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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The Wrenshall school board agreed in a special meeting Wednesday to survey community members before posting the district’s open superintendent position. “I don’t think we can rush this,” board member Misty Bergman said. “We don’t even know what we’re looking for.” Superintendent Kim Belcastro announced her retirement in January after 11 years in the job. She and the board agreed to keep her on part-time through the end of the school year to maintain leadership in the school and administer to the business of the school. Belcastro and s...
As a former teacher and coach in the Carlton school district, I have watched the demise of both the Wrenshall and Carlton schools. There is plenty of blame to go around. School boards, administration and parents all share a piece of this very sad situation. Seldom have I heard this question asked: What is best for our students? In the opening paragraph of a Jan. 20 article in the Pine Knot News, Brady Slater uses the phrase “Deeper cooperation.” Past and present adult leadership hasn’t a clue as to what this really means. Students have been...
Mother to three kids under age 6, Cloquet's Billie Thompson had a unique routine among mushers when she and her dogs reached the first checkpoint during this year's mid-distance Beargrease 120. "I took care of the dogs first, getting them fed and bedded. Then my next priority was to nurse him," she said of baby Camden, now five months old. Having a strong support team - mom and dad, Betsy and Charlin Diver, and husband, Cameron - helps. So does a great kennel partner/mentor in Rock Creek's Richa...
Marlin Fredrick Wick, 76, passed away Jan. 22, 2023, while living at Garden Terrace Assisted Living in Wrenshall. He was born on Nov. 9, 1946, to Raymond and Eleanor (Aiken) Wick. Visitation: 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. memorial service Thursday, June 22 at Nelson Funeral Care in Cloquet. Inurnment at New Calvary Cemetery in Cloquet. A luncheon will follow at the Fond du Lac Language & Cultural Center in Cloquet. Nelson Funeral Care....
Deeper cooperation between Wrenshall and Carlton schools was on the table Tuesday — and the Carlton school board promptly swept it off. The board members dismissed a letter from the Wrenshall board seeking greater collaboration, declining to move beyond the full sports and activities cooperative that’s already set to begin this spring. “We need to focus on Carlton,” board member Tim Hagenah said. “Wrenshall needs to work on their issues.” Hagenah described how the Jan. 9 letter, made public at this month’s Wrenshall board meeting, caug...
It’s been just more than four years since this little experiment called the Pine Knot News began. By this time next week, members of the staff here, and contributors, will be coming home with more hardware from the Minnesota Newspaper Association annual conference, awards for excellence in journalism. And, perhaps, Millie, the Mills Trophy, will remain in our office window, as it has for two years now as we bask in the knowledge that we’ve been judged the best weekly newspaper in the state. We can’t express the notion of our competence enoug...
A bit of a January thaw that included rain earlier this week helped take the snow burden off area trees. The sloppy storm of late last year and subsequent snow squalls kept their mark on the Carlton County landscape. Pine Knot News photographer Amber Nichols went into the wilds to capture scenes of a snowy season. She found horses out in a pasture in Esko at River Ranch Farm, top. In Wrenshall the snow has piled up. For nearly a month, crews there have been clearing snow from streets and curbs....
A camper fire at Knife Island Campground on Saturday left a mother and her 2-year-old daughter homeless. According to a news release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, the 911 call came in just before 5 p.m. Jan. 14 from the campground at 234 W. Highway 61, in Thomson Township. Firefighters from the Esko, Carlton and Wrenshall fire departments responded and found a pull-behind camper on fire at a campsite in the campground. The woman and child were inside the camper when the fire started, but were able to get out. Both were evaluated b...
As she warmed up before the girls basketball jug game with rival Wrenshall Monday night, Carlton's Eliza DeCaigny admitted her blood pressure was a little high. "Everyone's on the team was," said DeCaigny, a senior. "It was definitely nerve-wracking." Stress aside, it was the Bulldogs that racked up the points, as DeCaigny scored 14 to follow teammate Megan Matarelli's game-high 20 in their 59-26 win to cap a long-standing rivalry. The two rural Carlton County schools' athletic programs fully...
Wrenshall boys get historic win in dramatic fashion It was one of those basketball games that saw every few seconds produce a hero - at the line, the three-point arc, in the congested paint, on the open floor. The last jug game between the Wrenshall and Carlton boys basketball teams was a classic Tuesday night. A bow to tie atop 73 years of a one-of-a-kind rivalry. After more than two hours of full-throated cheering, intense but clean play among the teams, dozens of lead changes and yes, all...
The newly constituted Wrenshall school board went straight to the heavy lifting this week, bracing for the end of its superintendent’s career, while posing the idea of sharing a top administrator with neighboring Carlton. In a letter sent to the Carlton school board this week, the Wrenshall board asked if there was interest in sharing administration, a school nurse, and grounds and maintenance staff. Last year, the districts agreed to consolidate all sports and afterschool programs beginning this spring. The letter comes as the Wrenshall b...
Had you arrived early enough, you may have mistaken the junior varsity game for the main event jug game on Tuesday in Wrenshall. It was raucous, but not nearly as loud as it would get. The Carlton JV won going away. Wrenshall’s varsity players chose Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” and Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” for warmup music, oldies of more than 20 years ago, but a far cry from “Come on-a My House” by Rosemary Clooney, which could have been on the radio of a DeSoto as fans drove to the first jug...
A chapter in the history of two small-town basketball programs will draw to a close next week. But when it comes to the annual "Jug" games between the boys and girls teams at Carlton and Wrenshall, the question that arises is to what extent the history of the games has even been written. There are few definitives when it comes to the origin of a jug being the centerpiece of rivalries that go back generations. Those facts come from the jugs themselves, which have written on them the past scores a...
Commissioner Susan Zmyslony was sworn in as the new commissioner from District 4 of Carlton County this week, representing the southeast portion of the county, including Carlton, Barnum, Wrenshall, Mahtowa and Holyoke. Judge Rebekka Stumme officiated over the ceremonies Tuesday, which also included the swearing in of re-elected District 2 Commissioner Marv Bodie, County Attorney Lauri Ketola and Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake. The annual county board organizational meeting saw District 1...
Ronald "Ron" Frank, 65, died unexpectedly Dec. 21, 2022, of natural causes. He was born on Nov. 7, 1957, to Edith and Harold Frank at Cloquet Memorial Hospital in Cloquet, the seventh of what would eventually be a family of 10 children. Ron was a member of the Cloquet class of 1976. He attended Hennepin Technical College from 1978 through 1980, where he studied computer programming. Ron held several jobs, including working at USG, and most recently at Black Bear Casino, where he was a reliable a...
Teddy B. Erickson, 74, of Wrenshall passed away Monday, Jan. 2, 2023, at St. Luke's Hospital. He was born Oct. 25, 1948, in Cloquet, the son of Arnold and Esther (Borg) Erickson. Teddy graduated from Wrenshall High School and served in the U.S. Army. He worked most of his life with Laborers Union Local 1091 and was a developer of much of his property in Wrenshall. Teddy was a member of Dalles Masonic Lodge #181, the AAD Shrine Temple, and the Viking Shrine Club. He also had served as commander...
When Wrenshall voters made wholesale changes to the makeup of the district’s school board during the November election, their mandate was clear: end the infighting and put the struggling district back on track. The three first-time electees, Eric Ankrum, Mary Carlson and Ben Johnson, were scheduled to be sworn in during the first meeting of the year late Wednesday. But before then, the Pine Knot asked the newcomers about a series of issues, including the district’s struggling enrollment and finances, the search for a new superintendent, and...
As 2022 came to a close, Rep. Mike Sundin left the Minnesota State Capitol in St. Paul one last time on Wednesday. But not before the Esko Democrat cleared out his office after 10 years as a representative for District 11A. "I'm going back to help Mary Murphy pack up, and that's going to be tough," Sundin said of his fellow DFL lawmaker and longtime friend. "I'll be helping her vacate an office she's held for 46 years. But it's a changing of the guard." It's been that kind of year throughout...
Requiring Herculean effort to regain a sense of normalcy, the first major snowstorm of the winter buried Cloquet and surrounding areas last week. The storm transformed Carlton County into a winter wonderland, but the heavy snow also wreaked havoc on roads, electrical grids and trail systems. It left young trees bowing like monks while older trees fell or dropped limbs overwhelmed by the weight of the wet snow. Evergreens turned white, with giant globs of snow pasted to every branch. The snow...
The final school board meeting of the year in Wrenshall on Monday featured a host of financial housekeeping updates for a district in cut-mode as it tries to account for a drop in enrollment and subsequent decline in state funding. The board’s final levy certification included a 1.58-percent increase to $1.52 million — the amount of money district property owners’ taxes will account for on the district’s estimated $6.2 million budget in 2023. That budget is in flux, needing to come down from the figure previously approved in June. The school...
“Do the cuts that you can make right now. The longer we wait the deeper the hole.” — Angela Lind, Wrenshall business manager Superintendent Kim Belcastro announced her resignation during a special meeting of the Wrenshall school board Dec. 8. The meeting also served to announce early rounds of $300,000 worth of budget cuts, including the immediate losses of one full-time paraprofessional and a retiring math teacher. “I made the decision I am leaving,” Belcastro announced after 15 years in the district. “I can leave as early as Jan. 5, or I’m w...
The state’s advisory opinion this month that Thomson Township supervisors violated the Open Meeting Law should be a reminder to all elected officials that closing meetings should be done sparingly and always with strict attention to the law. In the case of Thomson Township, supervisors closed a September meeting to discuss candidates for the seat vacated by Jason Paulson in August. In private discussion, they whittled the number of candidates from six to three finalists. Several mistakes were made, including the initial assumption that the b...
Cromwell-Wright and Wrenshall girls basketball met up Thursday, Dec. 8 in Cromwell in what turned out to be a fairly lopsided game. The Cardinals have been among the best small-school teams in the region for the past decade, while the Wrens are trying to build a program under second-year coach Emma Grover. The Cards won 72-18, but the Wrens fought to the end, looking at every opportunity to improve. "It can be a tough game when you know one team is heavily favored," said Cards head coach Jeff...
Dennis R. Mattinen passed away Nov. 29, 2022. He was born on May 13, 1945, in Cloquet to Carl Hjalmer and Hilma (Esala) Mattinen. Shortly after graduating from high school, Denny enlisted in the U.S. Army. His service took him to Germany, where he spent much of his active duty. He returned to Minnesota and began working as a mechanic, putting his skills learned in the Army to use. He married Judy Hughes on August 16, 1969, in Duluth. The couple made their home in Cloquet, and Denny began a...
Maria Mae Schroeder, 89, of Cloquet and formerly of McGregor, passed away on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022, in Inter-Faith Care Center in Carlton. She was born in Durbin, North Dakota on Jan. 19, 1933, to Elmer and Nellie Gust. She grew up in North Dakota. Maria married James Frank Schroeder on Feb. 19, 1949. They farmed near Evansville, Minnesota until they moved to Esko, where they raised their family. Maria was a representative for the Stanley Home Products Company for 60 years, retiring as a branch...
