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 1326 - 1350 of 3909
There are seven candidates running for three open seats on the Esko school board in the Nov. 8 general election. The district is hosting a forum for the public to attend and ask questions of the candidates at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 11 in the Esko High School theater.... Full story
State officials planned to start sending checks Oct. 5 to more than 1 million pandemic frontline workers in industries including food service, education, health care, long-term care, and first responders. Each worker who was approved will receive a one-time payment of $487.45 from the state, either as a direct deposit in the next 10 days or prepaid debit card in the mail over the next few weeks.... Full story
Law enforcement found a missing 18-year-old inmate from the Northeast Regional Correctional Center in Saginaw, Minnesota. NERCC staff had called 911 to report Kristofer Ryan Orr unaccounted for at approximately 11:40 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7. Orr was apprehended without incident at 8:03 p.m. near the area of the Bachelor Road and Esker Trail in Grand Lake Township after receiving a citizen tip. This location is north of NERCC and Orr reached the area on foot after leaving NERCC earlier this morning.... Full story
Cloquet detectives and officers arrested a 43-year-old Cloquet man Friday afternoon after an extensive investigation regarding a home invasion June 7 on Boulder Drive in Cloquet. According to a news release from the police department, during the June home invasion, a woman was awoken after an intruder entered the home and began strangling the woman as she slept. The victim's husband was alerted from another room and later had a brief confrontation with the suspect before he fled the home into the nearby woods. Law enforcement scoured the area... Full story
Last week saw two different partial Wrenshall school board candidate forums, but residents may yet be able to attend a meeting with all seven candidates. After rejecting a Sept. 20 forum organized by the teachers union, three of the current board members - Jack Eudy, Deb Washenesky and Cindy Bourn - held their own candidate event Thursday, Sept. 22 at the Silver Brook town hall. Residents had plenty to say at the meeting, which started with a short introduction from each of the sponsoring... Full story
Two dozen people attended Monday’s Carlton County board meeting to voice opposition to a new cemetery being established in Blackhoof Township, at what is known to locals as the old Gordon MacVey dairy farm on Pioneer Road. The Loving Earth Memorial Gardens markets itself as a “eco-friendly” cemetery that provides burial of bodies that are not cremated or embalmed. There are no concrete vaults, and the containers for the bodies are biodegradable. Preparation of the body is billed as “nontoxic.” Grave markers are made from natural, local mat...
Cloquet school board members set the preliminary levy at maximum Monday, Sept. 26, with the final figures to be certified on Dec. 12 after more budget work and state input. District finance director Candice Nelis recommended the board set the levy at “maximum” because the budget and levy are still in flux. That meant the board did not set a dollar amount Monday, but the levy limitation in the board packet — which Nelis said had already changed — listed the levy payable in 2023 at $7.435 million, up from $6.997 million in 2022, an increas...
The Carlton County Board of Commissioners approved a maximum levy increase of 6.9 percent for the 2023 budget year during its meeting Monday. The levy set in September can be lower — but not higher — in December following the completed budget process. But none of the commissioners were optimistic the levy would go any lower. The vote featured commissioners Tom Proulx, Dick Brenner and Marv Bodie voting in favor, and Mark Thell voting against. The board set the preliminary budget at $32.3 million for 2023, an increase of $2.1 million over las... Full story
After nearly two years of searching for a new space, it took workers only 10 weeks or so to turn a former furniture store into a new home for the Cloquet Kids Corner and Li'l Lumberjacks Learning Center programs. The cavernous empty space at Pine Tree Plaza in Cloquet is now a long winding hallway lined with bright classrooms - Kids Corner on the right, Li'l Lumberjacks on the left - ending in an indoor gym for kids. Cloquet Community Education director Erin Bates said it's going really well so...
Esko board approves maximum levy The Esko school board held a special meeting Monday, Sept. 26 to approve the proposed levy payable in 2023. The board was not able to vote on the levy at its normal meeting on the second Monday of the month because there were details on a few projects, such as the newly proposed fitness center, that still needed to be worked out. With some of those details ironed out, according to superintendent Aaron Fischer, the district felt more comfortable with the board approving the levy that was presented to them at the...
I-35 traffic near Barnum returned to the normal configuration with separated northbound and southbound traffic on Monday. Motorists should expect continued single-lane traffic in each direction for the remainder of the week of the 26th as final work occurs on the shoulders. After the traffic is shifted, all ramps will be open. Visit the project website for details about the project: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/i35-barnum/index.html.... Full story
The Thomson Township Board of Supervisors met for a brief meeting Thursday, Sept. 22. With only three board members in attendance, there was little new business to be discussed by the board. The board approved a new member joining the Township’s volunteer fire department and looked at a proposal regarding a public works facility study. The board did not comment on any of the candidates they reviewed in regard to the empty seat on the board. The board did suggest that the spot would be filled in time for the board’s next work session in mid... Full story
Nothing changed at Churchill Elementary School on Friday when U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona announced the 2022 National Blue Ribbon Schools - and the Cloquet school as one of 297 to make the list. Teachers and staff at the school were still doing what they do, students were still attending classes, studying and hanging out with friends. But there was extra excitement in the air, a little sense of being recognized as something special. It's a big deal. National Blue Ribbon Schools...
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... Full story
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... Full story
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... Full story
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... Full story
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...
