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 1339 - 1363 of 3909
Until forced to close this summer to make way for a construction site, the Scanlon fishing pier off Highway 61 had been a popular, yet hard-to-quantify destination. "We had no idea how popular a fishing spot this was until we fenced it off," said LaRae Lehto. "Very popular," added Paul Adams. "A lot of high school and middle school kids were upset this summer," Lehto concluded. The reason for fencing off the fishing pier and canoe-and-kayak launch near the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District...
A teachers union-led candidate forum for Wrenshall school board had a kumbaya vibe Tuesday. But conflict currently affecting the board wasn't far behind, as three current board members declined to attend. Instead, they authored a mailer telling residents that teachers were behaving "improperly" by being involved in the election process. It didn't stop candidates Eric Ankrum, Mary Carlson, Kristin Reinsch and Ben Johnson from greeting roughly 70 teachers and members of the public. The hour-long...
The Thomson Township board of supervisors defended itself this week after closing a public meeting to discuss applicants to fill an open seat on the board. The board went into what it termed “closed meeting” on Sept. 8 to discuss what was labeled on the agenda as “a personnel issue.” In fact, the board was meeting to discuss replacement of Jason Paulson, who resigned in August from the board with two years remaining on his term. Paulson cited a staffing shortage in the airline industry, causing him to work more hours as a pilot. In private...
As countries, cities and groups from around the world mark Climate Week 2022, the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa hosted state agency leaders to share actions the Band is taking to address climate change. The tour, held on Day 2 of Climate Week, included a visit to the Reservation's resource management center and the solar energy site. Leaders from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Board of Water and Soil Resources, and the departments of Natural Resources, Employment and...
What turned out to be a false 911 call reporting “an active threat of violence” at Cloquet High School Wednesday morning sent law enforcement racing to the building, where students and staff were unaware of any problems. “The phone call was a hoax, but it threw both buildings into lockdown,” Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary said. A news release from the Cloquet police department said the Carlton County Sheriff's dispatch center received a call at 10:37 a.m. from an unknown, unidentified person stating there was an armed suspect with an AK-4...
News that the police department secured a $110,000 grant to pay for a DWI enforcement officer came as welcome relief to Cloquet city officials Tuesday. Not only will it bring an increased focus on driving-while-impaired arrests and education, police chief Derek Randall said they will fill the position with a current officer, so city funds allocated to pay that salary and benefits will be freed up for other uses. That could mean purchasing police body cameras — which were discussed, but didn’t make the budget — or replacing the department’s stun...
Superintendent John Engstrom confirmed Monday that the Carlton school district will proceed with further talks with Wrenshall on sharing sports and other after-school activities. Engstrom noted that both district boards have passed an agreement to split costs evenly. After Carlton approved the agreement earlier this summer, the Wrenshall board unanimously approved an agreement this month. “My recommendation is that the subcommittee gets back together and talks about when the agreement should officially take effect, and if there are some c...
A Culver man was killed Wednesday, Sept. 14, as the result of a workplace incident at the Northland Constructors gravel pit in Industrial Township. According to a news release from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Brad Lewis Wojtysiak, 40, was found dead just before 3 p.m. Sept. 14 in what appeared to be an industrial accident at the gravel pit near Highway 33 and Sunset Lake Drive. An employee at Northland Constructors, Wojtysiak was working on a large piece of equipment. Although there were other workers in the general area, he was a...
AT&T customers and FirstNet subscribers in Wrenshall got a boost in wireless connectivity recently, with the addition of a new cell tower near the intersection of Military Road and Veterans Evergreen Memorial Drive. The update is expected to help customers get the most out of their mobile devices, AT&T said in a news release this month. “From connecting family and loved ones to helping first responders during a crisis, AT&T is committed to our Minnesota communities,” said Paul Weirtz, president of AT&T Minnesota. “We consistently work to provi...
The Wrenshall school board’s stamina for conflict proved unyielding Monday, when its regular monthly meeting devolved into bickering and generated new insights into ongoing turmoil. Board member Nicole Krisak revealed that board members looked into superintendent Kim Belcastro’s work emails, fishing for information without informing the superintendent or having a specific reason to do so. “We looked into her emails,” Krisak said. “She didn’t know that. We had no right to do it. We still did it.” It was a surprising revelation from a meetin...
Finding a balance between funding streams and paying school district staff adequate wages in a time of inflationary pressures is challenging, Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary told school board members Monday. The Cloquet public school district received a 2-percent increase in state funding equating to roughly $300,000. The money will be used to give staff members throughout the district a raise. The district has already settled contracts with its secretaries and principals, but they’re still negotiating with paraprofessionals and c...
The Carlton County Board of Commissioners approved $20,000 for an evaluation of the Restorative Justice program, currently used as a tool for some offenders under the jurisdiction of the local District Court system. This is one of several steps the County Board is taking to see which county services should be funded and which should not. The Restorative Justice program is not mandated or funded by the state of Minnesota. The local program was started in 2008. Simply put, the Restorative Justice program helps an offender own what the person...
Thomson Township officials hosted a sewer rates presentation Thursday, Sept. 8, to allow the township engineer Joe Jurewicz to explain why he is recommending an increase in rates for upcoming years. When Jurewicz and the Thomson Township board of supervisors began public discussion about raising sewer rates earlier this summer, the prospect was met with questions from the community about why there was a need for a price hike. Jurewicz and the board offered the sewer rates presentation to the public to give them an opportunity to see the work th...
At their first meeting of the new school year, the Esko school board heard good news from district administrators. Principals Greg Hexum and Brian Harker told the board Monday, Sept. 12 that there is excitement in the building like never before. With a handful of new teachers, and classrooms being somewhat back to normal after the height of the pandemic, students arrived eager to learn. Superintendent Aaron Fisher said enrollment numbers have remained similar to last year, despite the predicted reduction in numbers this year. All told, 1,265 Es...
Outside the wastewater treatment plant in the Iron Range town of Aurora, a small trailer could hold clues to solving a big environmental problem facing northern Minnesota — how to protect wild rice from sulfate, a pollutant released by iron ore mines, wastewater treatment plants and other industries. Mei Cai, an environmental engineer with the Natural Resources Research Institute at the University of Minnesota Duluth, points to a series of tanks where a chemical called barium chloride reacts with dissolved sulfate in the water to form p... 
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A study of the Minnesota Highway 33 corridor through Cloquet is being conducted to help create a transportation plan in the area, said a Minnesota Department of Transportation news release. The Arrowhead Regional Development Commission and MnDOT are studying the state highway, in part, by gaining public feedback through a virtual open house available through Sept. 30. “The goal of the transportation plan is to look at pedestrian and bicycle safety along Highway 33 in Cloquet and develop a long-range plan and vision for potential system i...
County Road 1 in Carlton will be closed between the Streetcar Kitchen & Pub and Red Dog Drive-Thru for approximately two weeks starting Monday, Sept. 19. Douglas Road will be the detour route....
If you have an interest in plants and gardening and would enjoy sharing your interest with others, apply to become a University of Minnesota Extension Master Gardener volunteer. Applications are open for the Carlton County Extension Master Gardener program now until Oct. 31. Individuals selected for the program begin an internship that starts with the Master Gardener core course training in January 2023. The course is taught online through the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Instructors are University of Minnesota Extension...
Carlton County Public Health is hosting a FREE Childhood Vaccine Clinic • WHO: Children in grades K-12 who need vaccinations to meet school requirements • WHEN: Thursday, September 22, 2022 • TIME: Appointments available between 3:00-5:30 PM • WHERE: Carlton County Community Services Building- 14 North 11th Street Cloquet, MN 55720. • COST: No Cost. Insurance information will be collected and billed if the child is insured; NO CHARGE if the child is uninsured or if insurance doesn’t cover the cost of vaccines. • Parent/Guardian MUST complete th...
A Culver man was killed Wednesday, Sept. 14, as the result of a work-place incident at the Northland Constructors gravel pit in Industrial Township. According to a news release from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Brad Lewis Wojtysiak, 40, was found dead just before 3 p.m., Sept. 14 in what appeared to be an industrial accident at the gravel pit near Highway 33 and Sunset Lake Drive. An employee at Northland Constructors, Wojtysiak was working on a large piece of equipment. Though there were other workers in the general area, he was a...
There's a saying that goes around Sappi: folks who've worked in the boiler room for 40 years think the paper mill makes steam. It's an insightful joke about the processes within the mill which require heating chilled Lake Superior water to meet the needs of pulp and paper-making. It's also one that's taken on renewed meaning at a time the mill is striving to reduce its energy usage and water consumption. "Back in the late 1960s, we used over 40 million gallons of water per day," said...
Cloquet city councilors unanimously voted for a preliminary 2023 levy increase of 6.5 percent Tuesday, following advice of staff to build a little "wiggle room" into the budget. Ward 2 councilor Sheila Lamb made the motion, stressing that the goal was to lower the levy increase to 5.95 percent by the time the city budget and levy are formally adopted in December. City administrator Tim Peterson recommended the "wiggle room" and higher increase, noting that the council can choose to decrease the...
Carlton County officials blamed a national inflation rate of more than 8 percent this year for putting pressure on the county’s upcoming 2023 budget. On Tuesday, the Committee of the Whole forwarded a preliminary 6.9-percent levy increase for board action by the end of the month. Minnesota statutes call for a preliminary levy to be adopted in September in preparation for a final levy decision in December. Historically, the final number can come in lower, but it cannot be higher than the figure set in September. What are the forces putting p...
The Cloquet Area Alternative Education Programs, a small alternative school for grades 6-12 which draws from 12 school districts, made a list of 371 schools that will receive extra support by the state department of education last week. The program’s four-year graduation rate was below 67 percent for all students, triggering the extra support. Located in Cloquet’s Garfield School, the school ironically reported its highest percentage of graduates last year at 59.4 percent. According to the state’s Minnesota Report Card for CAAEP, the school had...
The superintendent's introduction of a formal complaint form for use going forward opened the floodgates at Wrenshall Schools on Wednesday. Meeting during the committee of the whole, board members praised a new complaint form, designed to go to the superintendent, or board chair should the complaint address the superintendent. Complaints can come from students, parents, employees or community members. "We need to be transparent about where to go," board member Nicole Krisak said. Superintendent...
