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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Things were tight through the first couple of innings during the Carlton and Wrenshall baseball game Tuesday. That changed in the top of the third when the Bulldogs plated 12 runs and eventually coasted to a 21-2 win at Braun Park. "I thought their pitcher (Zeke Rousseau) pitched well for them at the beginning," said Carlton coach Ryan Schmidt. "I also thought our starter, Joey Solomon, did a nice job in his three innings pitched. He struck out three and just did a nice job." The offensive...
When Carlton's Abby Mitchell and Wrenshall's Brooke Kent took to the mound Tuesday night, not many people could have predicted the insane numbers the pair would put up in the strikeout department. The two combined for 35 strikeouts in a 6-1 Bulldog victory over the Wrens at Cloquet's Braun Park. "I expected Abby to be around the plate hard in practice and that hard work is paying off," said first-year Carlton coach Brent Pokornowski of his freshman pitcher. "She has worked hard in practice and t...
There is a day for most everything now – if you visit nationaltoday.com, you’ll see that today, Friday, is National Buttermilk Biscuit Day, National Dance Like a Chicken Day, National Underground America day and National Decency Day. It is also Apraxia Awareness Day. Count from 1 to 10 as fast as you can. Now switch the numbers 4 and 8 and see how fast you can count. For people with verbal apraxia, that is how it feels to talk. There is a motor mapping issue in the brain that makes exp...
A recent state ruling regarding the state's open meeting law (OML) and public meetings during the pandemic had area school districts scrambling to make sure they were following the law, and changing procedures if they weren't. The Minnesota Commissioner of Administration issued an advisory opinion on April 19, in response to The Timberjay newspaper publisher Marshall Helmberger, ruling that the St. Louis County School Board violated the state's open meeting law when at least a quorum of school board members met in person, but members of the pub...
The latest news regarding Minnesota property tax assessments was good for Enbridge and other utility companies and fairly dire for local governments, who find themselves on the hook for many years’ worth of past overpayments. Carlton County is no exception, with the total payback estimated at close to $5 million after the Minnesota Tax Court ruled that past tax assessments were too high on state utilities and pipelines. With that in mind, the Carlton County Board of Commissioners scrambled at their meeting Tuesday to formally support state l...
Kevin Jeffrey MacDonald, 65, of Nickerson died of natural causes April 21, 2021 at his home. He was preceded in death by his parents, Orien and Mildred MacDonald. Kevin was born July 24, 1955 in Cloquet. He was the fifth of eight children in the family. He graduated from Wrenshall High School in 1974. Kevin was a union-based licensed welder, and was respected for his skill and creativity. Through the years, he worked out of the union shop on jobs including working at the shipyards in Superior,...
Forrest Paul Lee, 66, died on April 29, 2021, at the Mayo Health Center in Mankato, Minnesota. He was born Jan. 22, 1955 at the Butler Maternity Hospital in Cloquet to Mildred Ruth Holmes Lee and Paul Elmer Lee. He was baptized as an infant into the Presbyterian faith. Forrest attended public school in Wrenshall and graduated second in his class in 1973. He briefly attended Bethel Bible College. In July of 1975, Forrest was united in marriage with Tina Marie Merrill. The marriage was blessed with two sons, Derek and Corey. The marriage ended...
If fans wanted to watch an exciting softball game on Tuesday night, all they needed to do was pull up a chair at wind-blown Braun Park in Cloquet. That's where Cromwell-Wright and Wrenshall hooked up in a fabulous pitchers duel that lasted 10-innings before the Cardinals slipped out of town with a hard-fought 6-4 victory. "It was just a great game and a great night of softball," said Cards coach Kari Olesiak. "Both pitchers were fantastic and the game was what you hoped for." Wrenshall's Brooke...
For several years the Rotary Club of Cloquet has sponsored two local projects revolving around literacy, an important mission of Rotary International. This month a total of 299 third-graders from Churchill, Washington, Winterquist, South Terrace, and Wrenshall elementary schools each received a handy dictionary/reference book to keep. In addition, 286 kindergarten students at the same schools each received a personal story book with the characters and the settings preselected by each student and woven into a story. The kindergarteners are...
Last week’s paper contained quite an example of our elected officials — the attorney general, Minneapolis mayor and our governor — demonizing our lawmen and -women. I would hate to be one of those who put on the uniform, kiss their family goodbye and go out to face the unknown. Think about it. Systemic racism — what does it mean? Does it apply to me? My wife? Or is it something that does not exist (or only in the race baiters)? We hear officials talk about defunding the police, no minor traffic stops (I’ll save hundreds of dollars not buyin...
Last week I submitted an opinion piece to the Pine Knot about a bill in the MN Legislature:, Senate File 421/House File 239. I have since discovered that I made a mistake about one of my assertions. After reading the bill again I realized that our tax dollars are not paying for infrastructure to turn toxic confinement animal manure into un-natural biogas. Instead, the cost of infrastructure for turning that huge volume of toxic confinement animal manure into un-natural gas would be funded through utility rate hikes, which is even worse. If tax...
Esko superintendent Aaron Fischer said people are "overwhelmingly glad" to be back in in-person classes at school, following an extended period of distance- and hybrid learning. Fischer shared a story about a possible snow day several weeks ago, when there was a forecast for inclement weather. "In past years the students would lobby me to close school anytime the forecast called for snow, but not this year," he said. "The students lobbied me to stay open." The return to school has come with...
The Wrenshall Homecoming ceremonies were titled "A Black Mask Affair" and the dress code was formal at the April 9 event held in the school gymnasium. Zeke Rousseau-Sheff was crowned homecoming king, while Anne Mattson was crowned homecoming queen. Other homecoming candidates / members of the court were Samantha Nyberg, Caleb Johnson, Angelina Kuehnow, Brook Kent, Mason Perry, Joseph Bergman, Hailey Tauzell and Mark Johnson. Crown bearers were Kinley Heittola and Abigail Hopp; train bearers...
The Carlton school board agreed this week to move forward with a survey of district residents on a list of options for the future of the district. The survey will come after attempts to consolidate with neighboring district Wrenshall have stalled on issues around debt sharing and the fact that a state bill that would provide financial assistance remains in limbo. In a 6-0 vote at its regular monthly meeting Monday, the Carlton board agreed to begin gathering information for a survey that will...
There is a bill currently proposed in the legislature that would subsidize huge animal confinement operations by turning their toxic manure problem into “biogas,” under the misnomer “Natural Gas Innovation Act” (SF 421/HF239). It would also give our tax money to natural gas suppliers so they can develop the infrastructure to process this toxic manure. It is my opinion that we should discourage the establishment or support of giant animal confinement operations which produce manure that ends up being a toxic pollutant in need of huge, expensive,...
It took a year, but local track teams got a chance to show their abilities last Thursday when many of the smaller county school teams participated in an early season meet hosted by the Eskomos. "We had six teams total: ourselves, Carlton, Moose Lake-Willow Ridge, South Ridge, Wrenshall and Cromwell," said Esko girls coach Matt Peterson. "It felt great to be back competing in a track meet after losing our 2019 season due to Covid. You can see it every day in practice, our kids are enjoying not...
Last week the Wrenshall kindergarten class did some great worm rescuing after so many got displaced by the rainy weather. The students read books about the life cycle of a worm, learned the names of their body parts and were able to study them up close with magnifying glasses. The common earthworm has some surprises that might not be obvious given their bland beige exterior. They have five hearts and can live for up to 10 years. The myth that you can cut a worm up and it will turn into two, is...
Jodie L. Shelton, 53, of Wrenshall passed away April 2, 2021, at home with her family by her side. She was born July 24, 1967 in Duluth, the daughter of Rodney and Peggy (Shaw) Stadin. Jodie was preceded in death by her father. She is survived by her son, Jayden Shelton; mother, Peggy Koski; sisters, Tammy (Mike) Turnbull and Connie Lusk; and brother, Brett Stadin. Visitation: 10 a.m. until the 11 a.m. memorial service Saturday, April 24 at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Esko. Burial will be...
The Wrenshall school board approved a major administrative shift for the district Wednesday night in a special meeting. The move was precipitated by superintendent Kim Belcastro’s request to reduce her duties by nearly half, primarily giving up dual work as the school principal. The board approved moving Belcastro to a 0.6 superintendent position and hiring a full-time principal. It will eliminate a dean position. Overall, the district expects to save a few thousand dollars with the changes. Belcastro’s current salary would shift to about $72...
You're lucky if you find yourself at the VFW in the West End of Cloquet on a Friday night for a smashburger at the Room at the Table food truck. You'll have a great supper prepared by Paul Sapyta and his brother-in-law Kevin Peterson (his cooking and business partner), with a great local catering company and mobile restaurant. Paul named the catering business Room at the Table Catering & Bakery after being inspired while listening to a sermon one Sunday. The minister was speaking of welcoming...
Ellie Swanson's photojournalism class at Wrenshall High School, where the yearbook is produced, has students collaborating on a spread called "Face It." The class borrowed a backdrop and asked the district to purchase two umbrella lights. "Thus, our small studio was built," Swanson said. "We have never had access to lights and a backdrop before, but with some help from YouTube, my students were soon capturing great portraits in our little studio." Pictured here are some of the faces the...
Patricia Ann Dickison, 86, passed away April 4, 2021, at Sunnyside Health Care Center in Cloquet. Pat was born on Oct. 8, 1934, to Peter and Josephine (Jesse) Shotley in Cloquet. She graduated in 1952 from Cloquet High School and received an associate's degree from St. Cloud Teachers College in 1955. She continued her studies in elementary education at the University of Minnesota Duluth, earning her master's degree in 1969 while working full-time. Pat taught elementary school in Barnum,...
I don’t know if it was the warmest Easter on record, but it sure felt special to be outside without winter gear last weekend. We celebrated with family outside around the pizza oven and feasted on ham and pineapple toppings, with plenty of chocolate eggs for dessert. We hiked back to our irrigation pond and heard a deafening number of chorus and wood frogs and saw two trumpeter swans swimming in the now open water. Janaki brought a pole along and we checked all the fields for frost. It might b...
Brad D. Mundell, 52, of Cloquet passed away Jan. 4, 2021, after a short battle with cancer. He was born Dec. 10, 1968, in Cloquet to John “Sonny” and Hazel (Nelson) Mundell and graduated from Wrenshall High School in 1987. Brad served in the U.S. Army National Guard. He had several jobs throughout his life, with pipeline work being his most memorable. Brad was an avid Vikings and NASCAR fan. He was preceded in death by his son, Luke; his parents; and his sister Nancy. He is survived by his wif...
Homecoming week for Wrenshall is coming up next week and despite the differences in its delivery, it will be full of festivities. There are dress up days throughout the week and, given that some parents are still having to work from home, they might want to get in on the costuming as well. Tuesday is sports day, Wednesday is pajama day, Thursday is cartoon day, and Friday is school spirit day. The actual homecoming coronation ceremony will be livestreamed on the Wrenshall School Facebook page....
