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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Left: Gordy's Hi-Hat in Cloquet opened for its 63rd season on Wednesday, with second-generation owner Dan Lundquist greeting and taking orders from customers at the counter. There was a line out the door at the morning opening. One woman talked about her grandson starting his first job at Gordy's later this summer, while others expressed interest in receiving a free T-shirt for being among the season's first 50 customers. Below: Gordy's features a pair of veterans on the grill in Tammy Hjerpe...
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...
Thomson Township residents voted to approve a 3.91-percent tax levy increase for 2024, despite significant pushback from a few residents at the annual meeting Tuesday. At the end of 2022, Thomson Township was left with a fund balance in its general operating expenses fund of almost $1.85 million. This amount concerned some residents, who felt that this “surplus” in funds should be applied toward the annual budget to take the burden off of taxpayers. Resident Ole Larson had concerns during the review of the township’s annual statement and propo...
The Esko School Board approved its 2022-2023 revised (and largely unchanged) budget of $16.14 million at its monthly meeting Monday, March 13, along with final funding and construction plans for the highly anticipated fitness center. Final construction plans for the fitness center detail a nearly 4,750-square-foot fitness center, two rooms for physical therapy, two bathrooms, and a front entryway with a welcome desk for use by the public. The building is being constructed using the existing...
Neither wind nor snow could stop the 17th annual Mojakka Cookoff, held Sunday at the Northeastern Hotel and Saloon in Cloquet, where it's always been. What is mojakka, someone new to the area might ask. It's soup. Specifically, mojakka is the Finnish (or Finnish American) word for soup. On Sunday, a steady flow of people in search of delicious soups and good company kept coming through the door, paying their $10 and doing their best to sample all 14 different soups. There is no one mojakka...
Citing stress and burnout as the precipitating factor for three open positions in Health and Human Services, director Dave Lee said those staffers have “tough jobs.” Caseloads in child protection, mental health and involving vulnerable adults have swelled for county workers, with screenings of between three and 10 incidents reported daily. “These are heavy numbers, and it is growing, of child abuse cases,” observed County Attorney Lauri Ketola during Tuesday’s Carlton County board of commissioners meeting. “There are several factors for...
The Carlton school board heard bold ideas for getting the district to stand apart from neighboring school systems in an effort to reverse declines in student enrollment Monday. The committee of the whole took no action, but seemed excited by the creative thoughts. South Terrace principal Donita Stepan outlined the work of the District Advisory Committee which conceived the concept of a future dual path system for the upper grades. "[We'll have] a traditional track where students [attend class]...
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...
The Duluth Miller Hill Mall isn't the only place in the Northland with a missing roof thanks to the snow. When Cloquet's Nick Brown went to bed the night of March 6, his detached garage was intact. By the next morning, the roof had collapsed and the top window had shattered from the force, blowing glass shards at least 20 feet out onto the driveway. Brown hadn't heard a thing. "My room is in the corner, so about 8 feet away, and my boy's room is in the back, and the neighbors didn't hear it eith...
Last week, state Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township, voted with a small group of Minnesota House Republicans to help the DFL pass a $1.9 billion package of infrastructure projects. On Thursday, his counterpart in the Senate — Rob Farnsworth of Hibbing — voted against the same plan as Senate Republicans blocked a major construction bill from reaching the desk of Gov. Tim Walz as part of a bid to secure new tax cuts. “It was a tough vote but I’m getting more emails and requests from people to end the tax on Social Security,” Farnswort... 
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With a potential project labor agreement vote on the Cloquet city council agenda, union members from Duluth, Superior and beyond packed City Hall Tuesday. Well over 100 people, mostly men, filled the council chambers and the atrium, the hum of their voices outside the meeting room making it difficult to hear Mayor Roger Maki as he opened the meeting. In the end, councilors voted 5-2 to table the issue, with Maki and Ward 4 Councilor Kerry Kolodge dissenting. That vote to delay a decision came...
When Barnum residents elected Dale Riihiluoma as mayor, running unopposed, in November, it was the culmination of decades of public service. It was also something his wife of 47 years, the late Diane Riihiluoma, didn't want to see happen. Diane passed away in November 2021 after three decades of battling cancer. She tended to favor blending in over standing out. "When Diane was still living she never wanted me to be mayor - it was too far out there," Dale said. "'You're not doing that,' she'd...
A new animal rescue group operating out of Carlton County has registered with the state as a nonprofit organization, and could begin fostering lost or stray dogs and cats in a matter of weeks. "We're 30 or 60 days away from taking our first official animals for rescue," said Erin Thompson, a board member of the new Carlton County Animal Rescue. Thompson met with 16 others Tuesday at the Cloquet Public Library as part of the group's monthly meetings. It has been gathering since October 2021, but...
College sports will no longer be part of Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, according to a letter from acting president Anita Hanson. Hanson said it was a difficult decision, but she decided to discontinue the athletics program there, including men’s basketball, women’s basketball, and women’s volleyball. Football had already been eliminated. “Following conversations with campus leadership, the college’s athletic director, head coaches, staff, and faculty, it has been determined that funding currently used for athletics should be reallo...
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...
Duluth Judge Sally Tarnowski died March 6 while on vacation in Florida. Judge Tarnowski served as the Chief Judge of the Sixth Judicial District from 2016 to 2020. She most recently served as a St. Louis County judge in Duluth, and occasionally heard cases in Carlton County. “All of us within the Minnesota courts community are devastated by the loss of Judge Tarnowski,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea. “Beyond her exemplary service to Minnesota, Judge Tarnowski was a vibrant person whose commitment to justice shined through in ev...
Nineteen Cloquet students participated in the Ecology Science Fair on Jan. 28, held at the University of Minnesota Student Center in St. Paul. The Ecology Science Fair focuses on student‐driven investigations in ecology, the study of relationships of organisms to one another and their environment, encouraging students to engage in all steps of the research process, including the important final step of data presentation. Attending the fair were 14 Cloquet middle school students, Jeremiah B...
Cromwell-Wright choir students worked hard this past month and it paid off as many students achieved high marks at the choral subsection contest Tuesday, March 7, at Virginia High School. Max Hanni and Aurora Gervais, Brian Goodrich and Grace Swenson, and Kieriahna Goodin and Haylee McCuskey received "Excellent" ratings for their duets, as did Brian Goodrich, Grace Swenson, Trinity King, Kieriahna Goodin, Kaylee Smith and Haylee McCuskey for their solos. Gracie Foley and Kaylee Smith won a...
Robotics, where teamwork extends beyond the team. They call it a robotics competition, but it's really a collaboration. It starts by entering events like last week's FIRST Robotics Regional Competition in Duluth. Team members had to work together to design a robot according to specifications outlined just a few short months ago, and it had to pass inspection before head-to-head scrambles in the arena began Thursday. For Cloquet's Ripsaw team, it also meant sharing a practice space in February...
Due to a plumbing issue, Cloquet's Washington Elementary School will have an e-learning Day Thursday, March 16, while crews make repairs. All other buildings were planned to be open as of 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, when superintendent Michael Cary notified the newspaper of the change....
New face minds Cloquet lakes, trails `The timing wasn't great, two weeks before the birth of his second son, but the opportunity for Tony Elwell and his family was too good to pass up. "Otherwise, chances of getting back here were slim," said Elwell, the new face of the Department of Natural Resources in Cloquet. "We'd have to wait years, and we've always wanted to come back to this area. So, I put in for it." Elwell's request was granted, and he started as the conservation officer for the...
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...
A one-time Cloquet resident was sentenced Tuesday to 38 years in prison — the maximum sentence — for the murder of Minneapolis North student and athlete, Deshaun Hill Jr. in Minneapolis. Cody Logan Fohrenkam, 30, was found guilty of second-degree homicide by a Hennepin County jury on Jan. 26. The shooting occurred after the two happened to pass each other on the sidewalk — Hill wearing a walking boot on one foot, Fohrenkam searching for the person who punched him four times and stole his phone at a store that morning. He shot Hill three times...
