesday on Big Lake Road in Cloquet. Early reports on Tuesday suggested three bicyclists were northbound on Trettel Lane, crossing Big Lake Road to Reservation Road when a vehicle driving westbound on Big Lake Road struck one of the bicyclists. The victim, a 13-year-old Cloquet girl, was treated by members of the Cloquet Area Fire District and transported to Essentia Hospital in Duluth. Her condition was not known. The driver of the...
After months of searching for a new fire chief, members of the Cloquet Area Fire District board decided to start over. They will reconsider the job requirements and administrative structure of the organization before interviewing any more candidates. The board made its decision at a special meeting Monday, June 29, after negotiations with candidate George Esbensen failed and Esbensen withdrew from consideration, and the succession committee put a different name forward, that of current CAFD...
As a child, Kevin Schroeder used to tag along with his dad as he headed to the Scanlon fire hall to work as a volunteer firefighter. Schroeder became a firefighter himself, first as a volunteer in Scanlon when he was 17 years old, then in Cloquet, where he rose through the ranks to captain, battalion chief and finally to fire chief of the state's first fire district. Next week will be Schroeder's last one as chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District - an entity he helped shepherd since he was...
Following two roundsa of interviews and months of searching, the Cloquet Area Fire District is still seeking its next fire chief. The CAFD board chose to not hire either of two initial finalists (out of 15 applicants) who interviewed in early April, admitting that the job description called for someone with skills far beyond the average fire chief. In late May, the board interviewed two more candidates: former Cloquet city administrator Brian Fritsinger and George Esbensen, who was fire chief...
Following interviews in April that resulted in a renewed and somewhat altered search for a new leader, Cloquet Area Fire District board members interviewed two new fire chief/CEO candidates on Wednesday. One of them, Brian Fritsinger, is familiar to Cloquet residents, as he led the city for nearly two decades as city administrator before taking a job as deputy county administrator in neighboring St. Louis County in 2017. Candidate George Esbensen currently works as the director of sales and...
