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 401 - 425 of 1396
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...
Back in the 1960s, China was a Third World country, but today it’s a superpower. We, through trade agreements and importation, have turned the tables, making them strong. What do China, Russia and North Korea have in common? They’re all led by autocrats. Defined by Webster’s dictionary as a “supreme rule of unrestricted power. An arrogant, dictatorial person, self ruling, independent.” Sounds a lot like our former president, and he loves and respects them all and even claimed he and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “fell in love.” Now, as we Am...
The girls high school section basketball tournaments opened Monday across Minnesota. In Section 7A the first-round games featured Wrenshall at Littlefork-Big Falls, while Fond du Lac was scheduled to play at Nashwauk-Keewatin. Nashwauk-Keewatin was a forfeit winner when Fond du Lac was unable to field a complete team. The Spartans moved to the second round on Thursday at Cromwell-Wright. Wrenshall struggled to find an answer to Kora Gustafson of Littlefork-Big Falls, who pumped in 34 points toward a 58-30 victory over the Wrens. The Wrens were...
The boys high school basketball season is coming to a close, and as the season winds down every game is important from a seeding and momentum standpoint. Tuesday night Wrenshall hosted the Fond du Lac Ogichidaa with FDL coming out on top by a score of 80-45. "We had Jordell (Brown) going for his 1,000th point tonight, and he was able to get that done, and the guys did a good job of staying focused on the game as well," said FDL coach Cameron Thompson. "I was super-happy for Jordell, but also...
Nearly 100 people appeared Tuesday at a public hearing in Wrenshall related to proposed RV park regulations. About 15 percent of attendees spoke at the hearing, doing so resoundingly and to repeated applause. Their message to the city's planning commission, which is also its town council: leave business owner Jeff Bloom alone. "For you to pick this man out and single him out and try to create ordinances to cause him to spend more money that could possibly cause him to go out of business is compl...
Firefighters arrived to find a pole barn engulfed in flames just after 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21. According to a news release, Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputies learned from the property owner that a tractor and recreational vehicle were also inside the pole building, along with hay for animals. No injuries were reported from the fire, and the homeowner removed the animals and none were injured. The barn was located on the 4100 block of Kari Road in rural Carlton County between Sawyer and Cromwell. Volunteer fire departments from C...
THUMBS UP to Cloquet public schools and Members Cooperative Credit Union for working toward an agreement on naming rights in return for getting $4.25 million in athletic facilities upgrades across the finish line. MCCU has sent a letter of intent to the school board to pay $1.25 million in exchange for naming rights, plus up to $300,000 for a new scoreboard. The proposed arrangement would run for 20 years and give the now regionally based MCCU exclusive naming rights to the campus stadium as well as a host of other on-site sponsorship opportuni...
Having already sunk five 3-pointers on the night, Cromwell-Wright's Dylan Nyberg was probably the last player Carlton wanted to toss up a potential game-tying triple as the buzzer sounded Friday. Fortunately for the Bulldogs and their frenzied faithful, Nyberg's 25-footer from the right wing bounced off the backboard, the rim and finally fell to the floor before the blue-and-white heaved a collective sigh of relief in Carlton's 53-50 comeback victory. Following a missed free-throw from the...
Wrenshall's Janae Sjodin passed her 1,000th point on Feb. 15, hitting a jump shot in a home game against Silver Bay in front of her ecstatic team and fans. Sjodin needed only one point Wednesday to hit the 1,000, but went far beyond that, finishing with 24 points and 12 rebounds. "Janae has played a significant role on this team and led in scoring last year and this year," said head coach Emma Grover. Sjodin wasn't the only Wrenshall player with a double-double - Laura Rubesh scored 10 points...
LEFT: Wrenshall's 2023 homecoming king and queen, Wesley Ward and Janae Sjodin, are surrounded by members of their court Friday. The Wrenshall homecoming court included Katie Line, Francesca Klimek, Hanna Pearthree, Hannah Tauzell, Peyton Johnson, Benjamin Nyberg, Joseph Rubesh and Riley Underwood. Junior (class of 2024) participants included Lexi Swanson, Jack Riley, Elliana Lattu, Uriah Loucks, Eden Loucks and Tyler Mills. First grade participants included Train Bearers Hoyett Hlava and...
A community member shouted questions at the teacher advisor to Wrenshall’s student-based Gender and Sexualities Alliance at Monday’s school board meeting. In doing so, the community member seemed to prove why the advisor wouldn’t let students address the board in person. “I did not feel comfortable inviting students from the GSA to come to this meeting, because I feel it would put them in an unsafe position,” advisor Ted Conover, an English teacher, told the board. Bill Dian repeatedl...
The owner of multiple Wrenshall businesses said he'll pack a public hearing with supporters Tuesday, when the city begins consideration of proposals the business owner said target his enterprises. "They don't have enough building to hold the people," said Jeff Bloom, owner of the Wrenshall General Store, Lots4Bid, storage garages and RV park - all located on the same 23-acre property at the south end of town. "I'm drawing a line in the dirt," Bloom said. "People are tired of the regulations....
A special school board meeting Feb. 1 featured an inquiry into rising technology costs, and revealed in startling detail “glaring security holes,” server updates that were missed, and antivirus packages purchased but not installed. “Nothing was done for four years,” contractor T.J. Smith told the board. “I’ll be point-blank honest and blunt: your previous tech director, I don’t know what that person did.” As if on cue, Wednesday’s committee of the whole meeting featured business manager Angela Lind announcing she couldn’t access budgetary in...
Who grows our food? Where is it grown? How is it grown? How long will production last? Folks with ready answers to these questions probably know a member of the Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association (LSSFA). For three decades, residents of northeast Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin have benefited from the more than 120 farmers with modestly sized operations who commit to organic and regenerative methods that LSSFA advocates. Forty of those producers gathered for the association’s a...
It's a classic long Minnesota goodbye to an absurd degree. Millie, a guest at the Pine Knot News office the past two years, will be staying at least another year. Blame the staff at the newspaper, for they keep serving up quality journalism and advertising that is enticing Millie to stay. Millie, as the staff has affectionately coined the Mills Trophy, is symbolic of the Minnesota Newspaper Association's "most outstanding weekly." The distinction was bestowed upon the Pine Knot for the third...
Bolstering Carlton ambulance service, costs pitched to townships A proposal to create two full-time positions atop the city of Carlton's all-volunteer ambulance service was met with optimism by officials from surrounding townships Jan. 25. "You did a professional job here tonight," Silver Brook Township board chair Duane Laveau said. "You probably sold Silver Brook Township just by the professionalism here tonight." The proposal to beef up ambulance service came in front of more than 40 local...
