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 1687 - 1711 of 4092
In addition to half-time superintendent Bill Peel, the Barnum school district will have another staff member who will also serve the Willow River school district after July 1. At the June 14 meeting, the board voted to hire Laura Carlson as a half-time business manager. Her position will be shared with the Willow River school district. The Barnum school district will purchase her services from Willow River like it is purchasing the services of Peel. The business manager for the Barnum school district, Dawn Hultgren, is taking a position with th...
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is planning a second treatment to eradicate a gypsy moth (now known as spongy moth) infestation in Cloquet and Duluth. Officials plan to conduct the treatments on Wednesday, June 29 as early as 5 a.m. in Duluth followed by Cloquet. It may take up to two hours to complete both areas. This schedule is dependent on weather conditions at the time. The MDA uses a low-flying airplane which will be traveling up to a half mile outside the treatment areas as it navigates through the infestation sites. The...
Once the jury found him guilty, there was never any doubt that Sheldon Thompson would be sentenced to life in prison for brutally killing his pregnant girlfriend, Jackie Defoe, their unborn child, and Jackie's 20-month-old son, Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr., in March 2020. How many life sentences he would be sentenced to was the question. The sentencing hearing Tuesday at the Carlton County Courthouse came just over two weeks after a jury found Thompson guilty of eight counts of murder on May 31....
After more than 50 people showed up at its last meeting, the Wrenshall school board held its regular June meeting in the commons area of the school instead of the cramped library. A microphone was deployed so a similar-sized audience could hear what was being discussed Monday. But when it came time to talk about the current controversy consuming the board, the microphones went unused and the mumbled conversation that ensued was difficult to hear even on a playback of a recording. The Monday meeting began like many of the board’s meetings do the...
When Sam and Julie Jacobson decided to run the Sawdust 5K with their boys on July Fourth last year, they had no idea they'd literally be running the race this year as its new organizers. But they love the annual Cloquet race, so when Sawdust founders Jeff and Alyson Leno said they needed to step down to spend more time with their kids, the Jacobsons stepped up. The couple complement each other as race organizers, as Julie has experience with fundraising and event organizing from past jobs with C...
In preparation for the Esko All School Reunion set for August, organizers are seeking people who graduated between 1940 and 1966, who may not be regular users of social media. While the reunion is being held in conjunction with Esko Fun Days from Aug. 2-7, Class of 1964 grad Joyce Houtz said they are trying to find older grads who may not be on the internet and are hoping they will reach out. “All the others are doing a Friday night mixer,” Houtz said. “We are planning a meal at the Buffalo House Junction the afternoon of Friday, Aug. 5 for o...
As a member of the Arrowhead Regional Corrections agency, Carlton County pays 11 percent of that operating budget to handle 100 percent of Carlton County’s client probation needs. With the advent of the soon-to-be-built justice center, a Carlton County probation committee has been studying ways of managing the growth of the local jail population by “improving criminal justice operations … and reduce recidivism through improvement of existing supervision and treatment programs,” quoting the earlier Carlton County jail and justice system plannin...
Not surprisingly, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted lives in a wide variety of ways. One aspect the pandemic has unexpectedly continued to affect is school finance, Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary told school board members Monday. While student numbers had been rising slowly but steadily before the pandemic, they have failed to rebound after students returned to in-person classes. Fewer students means less funding from the state of Minnesota. Additionally, inflation — blamed in part on supply shortages caused by the pandemic — is getting in...
The law enforcement program at Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College will see new leadership this fall, as former Cloquet police chief Wade Lamirande passes the baton to recently retired Duluth police chief Mike Tusken, who will begin in August. Lamirande replaced former Duluth police chief Scott Lyons as law enforcement program coordinator in 2014. Lamirande said there is a steep learning curve when transitioning from active law enforcement to teaching. He had a master's degree in public...
The Fond du Lac (FDL) Band of Lake Superior Chippewa planning division has launched a Housing and Community Needs Assessment household survey. The survey has two components: a randomly selected group of households on the reservation will receive a door hanger with an online survey code in June; and any other interested households can complete the general survey. This survey is an important data collection project designed to compile accurate demographic, employment and housing information about FDL community members. The data collected during...
The Esko athletic department is developing a new sportsmanship initiative to help educate and encourage athletes, along with establishing guidelines and consequences for actions that don’t “represent who Esko is.” Activities director Chad Stoskopf presented an outline for the new sportsmanship initiative to the Esko school board at its meeting Monday, June 13. The initiative, Stoskopf said, is focused on educating athletes and coaches to prevent any unsportsmanlike behavior. It will include the reinstatement of the mandatory all-sports meeti...
Apply for free to Fond du Lac Tribal & Community College and all 26 state colleges and seven state universities of Minnesota State during Minnesota State Week, June 21 to 24. Learn more about Minnesota State Week at https://fdltcc.edu/admissions/visit-us/minnesota-state-week. FDLTCC will offer campus tours and a special schedule of information sessions hosted by FDLTCC staff, including sessions on financial aid and admissions, student support, and a virtual open house featuring a range of academic program faculty. Students can also register...
Cloquet High School 2021-2022 | Quarter 4 Honor Roll ***** A HONOR ROLL Grade 9 Rizal Agaton-Howes Gage Allen Diamond Allen-Lovejoy Emma Amey Owen Anderson Ahnna Bader William Bauer Johanna Bernu Sarah Blais Joshua Bleskacek Ellise Boyd-Affias Kaia Boyd-Affias Sofia Breuer Ahnna Carlson Madison Correll Cadence Dillon Mirianna Dohse Brody Dushkin Madison Erickson Cajun Follett Clare French Nikolas Gentilini Shealee Gunderson Natalie Halling Natalie Hautajarvi Natalia Hernandez Jean Hurd Nicholas Janke Sophia Johnson Allie Jones Erin Keating...
A HONOR ROLL Olivia Aldridge Natylee Anderson Gavin Beetcher Dakota Carbaugh Sage Fernquist Nathan Hamilton Jenna Johnson Julieauna Johnson Natalya Kacer Mira Kilby Kaylie Lammi Elliana Lattu Shane Lavamaki Joel Lembke Tyler Mills Alex Murray Alexis Nelson Andrew Olesen Isaias Padilla Kylie Parker Camden Peterson Abbie Resberg Owen Resberg Isabel Riley Jack Riley Molly Sheda Janae Sjodin Jeshua Sjodin Magdalene Sowada Kaya Stark Birk Stensaas Alexis Swanson Eli Twedt B HONOR ROLL Clarissa Andersen Jesse Anderson Joshua Anderson Bruddy Axtell...
John Edison isn’t a Wrenshall school board member, but for all practical purposes on Tuesday night, he was. The attorney representing the school district was on hand for public discussion on the fate of principal Michelle Blanchard and also for two closed sessions on “allegations” against two employees of the district. The board approved another one-year contract for Blanchard, on the advice of Edison, who provided the board a “confidential legal analysis” on how it might proceed with the princ...
Of exactly 100 seniors -100 percent of the Esko Class of 2022 - graduating Friday, 10 were awarded the title of valedictorian - that means 10 percent of the class earned the highest academic ranking. That was just the icing on the cake of their many accomplishments, said principal Greg Hexum. But he acknowledged that life hasn't been easy for the graduating seniors, whose high school careers were greatly impacted by the first pandemic in more than 100 years, and the loss of a classmate and athle...
Following a closed meeting with legal counsel Tuesday night, the Cloquet city council signed a separation agreement and full and final release of claims Tuesday with a police officer they originally voted to dismiss in February. The next morning, city administrator Tim Peterson provided the following statement in response to the Pine Knot News: “The council made and unanimously approved a motion to accept the agreement reached with Officer Silgjord on May 20th and to accept her resignation from the Police Department effective June 7, 2...
The intersection at Washington Avenue and 14th Street closed for construction Monday, and will likely be closed for the rest of the summer as workers replace the four-way stop with a roundabout. Work on the roundabout is scheduled to be completed before school starts again in September, said assistant city engineer John Anderson. Fourteenth Street has been closed from Prospect Avenue to Washington Avenue since May 16 for a full replacement of the street and underlayers, including the...
With a June 1 eviction deadline, most of the tenants on upper floors of Victory Apartments have left, according to the city of Cloquet. The eviction notice came in 2020 as the back stairs to the apartments were deemed unsafe for use. The stairs serve as the only direct exit for the upper floors of the building at 17 Eighth Street, across from the Pedro’s restaurant building. Nine of the building’s 12 units are on the second and third floors. After some wrangling with the property owner, and time for him to arrange a fix for the problem, the...
Access to the city of Cloquet’s brush and leaf disposal site at the public works garage, 410 Armory Road, is now open 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 to 11 a.m. on Fridays. City officials updated the times this week....
The Minnesota Judicial Branch announced a framework for how remote and in-person hearings will be held, effective June 6. All hearings scheduled and hearing notices issued will follow the policy. Case participants will find the most accurate information about how their court hearings will take place on their hearing notices. For non-criminal case types, including family, domestic abuse, harassment, eviction and civil cases, many hearing types are generally presumed to be remote. There is a presumption that evidentiary hearings — hearings where...
The 56 members of the Class of 2022 graduated Friday evening, June 3, in a commencement ceremony at Barnum High School. Senior Jennie DeCaigny welcomed her fellow students and their families. "This ceremony is to celebrate us," she said. Senior Thomas Koski shared memories from their school years. "We used to form a conga line and dance while chanting, 'six times six is 36,'" he recalled, "and then there were the class trips to Wolf Ridge and Spirit Mountain." Audrey Langhorst spoke about those...
Thomson township received their best score in years on its most recent Western Lake Superior Sanitary District audit, evidence of hard work on the part of township employees, supervisors said at the town meeting June 2. The Thomson township board reported that the township received a zero on the annual district audit. The township is ranked on eight factors, such as “overall responsiveness/completeness of annual report/work plan submittal” and “completed items from the 2021 work plan.” Receiving a zero on each of these sections is the best po...
Carlton County's Jenny Barta has never worked harder than she has during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the public health nurse met the challenge head-on. "This is what I was called for, this is what I was born to do," said Barta, who also acts as the county's disease prevention and control coordinator. When the pandemic began, Barta added another job to her list of duties: subject matter expert for Covid-19. Barta has been a huge part of the county's response to the pandemic, which has received...
The prospects for a high school lacrosse program in Carlton County remain in limbo, but a group supporting placing teams under the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton umbrella is still pressing. Administrators for school districts told the committee on May 12 that they still weren’t convinced of the sustainability of a program. Until the administration is on board, the idea won’t be going to school boards for discussion, said Paul Reiss, activities director at Cloquet High School. He said the number of ath...
