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 1377
Thank you, thank you to the folks who volunteered at the Little Red Schoolhouse at the Carlton County fair this past week. Joining me were Sarah Sedlander, Sue and Rocky Youngberg, Eleanor Eskuri, Rick Gresczyk, Marilyn Kiehl, Terri Wallack, Sharon Zelazny, Mary Sanders, Felicia Hall, Shirley Stebbins, Linda Dahlman, Helen Kinnunen, Bev Clemons, Sandy Ferguson and Mary Svendsgaard. Also, thank you to Lake Country Power’s Operation Round Up program for the $500 donation to buy school supplies which were distributed to students visiting the s...
Kettle River's main street was bustling Saturday, as the small town celebrated its annual Ma & Pa Kettle Days event. Politicians, vendors and others – including the Moose Lake Historical Society and the Starr Club – lined the city's Main Street. The sounds of music from under the big top provided a backdrop for many conversations between old friends, shoppers and those trying to decide which candidate they will vote for. Dan Reed, who orchestrated this year's event with a committee of vol...
A pole building burned in Skelton Township, outside Barnum, on Saturday, Aug. 13. A passerby reported the fire on the 4400 block of County Road 6 at 11:46 p.m. Responding emergency personnel found nobody injured, but a pole building that was a total loss along with its contents, a Carlton County Sheriff’s Office news release said. Barnum, Moose Lake and Kettle River fire departments responded to the fire, along with sheriff’s deputies and Essentia Health-Moose Lake paramedics. Deputies learned the homeowner had been using a wood stove in the...
The filing period for Carlton County, the state of Minnesota, and the city of Cloquet was in May, but the filing period for remaining cities in Carlton County ended Tuesday, Aug. 16. Now that filing periods and August’s primary races have concluded, what follows is a list of all candidates running for public office in the Nov. 8 general election (*incumbent): School board filings Cloquet (elect 3: Ted Lammi*, Gary “Hawk” Huard*, Jamie Graham, David Battaglia*, Sarah Plante Buhs) Barnum (elect 3: Betty A. Anderson, Dawn Hultgren, Jessica Unkel...
Shirley Magnuson, 83, has been selected as the female Outstanding Senior Citizen for Carlton County this year. She will be honored during a ceremony at noon at the Carlton County fair Friday, Aug. 19 in the Hartman Pavilion. Shirley told of those cold days standing outside storefronts, faithfully ringing the bell for the Salvation Army's Red Kettle during the Christmas season. "It would sometimes get down to 20 below," she said. "But I was prepared, I wore four layers of clothes." Magnuson's...
The Carlton-Wrenshall Raptors football program won’t take the field for varsity action this season. It’s a victim of not having enough players despite the cooperative agreement between schools in the eastern half of the county. The schools will try to rebuild the football program by participating in the junior varsity and junior high levels. The possible expansion of a sports and activities co-op between Carlton and Wrenshall came to a halt this month, after the Wrenshall school board balked at the 13-page agreement approved by Carlton. “Th...
I was fortunate enough to attend the memorial service for former pastor Ed Nieman at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids Friday, Aug. 12. The service was beautiful, the church even more beautiful. Ed and Gayle’s daughters, Jenifer and Rhea, presented a PowerPoint tribute highlighting their years with their dad as children and his many volunteer projects during his years in the ministry and after retiring. What a wonderful husband, father, brother, uncle, grandfather, pastor, and friend to so m...
University of Arizona Franny Slater of Cloquet graduated summa cum laude this past spring from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science in business economics. Wichita State University Taylor Roen of Esko graduated magna cum laude from Wichita State University with a Bachelor of Science in nursing. Elizabeth Joy Risacher of Wright, graduated from South Dakota State following the spring 2022 semester. Bemidji State University The following local students earned degrees from Bemidji State University during the 2021-2022 school year. Fr...
A 17-year-old Kettle River boy was killed last weekend after the Jeep he was driving crossed the centerline and collided with another vehicle. Sebastien Jakob Blondo was traveling east on Minnesota Highway 210 outside Aitkin when the crash occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, a Minnesota State Patrol news release said. The driver of the other vehicle, Curtis Dean Watson, 75, of Aitkin was taken by helicopter to St. Cloud Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The hospital declined to provide a condition report on Watson, citing...
Low voter turnout and new voting machines led to a speedy turnaround for Carlton County election results in Tuesday's primary election. County elections staff were finished tallying the votes by 10:40 p.m., something Carlton County auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt said was a pleasant surprise. "Things went very smoothly - well, as smooth as can be with all new equipment and many people doing a role for the first time," he said. The county had new DS200 ballot scanning machines at the polling pl...
The final wording for a ballot resolution related to funding a new $66.8 million justice center was approved by the Carlton County Board of Commissioners last week. Auditor/treasurer Kevin DeVriendt encouraged the action to make sure there was plenty of time to include it in the Nov. 8 ballot soon to be printed. It reads: “How will the new Justice Center be paid for? “The new Carlton County Justice Center is being built. Shall Carlton County be authorized to pay for construction costs through a county wide one-half percent (0.5%) local opt...
Kettle River will be transformed Saturday, Aug. 13 as the small town celebrates the 38th year of the Ma & Pa Kettle Days celebration. Exhibitors and vendors will line both sidewalks "fair style," running down the main street of Kettle River. People who come to celebrate will wander along, enjoying each exhibit, able to ask questions at the various stations showcasing Kettle River and the surrounding area. Lois Johnson - longtime local writer, reporter, and member of many of the local organizatio...
Thank you to the members of the city council, city employees, fire department and police and anyone else who worked so hard putting together the National Night Out event in Kettle River. About 100 people attended, and roughly 20 children got rides in the firetruck. An excellent meal was also provided in addition to gifts for the children. Fortunately, the rain held off until nearly everyone had left. Thanks, too, to the crew that spent time in the hot sun to get the crosswalks painted on Highway 73 at the post office crossing and also at the...
Carlton County commissioners gave their support for a $400,000 broadband internet grant during their meeting Monday, July 25. The board instructed economic development director Mary Finnegan to write a letter of support for the Border-to-Border grant application being filed by Consolidated Telephone Co. Due by Thursday, Aug. 4, the grant would help cover $984,790 in costs for Brainerd-based Consolidated Telephone to lay fiber optic cable past 246 homes in northern Cloquet. Consolidated Telephone has also proposed a broadband extension to includ...
If early voting is any indicator, next week’s primary election may not be a barnburner in Carlton County. Polling places will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 9. Kelly Lampel, chief deputy auditor/treasurer for Carlton County, said the office was prepared for a much higher turnout in advance of the primary, but relatively few people have requested absentee ballots. “It’s nothing at all compared to 2020,” she said. “But primary elections often have lower turnout, especially during a non-presidential year.” Still, it’s not too late...
The filing period for local school boards, most city councils and township supervisor positions opened Tuesday and will remain open through Tuesday, Aug. 16. In most cases, one must file in the clerk’s office, whether it’s for a school district, municipality or township. Filing fees are minimal, mostly between $2 and $5. School Board positions Current seat holders’ names are provided in parentheses. Cloquet (Ted Lammi, Gary Huard, Dave Battaglia) Barnum (Paul Coughlin, Beth Schatz, Jessica Unkelhaeuser) Carlton (Ann Gustafson, Susan Karp,...
A 17-year-old Kettle River boy was killed last weekend after the Jeep he was driving crossed the centerline and collided with another vehicle. Sebastien Jakob Blondo was traveling east on Minnesota Highway 210 outside Aitkin when the crash occurred shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, a Minnesota State Patrol news release said. The driver of the other vehicle, Curtis Dean Watson, 75, of Aitkin, was taken by helicopter to St. Cloud Hospital with life-threatening injuries. The hospital did not respond to an inquiry about Watson’s c...
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party is hosting “coffee with the candidates” in Moose Lake, from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, July 30 at the Soo Line Event Center, 900 Folz Blvd. The DFL True Blue Gathering will provide voters the opportunity to speak with and learn more about the candidates and their stand on critical issues facing local families. Confirmed candidates include Jen Schultz, John Peura, Pete Radosevich and Eric Olson, plus special guests. The event is timed to offer voters an int...
Although August is just around the corner, the summer festival season is abuzz with activity, with Carlton Daze this weekend, followed by Esko Fun Days, the Honey Bee Festival, Wrenshall Brickyard Days, and Ma & Pa Kettle Days over the first two weeks of August. Esko Fun Days runs Aug. 2-9 and will be combined with an all-school reunion in celebration of the school's 100th (actually 102nd, thanks to Covid) anniversary. The fun kicks off Tuesday night with a National Night Out gathering...
On a hot July summer day, 64 players gathered for the third annual Gary "Moose" Pastika memorial golf fundraiser at the Cloquet Country Club. Pastika was an avid golfer and a 50-year member of the Cloquet Country Club. He beat colon cancer once, but the sometimes irrepressible disease came back with a vengeance and he died in December 2018. In response, a few of Gary's family and friends initiated the idea of the fundraiser, including Cloquet Hospital Foundation Executive Director Laurie Korby,...
The Carlton County Historical Society asked and Corky Mackey replied. All CCHS knew was that the photo above was of Billy Pederson's second-grade class in 1950. They didn't have a school, teacher's name or any other details. Well, it turns out that it was also Mackey's second-grade class at Moose Lake Elementary School. The teacher was Mrs. Nelson. Mackey was even able to identify every child in the photo, beginning with the row farthest to the right: Maryanne Degruglier (spelling?), Laurene...
Norman L. Larson, 74, of Hopkins and formerly of Cromwell, died peacefully July 24, 2022, at his brother’s home in Mahtowa, as he loved being up north in the country. He was born March 19, 1948, to James Sr. and Mildred Larson in Cloquet. He grew up in Cromwell, where he attended high school, graduating in 1967. Norman attended the University of Minnesota Duluth for a short time, then joined the U.S. Army in 1969, becoming a Green Beret in the Army’s Special Forces. He was honorably dis...
The names of two Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidates - John Peura of Moose Lake and Michelle Boyechko of Tamarack - will be on the ballot for Minnesota Senate District 11 in the Aug. 9 primary election. The candidate who receives the highest number of votes will go against Republican incumbent Jason Rarick in the November 9 General Election. Peura grew up in rural Kettle River as a fifth-generation Carlton County resident. His educational background is behavioral sciences in management,...
As temperatures heated up in Moose Lake this weekend, so did the number of people there for the Agate Days celebration, especially on Saturday afternoon. A half-hour before the 3 p.m. agate stampede, the streets were already lined with eager spectators, eventually standing four- and five deep in the heart of the southern Carlton County city. What is an agate stampede, you ask? It starts with two dump trucks driving up Elm Avenue in Moose Lake, dropping all kinds of rocks and gravel, plus 400...
The Cloquet Legion baseball team started playoffs this week after finishing the regular season with a 3-13 regular season record. "It is an unusual summer because we don't have any seniors playing on the team," said coach Tyler Olin, who also coaches the Cloquet High School baseball team. "They guys we have out want to play and our entire team is juniors and sophomores and even freshman. It is pretty rare not to have kids who have graduated, so we have a young group of kids." Last week Cloquet...
