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 27th Lake Superior Harvest Festival takes place Saturday and will feature several farms and vendors from Carlton County. The free event is 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Bayfront Festival park in Duluth. The Sustainable Farming Association calls it the largest farmers market in the region, with farms from across the region selling fall harvest produce. There will also be artisan vendors, live music, educational demonstrations, and a renewable energy fair. Masks will be required at the event to help keep everyone safe and physical distancing is...
Thursday, Sept. 2 Girls soccer Esko- 2 Princeton- 1 Boys soccer CEC- 7 Mesabi East- 0 Volleyball Marshall- 3 Cloquet- 1 Floodwood- 3 Carlton- 1 South Ridge- 3 Cook County- 2 Friday, Sept. 3 Football Moose Lake/ Willow River- 28 Hermantown- 21 Logan Orvedahl led the Rebels with 187 yards on the ground and a touchdown as well as an interception in the waning moments of the game. Orvedahl also returned a kickoff 88 yards for a score. Cromwell- Wright- 13 North Central- 12 With two minutes remaining, the Cards had a goal- line stand and then went...
With Covid-19 infections ramping up but no state of emergency in Minnesota or nationally, decisions on how to keep kids safe at school this fall have been left up to local school boards. It hasn’t been easy. Masks have become controversial, with some residents asking boards to simply recommend rather than require them, while others say they won’t send their unvaccinated children to school if they aren’t required. It’s also a different time in the pandemic, because people can be vaccinated, which was not the case last fall. According to its mos...
With Covid-19 cases still rising, Carlton County Public Health and others are bringing the vaccinations to the people. On Wednesday night, there were clinics at school open house events in Wrenshall and Barnum. They’re working on a clinic in Blackhoof for Sept. 11, and still advising other residents to seek out vaccines at local hospitals, health care clinics and pharmacies. Some 70.4 percent of county residents ages 16 and older have received at least one vaccine dose, with the number of vaccinations in August almost double what it was in J...
A short emergency meeting of the Wrenshall school board Wednesday night resulted in a vote to begin an investigation into the actions of one of its own members. The investigation will focus on the special board meeting held the night before as board members and a public audience discussed Covid-19 protocols before the district opens school for in-person classes next week. The issue of whether or not to require mask wearing by students and staff dominated the discussion. The board, after two...
The appointment of Bill Dian to the Wrenshall School Board has drawn a number of objections. All parties affirm that it’s about the process, not Mr. Dian. According to the Aug. 27 issue of the Pine Knot, the Minnesota School Board Association confirmed that “the board followed the letter of the law when it came to making the appointment.” The petition to reject the appointment of Mr. Dian states that the candidate was “interviewed privately by the chair and a few school board members rather than holding a public interview process or even a...
I was with Bill Dian Saturday, Aug. 29, at Wrenshall Park. Bill talked with people as they came there to sign a petition to rescind his appointment to the Wrenshall school board. The petition was started by someone who doesn’t live in our district. Most of the people Bill talked to said the school board didn’t follow the statute, as reported in your paper on Aug. 20. The Pine Knot ran a correction on Aug. 27, but the damage was done. What’s the saying? “A lie goes around the world before the truth gets its pants on.” Bill Dian is a good man...
Thursday, Aug. 26 Girls soccer St. Francis-2 Cloquet-0 Boys soccer CEC-6 Proctor-0 Monday, Aug. 30 Volleyball Esko-3 Cook County-0 Moose Lake-Willow River-3 East Central-2 Julia Jusczak 18 digs; Gabby Gamst 6 kills, 4 blocks; Jorja Jusczak 16 set assists, 4 ace serves. Boys soccer Mounds View-1 CEC-0 Tuesday, Aug. 31 Girls soccer Cloquet-1 Esko-0 Girls volleyball Barnum-3 Braham-0 Hinckley-Finlayson-3 Moose Lake/Willow River-2 Wrenshall- (No score available) Lakeview Christian Academy-...
The fall sports season kicked off in earnest last Thursday morning when a total of 10 local boys and girls cross country teams got together for an informal kickoff meet at Chub Lake in Carlton. "Esko, Cloquet, Moose Lake/Willow River/Barnum, Carlton, Wrenshall, Proctor, Cloquet, Hermantown, Cromwell, and McGregor were all at the meet," said Esko coach Jerimy Hallsten who hosted the event. "Each coach hand-timed their own kids in the event." While the day was beautiful in terms of temperature and...
Friday, Sept. 3 Football ~All games at 7 p.m. unless noted Barnum hosts Two Harbors Carlton/Wrenshall at Ely Cloquet at Proctor Cromwell-Wright/Floodwood at Kelliher Esko hosts Denfeld Moose Lake/Willow River at Hermantown 6 p.m. South Ridge at Bigfork Tuesday, Sept. 7 Girls soccer Cloquet hosts Proctor 4:45 p.m. Esko hosts Hibbing 7 p.m. Boys soccer CEC at Marshall School 4:45 p.m. Girls tennis CEC hosts Hermantown 4:15 p.m. Volleyball ~All games at 7 p.m. unless noted Barnum hosts Floodwood Carlton at Cloquet Cromwell-Wright hosts Hill City...
The Wrenshall school board will have its committee of the whole meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8 at the school. The meeting is open to the public and includes a host of issues up for discussion, which is all board members can do at such committee meetings. The agenda includes back to school and construction update matters. The board removed an item about discussion of an investigation the board approved of last week regarding the ethical conduct of one of its members at a special meeting Aug. 31 regarding Covid-19 policies at the school....
A petition is now circulating in the Wrenshall school district to block an appointment to the school board made Aug. 16. The hasty vote-in of Bill Dian to replace new school principal Michelle Blanchard — made with no discussion among board members — rankled enough people with its lack of transparency to get the petition going. The petition states that the board “selected a candidate who was interviewed privately by the board chair and a few school board members rather than holding a public interview process or even discussion of candi...
This is in regard to the appointment of Bill Dian to the Wrenshall School Board. My husband and I have lived in the Wrenshall School District for 50 years, and I was a teacher in the district for 28 of those years. Thus, I have been familiar with many school boards throughout those years. I read in the Pine Knot that some people are concerned with what Mr. Dian had posted on his Facebook page. He has the right to say what he feels, and I can’t figure out what his being pro-Trump has to do with his appointment to the board. I haven’t known Mr....
Graduates: Scholastica The College of St. Scholastica has announced its list of conferred graduates for spring 2021. They include: Cloquet Courtney Ableiter, Alysha Anderson, Damien Autio, Kolby Barney, Isaac Boedigheimer, Rachel Broadway, Brooke Dickison, Angela Evenson, Lisa Follett Pollak, Jada Johnson, Morgan Leslie, Shelby Lonne-Rogentine, Shanelle Oakland, Gina Olson, Gregory White Esko Bryce Bottila, Justin Jones, Rachel Kuntz, Camille Mattonen, Paige McCoy Carlton Courtney Gregory, Samuel Macor Cromwell Allie Hakamaki, Andrea Hakamaki,...
Wildflowers were on grand display last week at the home of Sandy and Betsy Dugan south of Wrenshall. The Dugan place has the barn that has been the center of the Free Range Film Festival for nearly 20 years. After canceling last year during the pandemic, the festival, usually run in June, returned last weekend. If you think the gardens around the house are something, Sandy Dugan said, just wait until the strip of land across Carlton County Road 4 gets going. It also has been planted in...
The heat is finally breaking this late Friday afternoon on another 90-something degree day in Carlton County. The dry, hot summer has the poplars yielding, yet it still seems far too early for downed yellow leaves to be dancing along the roadsides on a drive to a barn in rural Wrenshall. A persistent wind has kept the day from being totally oppressive, and it is quite pleasant on the grounds of the Free Range Film Festival a few hours before the first of two 7 p.m. showings of short films last...
It happened so quickly, Nicole Krisak didn’t even have a chance to react. While the official record will show that the Wrenshall school board voted unanimously to appoint a new person to its board Monday, Krisak could legitimately be considered a nonvote. She didn’t have a chance to say “yea” or “nay” as she swivelled her head in what looked to be astonishment. Superintendent Kim Belcastro had barely finished offering her suggestions to the board on how to proceed with the appointment before Alice Kloepfer blurted out a motion to appoint Bil...
The more the Covid-19 pandemic lingers, the more questions pop up about how high schools sports seasons will be run this fall. Last week, activities directors across Minnesota hoped for guidance from the Minnesota State High School League as the fall seasons kicked off Monday with the official practices for football, cross country, volleyball, soccer, girls swimming, and girls tennis. Unfortunately, the directors didn't get much more information than they already had. "I was not surprised with...
Elaine Osborne remembers walking along Highway 61 near her home between Scanlon and Esko on a balmy January day in 1984, when she realized the nearby Maki Swamp appeared to be steaming. "It was brown, frothy and smelled of sewage, and it was situated directly above the troubled sewage line," Osborne wrote in her new book, "If I Felt Alone." It wasn't the first time the line carrying sewage from Cloquet, Scanlon, Carlton and Wrenshall to Duluth had broken - releasing wastewater that included...
American history is littered with ginned up, so-called “problems” designed to alienate, punish and divide people based, mostly, on the drive to score political points. Bogeymen. The question, of course, is to what end? Is it just fear? A loss of control of the narrative that is the messy history of the United States? Is it power grabbing? Ego? Critical race theory is an academic concept that is more than 40 years old, something upper level university students sometimes debate, but not theory taught at the high school level. High schools tea...
The opera is coming to the shores of Lac La Belle Tuesday, Aug. 17. The Lyric Opera of the North, or LOON, as it is lovingly called, will be presenting its Summer Sparkler event in person on the grounds of the Historic Scott House. When the artists take the stage, it will have been 585 days since the company performed in front of a live audience, and artistic director Sarah Lawrence admits, “I’ve had lots of tears. To be singing again, and doing it collaboratively with other people, it just fee...
On the evenings of Aug. 20-21, the Dugan and Fisher- Merritt clan will again host the Free Range Film Festival at their heritage barn in Wrenshall. Screening the films ahead of time, I’ve marveled and enjoyed the range of offerings, short to long, reflective to performative. Beginning at 7 p.m. Friday, the first evening’s 15 films — some short, some longer — offer us personality profiles, small and exceptional spaces and impressionistic journeys, as well as adventurers and competitors in action....
Don’t look now, but the fall sports season is right around the corner. In fact, local teams will be hitting the fields and courts within the next two weeks, and practices officially begin on Monday and captains practices are happening already. This week the Pine Knot News checked in with a number of local activities directors to find out how this season is shaping up as Covid-19 cases are on the rise again. “As of today everything is a go and we have not heard otherwise from the Minnesota Sta...
The rain held off long enough Saturday to allow folks to enjoy the Brickyard Days parade, then Mother Nature delivered some much needed moisture to Carlton County's growing agricultural center. The parade lasted about 40 minutes, and featured everything from firetrucks to the Carlton Honor Guard and Raptors cheerleaders, to an accordion-playing skateboarder from Finland named Steve Solkela. Eldon and Karen Grover were grand marshals, riding in a red convertible through the center of town with...
Get your party on, Carlton County, this weekend is packed with community festivals. Esko got a head start on the weekend with Esko Fun Days kicking off earlier in the week. Still to come is fun at the football field on Friday, featuring a cornhole tournament starting at 6 p.m. Saturday is the grand finale of all the fun, with a 5K race at 8 a.m., an 11 a.m. parade, games in the park starting at 11:30 a.m. and a grass volleyball tournament starting at 2 p.m. The street dance that evening starts...
