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 1288 - 1312 of 4092
Iris Keller, the newly appointed Ward 3 Cloquet city councilor, peppered city officials with questions Tuesday as she played catchup on the complicated issue of project labor agreements in the city of Cloquet. "You've been busy with the ins and outs of this for six years," Keller said to the other councilors. Largely informational and fairly short, there was no vote at the meeting Tuesday. Instead, there was a first reading of a proposal to eliminate the requirement for private businesses to...
Now seven weeks into the Minnesota legislative session, here are some highlights taken from weekly email updates provided by District 11A State Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Silver Township. Local issues Dotseth was chief author on bills advocating for legislation to appropriate funding to improve Highway 73 south of Cromwell, as well as a Cloquet Area Fire District request for $10 million in state funding toward a new ambulance and fire district facility. He also signed onto a bill to help farmers... Full story
Carlton school board members are facing the double whammy of both student numbers and state dollars dropping even more quickly than anticipated. At Tuesday’s Carlton school board meeting, district business manager Norm Nelis warned of a revised budget that increased the estimated deficit due mostly to declining enrollment. “We had budgeted for a reduction of 25 kids … the deficit for the revised budget we're putting out is more than what we have in the adopted [budget] primarily because the number of kids were down,” Nelis said. In fact, C...
A Barnum man faces charges of allegedly raping a young girl who had previously looked up to him as a father figure. Chad Arnold Connor, 47, was arraigned in Sixth District Court-Carlton County on Feb. 9 on two charges of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13. According to the criminal complaint, Connor is 33 years older than his alleged victim. Now a teenager, the girl told her mother and police in December that Connor had raped her starting when she was about 6 years old and would spend time at his trailer house...
A 48-year-old Cloquet man will appear in District Court in Carlton on March 8, facing a felony assault charge after allegedly striking and harming his girlfriend with a shovel in January. Daniel Ray Lundquist was arguing with his 45-year-old girlfriend outside 31 18th St. on Jan. 19, when the alleged assault took place. Lundquist was observed by a witness, who told police she saw him “really try to hurt” the woman. The witness described Lundquist in the criminal complaint as having two hands on the shovel and jabbing twice at the woman, str...
A Minnesota boy makes a new friend in an online game. He thinks it’s a cute girl around his age. After chatting for a while, she sends him a nude photo of herself and asks for one in return. He sends a photo and suddenly his new friend stops being friendly. She is actually an overseas criminal who demands money or says that the photo will be shared with his parents and friends on social media. Panicked and ashamed, the boy has no idea what to do next. This and similar scenarios play out every day in homes around Minnesota. Financial s...
We make plans – Mother Nature laughs! Because of this week’s winter weather, the press that prints the Pine Knot News was shut down Thursday, for the first time ever, after Cambridge got over 16 inches of snow. That means this week’s Pine Knot News will be delivered to subscribers a day later than usual. If you just can't wait, we have delivered newspapers to the newsstands Friday. Meanwhile, hunker down, grab a cup of coffee and check out the website to catch up on the latest local news.... Full story
Cloquet school board members got happy news Monday, when superintendent Michael Cary informed them the district has an almost certain major sponsor - Members Cooperative Credit Union - for the proposed $4.5 million outdoor athletic facilities project. The regional credit union, which began as Cloquet Co-op Credit Union in the 1930s, is in talks with the district to cover the entire "community" portion of the project costs. As the exclusive sponsor, MCCU would pay $1.25 million (roughly the cost...
More background details - and concerns - are emerging regarding the proposed transfer of the Cloquet Forestry Center to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, but it appears likely that answers could take months or even longer. News that the University of Minnesota intends to give the 3,400-acre research center and experimental forest to the Band became public two weeks ago, when it appeared as an information-only item on a University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting docket.... Full story
With dance tunes booming through the gymnasium Friday, students at Washington Elementary jumped their way to raising $35,000 during the school's Kids Heart Challenge event. It was loosely controlled mayhem, with children everywhere bouncing between different styles: there were lopers, backward jumpers and solo high jumpers in addition to the more usual techniques of jumping rope. Physical education teacher Patty Rothamel said students in grades K-4 took over the gym grade by grade all day long,... Full story
Voters in the Cromwell-Wright school district passed a referendum Tuesday, delivering a valentine to a district seeking $6.45 million in improvements to school safety and parking, along with a gym expansion. The measure passed, 243-194, following seven hours of voting in downtown Cromwell. “Obviously, the majority of people saw it as a need,” superintendent Nathan Libbon said. “I’m very grateful. I’m grateful for everyone that voted.” Approval of the referendum allows the district to bond for...
Carlton County will receive more than $700,000 in state disaster relief following the winter storm Dec. 12-16 which coated the region with heavy snow, breaking tree limbs and crippling power infrastructure for days. Carlton County gathered details from townships and jurisdictions throughout the county and submitted for $979,360 in costs associated with cleanup and repair. The National Weather Service referred to the storm as a “blue” blizzard becasue of the high water content in the snow tha...
Carlton County Sheriff Kelly Lake reported to the county board this week that a corrections officer is retiring. The board approved the hire of one more staff member than budgeted, allowing her to hire two males and two females. The board had given her permission to hire three corrections officers to replace retiring officers or officers forced to retire due to illness. Lake said she has a budget surplus, since she has been short-staffed. Corrections is using overtime from employees to cover shifts, a wage outlay for 3,400 hours of overtime....
Carlton County commissioners gave support for a joint effort between the Fond du Lac Band, Carlton County, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to ask for $10 million in federal infrastructure money to build a trail between the Black Bear Casino to the Munger Trail in Carlton. The Moorhead Road bridge crossing Interstate 35 would be replaced....
Carlton superintendent John Engstrom surprised school board members Monday when he recommended they not renew his contract in June. Instead he recommended they make South Terrace principal Donita Stepan part-time superintendent and keep her as principal of the elementary school. High school principal Warren Peterson would be asked to increase his hours and days as part of the plan. “From where we were four years ago … this would represent a total savings of around 40 percent,” Engstrom told...
A Saginaw man died after a snowmobile accident last Friday night, Feb. 10. The St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office said first responders were dispatched just before 11 p.m. to a trail in Floodwood Township. Leroy Warner, 67, was reportedly not breathing. “Despite lifesaving efforts by friends, deputies and medical personnel … he was pronounced deceased,” the sheriff’s office reported. Warner’s obituary can be found on Page 18 of today’s Pine Knot News. In it, family said he died “having fun with his wife and close friends, doing what he loved....
A community member shouted questions at the teacher advisor to Wrenshall’s student-based Gender and Sexualities Alliance at Monday’s school board meeting. In doing so, the community member seemed to prove why the advisor wouldn’t let students address the board in person. “I did not feel comfortable inviting students from the GSA to come to this meeting, because I feel it would put them in an unsafe position,” advisor Ted Conover, an English teacher, told the board. Bill Dian repeatedl...
A note of urgency dominated the Cloquet City Council work session Feb. 7, when members of the city’s Economic Development Agency asked, for the third time in five years, that the council remove the requirement for private businesses to sign a project labor agreement. While the private business requirement for a PLA is union-friendly, it’s not business-friendly, they said. According to EDA director Holly Hansen, that’s impacting the EDA’s core mission of attracting, retaining, assisting expansion and enabling redevelopment for business, housing...
The owner of multiple Wrenshall businesses said he'll pack a public hearing with supporters Tuesday, when the city begins consideration of proposals the business owner said target his enterprises. "They don't have enough building to hold the people," said Jeff Bloom, owner of the Wrenshall General Store, Lots4Bid, storage garages and RV park - all located on the same 23-acre property at the south end of town. "I'm drawing a line in the dirt," Bloom said. "People are tired of the regulations....
The Esko school district is one step further along in its plans to build a new fitness center for students and community members, following the school board’s approval of an initial construction plan and budget. The district’s construction planning company, Duluth-based ICS, presented the current floor plans and budget at the board meeting Monday, Feb. 13. ICS proposed a fitness center which will include a large open area for workout equipment, two exam rooms to be used by physical therapy patients and trainers, two bathrooms, lockers, and a fr...
A small one-person aircraft made an emergency landing on the ice-covered Big Lake Saturday afternoon after losing part of its landing gear. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The Carlton County Sheriff's Office described the aircraft as a "home built fixed wing aircraft" in a news release, explaining that the landing was planned after the pilot realized one of the plane's two front wheels had been lost when he departed from Fish Lake in Fredenberg Township (St. Louis County). After originally... Full story
Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Duluth are increasingly confident that a significant winter storm will impact the region from Tuesday night into Thursday night. Snow accumulations of 6-inches or more are likely, especially over northwest Wisconsin and Pine County, as well as from the Twin Ports east across the South Shore where snowfall of 12-inches or more is possible. Significant travel disruptions likely due to heavy snow rates and blowing snow. The snowfall could lead to... Full story
A fire at the site of Bergquist Imports along the Minnesota Highway 33 frontage road in Cloquet drew a large response Wednesday afternoon as smoke poured from the back of the complex of buildings. Steady smoke curled from the back, carrying across the four lanes of Highway 33 and blowing south. Firefighters with axes and steel wrecking bars were entering at the back of the complex, disappearing into thick smoke. "I'm a little shocked," said Barry Bergquist, who owns three buildings on the site,... Full story
The University of Minnesota made public this week plans to give the 3,400-acre Cloquet Forestry Center to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The transfer of land was included in Thursday's University of Minnesota Board of Regents finance committee meeting docket, a meeting held in Minneapolis after this issue of the Pine Knot News went to press. It appears to be an informational notice only - with no action required by board members - but the docket notes the "real estate... Full story
There was a time in America when going to the movies was a favorite pastime for people of all ages. Then, enter television, home theater systems, movie rentals and now streaming services, and the moviegoing experience can seem antiquated. There are survivors, and Premiere Theatres in Cloquet is one of them, even after a pandemic emptied theaters for many months. Major corporations are cutting away. Cineworld is selling all of its 500-plus Regal theaters. Despite all the dire news, Premiere... Full story
