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 276 - 295 of 295
A rural Sawyer home at 1252 Mission Road was completely consumed by fire early Saturday morning. According to Cloquet Area Fire District chief Kevin Schroeder, the severe damage was the result of "an extreme delay" calling 911, because the two people who escaped the structure did not have phones with them. "The guy exited the home as it was filling with smoke and couldn't find his cell phone," Schroeder said. "So he had to truck through thew woods and the snow, pounding on doors until he found...
One of the oldest traditions in the history of Minnesota carries on Tuesday in the annual township meetings. The township system of government was established as part of the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, which included the northeast portion of today's Minnesota as a territory. Areas of land were divided into 36-square-mile units called congressional townships. Today, the term "township" refers to organized but unincorporated areas of the state usually governed by a three-person board of...
Firefighters from the Cloquet Area Fire District responded to two house fires Monday and found a frozen hydrant at each location. That's a problem, said CAFD captain Chad Vermeersch. "We had two frozen hydrants [Monday], one on each of the fires," Vermeersch said. "They hadn't been dug out and they were both frozen." Vermeersch said the first call was a chimney fire on the 2000 block of Prospect Avenue in Cloquet. The fire extended into attic a little bit but the firefighters were able to knock...
FDL board says railroad not working with tribe Kevin Dupuis didn't mince words Tuesday when talking about the BNSF Railways' response to a derailment of 40 cars carrying coal Saturday on Fond du Lac Reservation land. He was not happy. "We have jurisdiction; it's within our lands," said the chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. "We are the lead agency and we should have been contacted. There should have been collaboration to ensure the cleanup is done the right way within...
The fallout from a former Cloquet Police Department officer's untruths continued last week when an imprisoned man walked free after charges he pleaded guilty to were dismissed in Carlton County District Court Friday. All charges stemming from a December 2016 case of second-degree assault against Clarence Manuel Lozoya Jr. were dismissed after the Carlton County attorney's office determined that former CPD officer Scott Beckman - who lied under oath on an unrelated search warrant application in...
After two years of attempting to get results through official channels, former Cloquet police chief Wade Lamirande finally just decided to let the world know of his concerns. Early last week, Lamirande dropped a series of complaints on city councilors, the mayor, city staff and media, detailing eight issues each with Cloquet City councilor Steve Langley and Cloquet police chief Jeff Palmer. The Pine Knot News explored the allegations against Langley for this story, utilizing records of the...
The Cloquet Area Fire District responded to a house fire in Stoney Brook Township northwest of Cloquet Monday evening, but the home was already fully engulfed by fire when firefighters arrived. CAFD Chief Kevin Schroeder said CAFD units and the Industrial Volunteer Fire Department were paged by St. Louis County dispatch after Culver and Arrowhead Volunteer Fire Departments did not initially respond. "The roof had already collapsed when we got there," said CAFD captain Jeremy Hutchinson, noting...
St. Louis Sheriff’s deputies responded to a two-vehicle head-on collision on the 4900 block of Hwy 31 in Brookston Tuesday, Jan. 22 at 9:18 a.m. According to the incident report, Donald Ecklund, 39, of Cloquet, was driving a passenger car southbound on a curve when the vehicle crossed over into the oncoming traffic lane where it struck head-on a northbound pickup truck driven by Brookston’s Brian Lofquist, 45. Both vehicles were a total loss. According to the report, Lofquist walked away from the accident. Ecklund was transported to Ess...
Cloquet City Councilors got mixed news about money Tuesday night - and in some cases the bad news came on the flip side of the coin. Take the Cloquet Public Library, for example, and the happy news that it was offered a $784,000 library expansion grant from State of Minnesota, not quite the $1 million the city asked for. On the flip side is the fact that the grant is a matching one, so the city or some other agency must fund the other part of the estimated $2 million project. The previous...
Mother Nature refused to let longtime Cloquet street and parks maintenance supervisor Les Peterson coast into retirement. Rather, she dumped more than 15 inches of snow on the city in less than a week. As a result, Peterson was out plowing alleyways in Cloquet Monday morning, his last day with the city after 18 years. Not a shy guy, Peterson was both behind the scenes and played a public role in creating and promoting some of the activities in the city parks. From designing a hay bale maze for...
Man dies after truck falls on him A 59-year-old Carlton man died Sunday as the result of an accident when he was working outside on a vehicle. Sheriff Kelly Lake said the 911 call came in at about 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 16. Lake said two deputies arrived before the ambulance and were able to jack up the truck and pull Jeffrey Scott Ryan from underneath the vehicle. The deputies tried to revive him, then emergency medical personnel also tried lifesaving procedures when they arrived, but he was eventually pronounced dead at the scene. Services are...
An early morning house fire in Cloquet left one person injured and caused serious damage to a home on the 100 block of 15th Street. The Cloquet Area Fire District (CAFD) was dispatched to a report of a structure fire at 120 15th street in Cloquet at 06:41 a.m. Tuesday. First arriving units found a two-story residential structure with heavy fire showing from the main floor windows on two sides. An occupant was outside the structure but had sustained serious injuries exiting the fire. CAFD...
The Cloquet City Council voted unanimously to lower the city’s property tax levy by 1.5 percent Tuesday, but City Administrator Aaron Reeves cautioned that not everyone would see a decline in the city’s portion of their property taxes. “If you have a property that was valued at $200,000 last year but then the county assessor came through and reassessed it at $220,000, even though we may be decreasing our portion of the taxes, you’re being taxed at a higher value,” Reeves said. “You will quite...
For the second time in less than a month, it seems a major piece of Cloquet real estate will change hands for the price of $1. Last time it was Carlton County selling the former Shaw Library building to the Carlton County Historical Society for $1. This time it is the City of Cloquet offering the combined police and fire station to the Cloquet Area Fire District for $1. CAFD will likely take over ownership of the building early next year, after the police move into a combined City Hall/Cloquet...
A crash on Highway 33 near the Cloquet Walmart Thanksgiving Day resulted in only minor injuries to people, thankfully. According to the Cloquet Police Department accident report, a blue Plymouth Neon driven by Tod Michael Urban Jr., of Britt, Minn. crashed into the back of a black Dodge Charger that was stopped at the traffic light, then also hit the passenger side door of a white Chevrolet Spark sitting in the left-turn lane next to the Dodge. A witness told CPD officer Kristina Sather that...
Santa is home for the holidays now The annual Santa’s Home for the Holidays is in full swing already, with a chili feed courtesy of the Cloquet and Fond du Lac police, who reported a good turnout Wednesday; the same with the Pine Knot News open house with Santa on Thursday. But there is much still to come. A gift and craft show continues today (Friday, Nov. 30) at the Armory, followed by Holidays on the Farm at the Carlton County Historical Society 1-3 p.m., and free photos with Santa, live children’s holiday music, and crafts and dinner at...
Winter weather: check Christmas lights: check Big guy in a red hat: check Even though the big guy is a Voyageur statue rather than a resident of the North Pole bearing gifts, never fear - Santa is coming home (to Cloquet) for the holidays. The festivities kick off Wednesday, Nov. 29, with Elf Bingo for kids and a free chili feed at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church from 4:30-7 p.m. On Thursday, there is a gift and craft show at the Armory from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., along with a Holiday Open House with...
Tuesday's General Election also brought change outside of Cloquet. Challenger Lauri Ketola won the County Attorney's race in a landslide - 11,488 votes to 3,347 votes - over incumbent Thom Pertler. Ketola has less time at the County Attorney's office than Pertler, but also offered a background in nonprofit leadership. She was also endorsed by a number of area law enforcement officials, including Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake, Moose Lake Police Chief Bryce Bogenholm and former Cloquet Police...
Cloquet isn't the only town in Carlton County that may see higher-than-usual voter turnout on Tuesday for a midterm election. County Auditor Paul Gassert expects to see high numbers in the communities that make up the Wrenshall School District, because of a three-question facility referendum on the ballot. Question No. 1 asks for a total of $12,967,500 for renovations to the existing K-12 facility and repurposing of the swimming pool area. Question No. 2 asks voters to approve $550,000 to...
Things are humming along in Cloquet through the lens of Holly Hansen, the city's community development director. On all fronts - housing, redevelopment, new and recovering business - the city is "very steady" in progress made since the economic downturn a decade ago. Hansen arrived in Cloquet in the midst of that recession, in 2009. "There's been a lot of change," Hansen said. "But we are a small city that can hold its own." There are some obvious signs of activity along Hwy 33, where the new...
