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 1449 - 1473 of 4091
In debt by more than $300,000, Wrenshall schools administration and its school board are expected to begin three rounds of cuts in December. The first cuts will total $50,000, followed by further rounds of more substantial cuts in January and June. "We have to right-size the school district by the next budget for sure," superintendent Kim Belcastro said last week during the board's committee of the whole meeting. On Monday, the board unanimously approved borrowing $500,000 against future state...
Suicide and foul play were ruled out after the body of a missing 38-year-old Carlton County man was recovered late last week. Authorities from Aitkin County located the body of Lucas Dudden early in the afternoon on Friday, Nov. 11, in shallow water on Rat Lake. The body was recovered within a half-mile radius of where the man's unattended truck had been found. Dudden was reported missing Oct. 31 after he failed to show up for work in Superior. "We had good reason to believe he was by himself," Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida said, describing...
What started in March as a group of sports-minded private citizens, business owners and coaches brainstorming ways to fundraise for artificial turf at Cloquet High School has now turned into a much larger project. Cloquet school board members gave their approval Monday for school district officials to explore possible revenue sources and a construction process/timeline for the following items: replacing the grass football/soccer field with turf, moving the tennis courts and doubling the size...
Winter parking is in effect now through March, so don’t leave your cars parked on the streets of Cloquet overnight. According to city code, cars cannot be parked on the streets or in alleys between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. from Nov. 1 through March 31, to allow snowplow drivers and others to clear the streets. The only exception is a vehicle parked at an open business establishment between midnight and 2 a.m. “unless ordered to be moved at the direction of a peace officer.” In Esko, parking on the street is prohibited 4-7 a.m. In Carlt...
Construction is now complete in Cromwell on Highway 210 and Highway 73 and traffic can now move through the main intersection in town. Work will resume next season to complete sidewalks, final turf establishment, final striping and permanent signs....
After watching the rental property next door deteriorate for 20 years, Cloquet resident Mark Vandervort turned to the Cloquet city council on Tuesday. At his wits' end, Vandervort asked the council to create a better path for holding landlords accountable for hazardous conditions or nuisance issues at their properties. He talked about garbage piling up outside the rental home on Prospect Avenue until he paid to have it removed himself, and plenty of police visits over the years. A renter told...
Money is being made available to boost staffing for licensed child care programs in Carlton County and the region as northeast Minnesota continues to be mired in a major shortage of child care openings. The Northland Foundation announced Wednesday that it has received $300,000 in funding and can provide eligible programs grants of $1,500 to $12,000 for spending on staff recruitment and retention strategies. Data released in June from First Children’s Finance, an advocacy group for improving child care opportunities, showed that northeast Minnes...
Two years of turmoil left two-thirds of voters in Wrenshall School District precincts having seen enough. They swept out incumbents on the school board Tuesday, giving challengers a chance to stabilize declining enrollment and an operating deficit. “The people running the district are not doing their jobs,” said Dan Gallup, 48, outside of the Silverbrook Township polling center. “Hopefully, they can get it straightened out.” Pipeline technician Eric Ankrum, firefighter and current board appointee Ben Johnson, and wedding planner Mary Carlson...
The race for Cloquet mayor was much closer than it was four years ago, but the end result was the same: voters elected Roger Maki to lead the city forward. Maki defeated former Ward 2 city councilor David Bjerkness by 118 votes. Maki had 2,312 votes (51%) to 2,194 (48.5%) for Bjerkness. The race looked a little different when the polls closed and the in-person votes were tallied. Bjerkness had the advantage then, leading by 48 votes. That didn’t include the absentee votes, however. Those early votes made a critical difference for Maki. Maki cre...
Aitkin County officials discovered a body -- presumed to be that of a man reported missing almost two weeks ago -- in the waters of Rat Lake, Aitkin County. According to a news release from Carlton County Sheriff's Office issued Friday, Nov. 11, searchers recovered a body Friday. "Based upon the investigation, the body is believed to be that of Lucas Dudden, the missing man from Carlton County," the release stated, adding that the body will be sent to Ramsey County for an autopsy to determine...
Tucked into a corner of eastern Carlton, north of the Oldenburg House on Minnesota Highway 210 and south of the Thomson Reservoir, is a nondescript building that will soon fade into history. The Carlton pump station, which handles wastewater from the southeastern portion of the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District, will be replaced in the next year. Site preparation has already begun. The project mirrors one done to the northeast in Esko beginning in 2014, in another corner of a community,...
Reelected in a landslide Tuesday, Carlton County sheriff Kelly Lake expects to be around for the end of her term in 2026. "I made a promise to the voters of Carlton County and intend to keep that promise," said the 53-year-old Lake, who will reach retirement age during the middle of her next term. Voters agreed to extend Lake's 17-year run as sheriff, while at the same time overwhelmingly adopting a half-cent sales tax to pay for the $66 million Justice Center. Under construction on County Road...
The Thomson Township Board of Supervisors announced plans to finally interview finalists for its vacant board seat, as the process for selecting those three final candidates is under scrutiny by the state of Minnesota. The board will select one person to replace Jason Paulson, who resigned in August from the board with two years remaining on his term due to a busy work schedule as a pilot. Six people initially applied for the opening, but township supervisors narrowed the applicant pool from six to three in a closed meeting Sept. 8,...
A garage in Wrenshall Township burned to the ground in the early morning hours of Monday, Nov. 7. According to a news release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, a 911 call came in at 6:03 a.m. Monday, reporting a garage fire in the 3000 block of County Road 3. The caller reported a boat was on fire in the detached garage on the property. Upon arrival, law enforcement observed the garage was fully engulfed and multiple fire departments were already working at extinguishing the fire. The siding of the house sustained heat damage as a r...
The Extension Office in Carlton has an opening for a member from District 3 to serve a three-year term starting in 2023, a University of Minnesota Extension news release said this week. The Extension Committee serves in an advisory role for programming by identifying local issues to guide the direction of Extension’s educational programs and services. The Extension Committee meets five times per year. Meetings are typically held from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Carlton County Transportation Building on the third Tuesday every other month. The c...
Suicide and foul play were ruled out after the body of a missing 38-year-old Carlton County man was recovered late last week. Authorities from Aitkin County located the body of Lucas Dudden early in the afternoon on Friday, Nov. 11, in shallow water on Rat Lake. The body was recovered within a half-mile radius of where the man’s unattended truck had been found. Dudden was reported missing Oct. 31 after he failed to show up for work in Superior. “We had good reason to believe he was by himself,” Aitkin County Sheriff Dan Guida said, descr...
Films focus on migration of people to and from Cloquet While researching a theme for seven short films he'll debut next week in Cloquet, Augustin Ganley drew inspiration from a French word, "cloque," defined as blister. The word features dual meanings, both the kind you get from walking in new shoes, and, when adjusted to cloqué, an irregularly raised pattern in fabric design. "We have histories that are woven together here that are an irregular or uneven pattern," the 35-year-old Ganley said....
A crash between a semi tractor trailer and Chevy Tahoe resulted in six occupants of the SUV sustaining injuries Tuesday afternoon in Scanlon. The crash was near the intersection of Minnesota Highway 45 and the Interstate 35 southbound exit. The occupants of the full-sized SUV had moderate to life-threatening injuries, according to the Cloquet Area Fire District. Firefighters carried out an extensive auto extrication rescue to remove the people from the vehicle. The right-angle, or T-bone, crash...
After overturning a vote on $8.3 million in projects in March, the Barnum school board voted 4-3 to bond for $10.85 million on Tuesday, Oct. 25. Beth Dinger, Beth Schatz, Steph Ferrin and board chair Jessica Unkelhaeuser voted yes, while Paul Coughlin, Louie Bonneville and Jamie Fuglestad voted no. “We were trying to push for a referendum, but everyone voted against it,” Schatz said. “We’re in a bad spot. This will give us the money to start. We can pick the projects from there.” The projects for the elementary school are window replaceme...
When Chris Gustafson arrived at Wrenshall School, his predecessor teaching industrial arts had quit after the district cut the teaching position to barely more than half-time. "They realized if they were going to keep a shop teacher, they better offer a full-time position," Gustafson said, happy to have filled the job for the last 17 years. In that time, Gustafson has seen the pendulum swing back toward training students for careers which don't always require four-year college degrees. On...
Cloquet city councilors got a lesson in water and sewer costs and rates Tuesday night, as public works director Caleb Peterson provided an overview of the fee-based utilities. The good news? No. 1: Cloquet has good water. No. 2: Cloquet's water isn't very expensive for users. Compared to similarly sized cities around the state, Cloquet has always been right in the middle of the pack for water and sewer rates, Peterson said. However, when compared to other neighboring towns that also pay the...
A Carlton County man faces 10 felony charges related to criminal sexual conduct for repeatedly groping and sexually touching three juvenile girls over a period of several years, according to authorities. The abuse is alleged to have occurred while he was romantically involved with an adult relative of the girls. Jamie Alden Godbout, 33, was charged in Sixth District Carlton County Court last month with seven counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, plus two counts of attempted first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of second...
Four fire departments responded to a house fire on Gault Road in Silver Brook Township on Monday, Oct. 31. The response kept the fire from spreading, but couldn't save the home. The homeowners were outside Monday morning when they observed smoke coming from the structure and called 911 at 9:24 a.m. Neighbors also called 911 a couple minutes later when they heard an explosion, telling the Pine Knot that there were high flames and lots of black smoke. The home was a total loss. The American Red...
Remember to turn your clocks back one hour this weekend, as daylight saving time ends in the wee hours of Sunday morning (2 a.m. to be precise). We'll get an extra hour of sleep, but it also means less daylight as we head into the winter months. In March, the U.S. Senate passed legislation that would make daylight saving time permanent starting in 2023, but the Sunshine Protection Act has not passed the House of Representatives. Many sleep experts recommend the opposite and moving to permanent standard time instead....
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is restricting open burning due to increased wildfire risk from dry conditions across much of Minnesota. The long list of counties across the state includes Carlton, Pine, Aitkin and southern St. Louis counties. The DNR will not issue permits for open burning of brush or yard waste in these counties until the burning restrictions are lifted. Residents should also take care with backyard campfires. “Extreme drought conditions in combination with dry fall vegetation, low humidity, and wind make for d...
