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 376 - 400 of 1386
Local softball rivals kept it interesting on a rainy afternoon Saturday. After trailing Carlton/Wrenshall 7-2 through three innings, Esko scratched and clawed its way back to take an 8-7 win. Esko wasted little time in gaining an advantage and went up 2-0 in the bottom of the first inning with both Avery Kuklinski and Bailey Plante scoring runs. "Esko got the jump on us in the first inning, but we were able to bounce back in the second," said Raptors assistant coach Anna George. Kennedy Siiter...
Esko sweeps round robin The weather broke long enough on April 25 for the Esko, South Ridge and Barnum baseball teams to play a three-game round robin at Wade Stadium in Duluth. Barnum came in at 1-0 after a 6-2 win over ML/WR a week earlier, but fell hard, 27-0, to an impressive Esko team. One of the top-ranked teams statewide in Class AA, Esko belted out 17 hits in the shutout. Sam Haugen, AJ Kazel and Isaak Sertich all had two hits for Esko. Kazel led the Eskomos with four RBIs while Bryce Hipp added three RBIs. Cale Haugen, Jamis...
The city of Carlton may have hit a speed bump last week on its way to adding two full-timers to its ambulance service. A skeptical Wrenshall city council heard Carlton’s proposal during a special meeting April 19, and Wrenshall’s five-member board remained noncommittal, telling Carlton it would have an answer following its May 3 council meeting. “Why does Carlton have to be in the ambulance business?” asked Wrenshall councilor Melvin Martindale. “You’re 1,100 people strong and you’re just not big enough to support (it) and you’re raisin...
The Wrenshall school board had planned to interview three full-time candidates for its superintendent vacancy on the first day in May. But a recommendation Tuesday from the board’s budget committee spoiled the plan, recommending pursuit of a part-time superintendent to replace retiring Kim Belcastro, who is fulfilling a half-time role through the end of the school year. There’s simply not enough money in the developing 2023-24 budget to accommodate a full-time superintendent, board members first learned during a sometimes tense school boa...
Roberta Ann (Goad) "Birdie" Olson, 77, of Cloquet passed away April 13, 2023, at St. Luke's Hospital in Duluth, surrounded by her loved ones. She was born May 21, 1945, in Cloquet, the daughter of Roy and Dorothy (Sheppard) Goad. Roberta graduated from Wrenshall High School in 1963. She was united in marriage to Dennis R. Olson on April 29, 1967, and had worked in the general offices for Northwest Paper Company. Roberta was an active member at Our Redeemer Lutheran Church. She was a devoted...
The city of Carlton moved closer to adding a pair of full-timers to its ambulance service at the council meeting Wednesday. Fire chief Derek Wolf reported roughly $206,000 in commitments from municipalities that use the service. The goal is $250,000 annually, which would be used to add two full-time emergency medical technicians beginning in 2024. “I’m super-happy with the support,” Wolf told the newspaper afterward. “It really shows people understand the need.” In February, the city asked surrounding municipalities to help fund the addition...
The city of Carlton adopted first-time ordinances related to short-term vacation and camping rentals during its March city council meeting. The unanimous approvals mean vacation and camping rentals will need to be permitted. Vacation rentals will be capped at five and feature quiet hours from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Camping rentals must be on lots of 10 acres or more with no more than two sites. The applicant must also live on the property. A maximum of two short-term camping locations will be allowed in the city. The locations must also have campfir...
Following a 17-7 season last year, the Esko softball team will need to overcome the loss of five starters, including two pitchers, if they are to contend for a section title. Coach Jeff "Huff" Emanuel is optimistic - he just has to puzzle out where players fit best. "We did lose a lot, but I think we have some very athletic and talented players who can take those positions," Emanuel said. There is an old baseball adage that a team needs to be strong up the middle, which means the catcher,...
As a young married man, now 75, we purchased our first home with a coal-fired (by hand) furnace. Our second was also heated with coal; however, we had a stoker we would fill every two or three days, pulling out clunkers daily. Those days are gone as coal’s days are numbered, even as a generating power for all power companies. Many homes are also heated with fuel oil. Two of my uncles owned fuel oil companies in Duluth, now closed. At $4.18 per gallon with a 265-gallon tank, the cost to fill would be over $1,100. With all heat forms being c...
Last weekend saw some heroic work done on outdoor track facilities, as Pete Hughes cleared much of the Cloquet track, while Esko utilized custodians, coaches and volunteers to clear at least three or four lanes to train on. In spite of those efforts, track remains an indoor sport for now. On Saturday, April 1, eight different Polar League teams traveled to Superior for the inaugural meet of the season, giving track and field athletes a taste of what's to come. Carlton County runners, jumpers...
Carlton/Wrenshall softball pitcher Abby Mitchell and her dad, Jason, wrangle some of the 200 boxes of cupcakes Abby has since March 31 been selling to raise money to help Wrenshall's Sjodin family and daughter Janae as she undergoes treatment in the hospital for injuries suffered in a car crash on March 24. Mitchell has her own baking business, Hello Cupcake, to make money for her future college plans. A community "Sjodin Strong" benefit will be held 2-6 p.m. Saturday, May 6, at the Four...
Angela Sjodin was sitting next to her unconscious daughter and thinking about the moments before everything changed. "Let's go for a walk, Mom," Angela wrote of the day before her daughters Janae and Jaela were injured in a car crash on Friday, March 24, coming home from softball practice. Angela recalled telling Janae the day before that she had work to do, charting for her social work job. "Charting will always be there, I will not be," Angela wrote of the conversation. Janae was referring to...
Sixteen hours south of his hometown of Esko, Noah Wells entered a combine excited to showcase his skill set to the coaches gathered around. Unlike the NFL combine, his 40-yard split time or vertical jump were not on display. The coaches were taking note of his pitching, flipping, and knot-tying prowess at the Bassmaster High School Combine at Wheeler Lake in Decatur, Alabama. For the high school senior, the combine, held last summer, was a culmination of years of hard work. He walked away with...
Walter “Dale” Ableman Jr., 59, of Wrenshall lost his battle with cancer on March 20, 2023, with his family by his side. A Celebration of Life was held March 30 at the Brickyard Restaurant in Wrenshall. A private burial service will be held at a future date. Nelson Funeral Care...
Jana Peterson [email protected] Wrenshall School Board members have been busy, with greater insights as a result of all their efforts. In addition to nearly weekly meetings to study school issues and finances, different board members climbed on the school roof Saturday and/or traveled to St. Paul for a "day at the capitol," arriving back in Wrenshall in time for Monday's regular school board meeting. The various excursions provided some vital information to the board: 1. Although Saturday's...
There is a fine line between public duty done right and dereliction, and currently the city of Kettle River is skating on it. After a lengthy letter from the state auditor’s office in February outlining a long list of questionable procedures by elected city officials and city employees, the city found itself in trouble with procedure once again. This time it was in the process of declaring a vacancy on the city council. That’s all well and good, since member Monique Doward has missed meetings for more than 90 days. State statute allows a cou...
Lawmaking in Minnesota is moving rapidly this year, and Carlton County farmers are pushing to make their voice heard. Several members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) met in Barnum on Feb. 17 and planned a call for area citizens to join in a Family Farm Breakfast and Lobby Day at the Capitol April 13. Affordable health care, expanded meat processing services, augmented farm-to-school programs, and soil enrichment are key issues. The LSP is a statewide, private, nonpartisan, nonprofit...
A crash Friday night left one teenager in serious condition, while her 11-year-old sister and the driver of the other vehicle have been released from the hospital. According to the Carlton County Sheriff's Office, a Ford Edge driven by Trinity Oakland, 21, from Saginaw, was traveling westbound on County Road 4 approaching the intersection of County Road 1 and failed to stop for the stop sign, striking a Subaru driven by Janae Sjodin, 18 years of age, from Wrenshall, traveling southbound on County Road 1 at the time of the crash. Sheriff Kelly...
What's with all the snow? It's a question everyone is asking after another weekend of digging out and another 6-inches-or-more burst forecasted as this issue of the Pine Knot went to press. We are above average is all we can tell you right now, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service data. There are variable snowfall amounts in the area, recorded since the first light snowfall way back in October. Officially, between 64 and 72 inches of snow has...
The Wrenshall school board agreed to slightly more than $312,000 in budget cuts during a special meeting Tuesday — the biggest slice of three rounds of cuts to date, totaling $383,000. The board reiterated during its committee of the whole meeting a day later on Wednesday that it was on its way to $500,000 in cuts, money to cover its current deficit and allow for a modest surplus in the district’s fund balance. “We still have a lot of information to gather,” board member Eric Ankrum said. The final figure for cuts has been a moving target,...
It didn't take long for the Career and Technical Education building at Wrenshall school to show its value. The facility opened this school year after $2.1 million in renovations. By turning it into an asset, officials hope to attract students to a district currently in a budget crisis. "I like how big it is," said senior Peyton Johnson earlier this week. "Now look, we can build a house inside here." Johnson spoke as peers in his carpentry class spent the afternoon adding particle board sheeting...
All four local Section 7A boys basketball teams have been eliminated from the playoffs after play last week, but they kept fans on the edge of their seats to the end. Fond du Lac hung in there the longest before falling 62-61 to Mountain Iron-Buhl Saturday in Hermantown. It wasn't the only close playoff game for the Ogichidaa. Carlton, ranked No. 12, gave No. 5 seed Fond du Lac a scare in a back-and-forth game March 9 that ended 76-74 in favor of Fond du Lac. Leading FDL in scoring was Jordell...
One of the oldest traditions in the history of Minnesota carries on Tuesday, March 14 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...
Following two weeks of uproar related to proposed ordinance changes in Wrenshall, the city council earned a muted response at its meeting Wednesday. There were fewer than a dozen visitors to City Hall, compared to the almost 100 who objected to an RV park ordinance at a public hearing in February. The city council said Wednesday it won’t address the RV ordinance again until a planning commission meeting at 10 a.m. April 19 — the first date the council can meet in full due to an absence from councilor Joyce Gvesrude. The council, which also act...
I disagree with the Pine Knot reporter’s description of a community member shouting questions at the Wrenshall school board meeting in the Feb. 17 issue. I was sitting right next to that community member and he did not “shout.” In fact, he used a perfectly normal tone of voice. I have known this community member for a couple of years and have heard him speak many times. I have never heard him shout. Maybe your reporter should look up the definition of the word “shout.” Carol Anderson, Wrenshall...
