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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Cloquet city officials got some unexpected news last week. It appears that Cloquet city administrator Aaron Reeves had no authority to make any decisions regarding the CAT-7 cable access station - including closing and moving the studio, cutting staff hours and spending reserve funds to equip the city's new council chambers for live streaming video - because the authority for the management of CAT-7 staff and resources lies with the cable commission. Former Carlton County commissioner and...
A singer and pastor from Iowa was arrested Saturday, Aug. 10, by Cloquet police officers on a warrant accusing the man of fondling two minor girls. Emanuel J. Rodriguez, 44, was charged in Douglas County, Nebraska, with two counts of third-degree sexual assault of a child. An affidavit filed Friday accused Rodriguez of fondling two girls between Jan. 1, 2017, and May 17, 2019, inside two homes in Omaha previously owned by Rodriguez. The girls are now ages 12 and 11. Cloquet acting police chief...
It was quite a first meeting for interim Ward 3 Cloquet city councilor Chris Swanson last Wednesday. The agenda appeared simple and uncontroversial. Then Ward 2 councilor Sheila Lamb made a motion to deny a routine donation from Enbridge Energy to the National Night Out celebration put on by Cloquet police, asserting that if the company's Line 3 pipeline goes through, sex trafficking will increase in Cloquet and other Carlton County communities. "A $1,000 donation is not worth putting a single...
A look at the good and bad in the area this month: Cheers: To good folks at Kingdom Builders Ministries who organized the annual Wood City Music Festival last week. It’s a positive event for our city, an excellent use of Veterans Park and draws visitors to our community. How they manage to put on such a great show, attract thousands of people, and not charge a dime for admission is amazing. Lee Harris, president of the group, also knows how to make a great cup of coffee at the group’s Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli on Avenue C. Jeers: To the...
The “Help Wanted” sign is out again at City Hall. Not only does Cloquet need to hire a new police chief, we also need to find a good city administrator. Those are two of the most important city positions, and we need to proceed carefully and deliberately. Let’s hope the new employees will be in their jobs for a long time. Hiring is a tricky process. There’s a reason why selecting new employees starts with a resume but ends with an interview — we’re looking for the right person for the job. While...
At last Wednesday’s city council meeting, the council voted 4:3 to refuse a $1,000 donation from Enbridge to help defray expenses for the city’s National Night Out event at Veterans Memorial Park and also any future donations. I am, among other things, the chairman of the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail Extension Committee, which is a group of local volunteers whose sole purpose is to raise money to extend the Pine Valley Mountain Bike Trail from its existing 2.3 miles to the planned 5 miles. There is $125,000 budgeted for this project. In the...
Here are a few thoughts for consideration by our elected official and concerned citizens. With the departure of the city administrator and the police chief, the mayor and city councilors have many decisions ahead of them. The current turmoil and budget overruns need to be dealt with to eventually establish an efficient and dependable police department. Does the current police study include not only the issues with the Cloquet police department, but also a look at the city’s option to hire the Carlton County sheriff’s department to provide law...
Results of the recently completed 2018 city audit raised the alarm for at least one Cloquet city councilor last month, when city finance director Nancy Klassen stated that the police department came in $211,000 over its approved $2.79 million budget last year. Ward 4 councilor Kerry Kolodge compared the budget to actual spending for 2018, pointing out that general government spending was below budget by $115,000, while streets and highways were below by $70,000. Then he cited the $211,000...
Anyone who thinks getting older means being less active should visit Cloquet's new pickleball courts on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday morning. Last week the courts at Churchill Elementary/Sunnyside Park were packed with mostly senior citizen players, using paddles to bat what looked like a tiny wiffleball back and forth on the bright blue courts. The women players outnumbered men by a ratio of about 4:1. Heart rates were elevated but there was a lot of laughing going on too. When asked what...
Cloquet Police Chief Jeff Palmer has resigned. According to an email from city administrator Aaron Reeves, Palmer resigned effective today, Aug. 8. Reeves did not say why, but Palmer has been on voluntary paid leave since mid-April. Patrol commander Carey Ferrell has been acting police chief since Palmer went on leave April 16, and Reeves said he expects him to continue in that role for the time being. A 25-year veteran of the department, Ferrell is one of two commanders. According to the...
After just under two years on the job in Cloquet, city administrator Aaron Reeves is resigning to take the same job in Hudson, Wisconsin. His last day with the City of Cloquet will be Sept. 5. Reeves said he and his wife made the move north from the Rochester area two years ago with plans to stay in the area, but her job changed about nine months ago and Reeves started searching for a job closer to the metro area, as she flies a lot for work now. "I waited as long as I could before getting too...
It’s official. Essential Health is planning to open a Cloquet clinic at the site of the Driftwood Motel, opposite Walmart on the frontage road west of Highway 33. “We are expanding our services in Cloquet to meet the health care needs of Essentia Health patients and employees in the area,” said Essentia Health spokesperson Louie St. George. City planner and zoning administrator Al Cottingham confirmed that the plans were public, noting that the health care network submitted plans to the city...
Admittedly, I have a vested interest in CAT-7, the local public access television station. I’ve hosted “Harry’s Gang” on that channel for almost 20 years, and I’ve developed close friendships with both its coordinators, the late Jeff Korpi and now Eric Lipponen. CAT-7 is a small part of the city’s responsibilities, but I’m glad outgoing Cloquet city administrator Aaron Reeves took some time to respond to our editorials and stories on CAT-7. Even though he’s planning to leave the city in Septemb...
It feels like the outgoing Cloquet city administrator, Aaron Reeves, is doing everything he can to get rid of CAT-7 and its coordinator Eric Lipponen. I worry that the church services, “Harry’s Gang,” various sports and other things that are shown on CAT-7 will be gone. They already haven’t been on the air for ages and it’s not clear why Reeves decided it was his job to change everything about the cable access station since it’s funded entirely by Mediacom. With Reeves leaving Sept. 5, I think any final decision regarding CAT-7 should be t...
I’m always tempted to apply for elected positions in government when there is a vacant seat. Running for election is too much work. It would be an honor to serve … but too much of a chore to run a campaign. I suspect that others agree with me. There is often no primary election for city council seats, but when there’s an opening, like when Dakota Koski had to vacate his seat recently, there are usually a few people applying. Four citizens of Ward 3 applied. I watched the interviews on the city’s...
Cloquet City Administrator Aaron Reeves is resigning to take a job in Hudson, Wis., Cloquet Mayor Roger Maki confirmed Friday. Reeves was also due to have finalist interviews for a city administrator job in Hastings, Minn. July 26-27. Reeves is leaving after less than two years in Cloquet; he started in October 2017. Prior to that, he worked for the city of Rochester for nearly four years as assistant city administrator and city clerk/ development coordinator. He has also served as city...
Meeting for the first time in their new chambers at the new City Hall, Cloquet City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Chris Swanson as interim representative for Ward 3. Swanson will be sworn in at the next council meeting Aug. 7 and will serve until voters determine who will take over Dakota Koski's seat for the remaining three years of his term, as Koski moved out his ward earlier this month. Swanson was one of four Ward 3 residents to apply for the position. The other...
A closed session to consider allegations against a city employee was canceled Tuesday after CAT-7 coordinator Eric Lipponen, mayor Roger Maki and the city’s human resources director James Barclay disappeared down a back hallway for a few minutes prior to the formal Cloquet City Council meeting. Lipponen confirmed afterward that he had been the subject of the proposed closed meeting, and that the three men and Lipponen’s wife, Becca Lindberg, had arranged for a meeting Thursday to discuss a numbe...
City council meetings are now livestreamed, but sometimes transparency comes at a cost. In this case, CAT-7, Cloquet’s cable access channel, has lost its studio and its full-time coordinator. That’s a shame, especially since, for years, CAT-7 was the only electronic media outlet covering local government, local events and local churches. Losing a full-time coordinator also means that the level of service CAT-7 used to provide will be diminished, probably to a great extent. There will be fewer parades, sports events or graduations taped, and...
ROI: Return on Investment. For those who don’t know, this simply means what you get (return) for what you give (invest). And as a taxpayer, you have the right and responsibility to ask about the returns (services given) for your investments (taxes). Every year, the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District SWCD publishes an annual report that tells taxpayers and Carlton County landowners what their ROI is for the federal, state, and local public funds that support SWCD programs, projects a...
A host of new measures from this year’s legislature officially became law this wee, as of July 1. Summaries of all laws passed by the Legislature in regular and special sessions are available online from nonpartisan House Public Information Services at house.mn We take a look at the new laws here and in next week’s issue of the Pine Knot Agriculture The omnibus agricultural finance law will provide $287.85 million in state funding, an increase of $59.51 million. The bulk of that, $40 million, will go to toward broadband infrastructure dev...
The Cloquet City Council meeting for July 2 was canceled, so the next meeting — to be held at the new City Hall location at 101 14th Street — is scheduled for July 16. Although the agenda for that meeting isn’t set yet, city administrator Aaron Reeves said the council will interview candidates who have applied to fill the Ward 3 seat vacated by Dakota Koski before that meeting. They plan to appoint one of those candidates to fill the seat for the remainder of the year during the July 16 meeting. Ward 3 residents are encouraged to apply for t...
The question is not if there will be a new county jail, but what that new building would include, and how Carlton County would make the annual loan payments on such a massive mortgage. Voters are being asked to weigh in on the "how to pay" question in November, when the county will ask for approval of a new half-percent sales tax versus simply raising property taxes to make the annual bond payments. In the meantime, the Carlton County board of commissioners and the county jail executive...
Cheers: To the Cloquet Fourth of July committee and coordinator Alyson Leno, for putting such tremendous effort into planning and executing the Cloquet Fourth of July celebrations. Enjoyed by thousands, many won’t even realize the work that goes into executing such a major event. It’s not too late to volunteer: Call Alyson at 218-879-1551 if you have a couple hours to help out next week. Cheers: To the first Cloquet Senior Citizens Day June 14 and the senior resource fair and celebration at the Armory the same day. Led by Pine Knot News gue...
I’m convinced that the city administration is absolutely purposely limiting Harry’s Gang’s observations of the happenings of the city of Cloquet on public accesss television. They turned us off while investigating and firing police officers, the missing chief of police, administrative actions against the producer of the Gang and all other local programming, as well as God only knows what else is happening, because we are no longer in the loop. We know that there is an opening on the city council that needs to be filled. Only Harry’s Gang in...
