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 1708 - 1732 of 4092
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...
Police are searching for a man who entered an occupied home on Boulder Drive in Cloquet just after 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Residents awoke to an intruder in their Sunnyside neighborhood home, and that person physically assaulted one of them, according to a press release from the Cloquet Police Department. After another person inside the home intervened, the assailant fled the area on foot. With the assistance of neighboring law enforcement agencies, officers extensively searched the surrounding area but were unsuccessful in locating the suspect....
Three men were arrested last week after a traffic stop led to the discovery of a pound of methamphetamine Friday, June 3. Driver Mark Arthur Locken, 43, and passengers Donald Richard LaBlanc, 63, and Dean Wayne Olds, 56, were each charged in Carlton County Court Monday with one count of first-degree drug possession, for allegedly having more than 50 grams of meth, a Schedule II controlled substance. Bail was set at $100,000 or $10,000 cash for LaBlanc and $100,000 for Olds and Locken. According to the criminal complaint, Carlton County deputy...
The marker on the Cloquet class of 2022 is obvious, and it wasn't ignored last Friday at the outdoor commencement at Bromberg Field. Speakers embraced what this crop of seniors have been through, their final three years of high school scarred by the Covid-19 pandemic. It only made them stronger, they said. Class president Jonah Bryant-Nikko called it the "best and worst times of our lives." Principal Steve Battaglia said the class before him would have laughed if they had been told as...
Wrenshall students and supporters may have enjoyed the most unique graduation ceremony Friday afternoon, thanks to English teacher Joel Swanson. The guest speaker rapped - rather than recited - his original "Grad Poem 22" before the crowd in the Wrenshall gymnasium. In the poem, Swanson spoke of the fork in the road: "one path taken by those seeking less resistance and the more difficult one that questions our existence." But Swanson wasn't done. When he was done, the teacher called for a volunt...
A Carlton County jury of 10 men and two women deliberated about five hours Tuesday before finding Sheldon Thompson guilty of eight counts of murder. Five of those eight counts are first-degree murder charges, which come with an automatic sentence of life in prison. Thompson, 35, was accused and found guilty of brutally killing his pregnant girlfriend, Jackie Defoe, their unborn child, and 20-month-old Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr. in March 2020. About two dozen people attended the final hearing at the...
If you’re driving east or west on Minnesota State Highway 210 between Carlton and McGregor over the next few weeks, you’ll be slowed down going through the city of Cromwell. A major makeover of the highway and storm sewer system is in progress, the first of several upgrades that include a better city park with a river walk, improved highway and park lighting, and better sidewalks. Mayor Sharon Zelazny and her city council have worked hard on these projects over the past few years. While the Minn...
There has been a spate of vandalism and car prowls and thefts in the Cloquet area the past month, and the police department has asked for help from the community. In a social media post from May 27, the department said there had been an “uptick in suspicious activity” that included damage to two portable toilets, one pushed into the St. Louis River and another lit on fire. “We've also seen a rash of vehicle prowls and thefts,” the post stated. The department continues to investigate the recent activities and reported no leads this week. D...
Hearings in a 2020 case of a Sawyer man accused of sexually assaulting an intoxicated woman who was a guest at his home have resumed, after first being delayed because of Covid-19 concerns and then because the suspect failed to appear in court. Jamin Paul Beardley, 46, faces charges of first-degree criminal sexual conduct filed in August of 2020. After he failed to appear at a review hearing on May 10, 2021, the jury trial set for the following week was canceled. Beardsley had also been sentenced to 90 days in jail in April 2021 — which he didn...
A Cloquet man is facing charges for allegedly sexually assaulting a young girl approximately five years ago. Kim James Connors Jr., aka KC, age 30, is facing one charge of first degree criminal sexual conduct-penetration or contact with a person under 13. Charges were filed in late March, but Connors didn’t make his first court appearance until May 23, after being picked up on a warrant by Fond du Lac police. According to the criminal complaint, last summer a now 11-year-old girl reported to staff at the Carlton County youth shelter and e...
The city of Cloquet will be flushing water mains and cleaning sewer mains now through September between the hours of 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Customers in the immediate area of the water main flushing may temporarily experience rusty or dirty water. Those doing laundry during the week should check their water prior to washing. Sewer customers in the immediate cleaning area may temporarily experience sewer gas odors and bubbling toilets or drains due to the cleaning process. If sewer odors are detected, it is advisable to refill...
Lake Country Power line crews were still working Wednesday, June 1, to restore electric service with 114 outages left to repair for more than 1,000 co-op members. That’s down from the 8,700 members impacted at the height of the Memorial Day storm. The majority reside in Itasca County with 500 members remaining without service, and 390 more in St. Louis County. Parts of Cass County, Lake County and Aitkin County were also impacted. The severe holiday storm broke at least 30 poles, blew trees onto power lines, downed power lines and damaged i...
Story by Max Nesterak / minnesotareformer.com Minnesota homeowners hurt financially by the pandemic can now apply for up to $35,000 in assistance for mortgage payments and other housing-related expenses through a new state program called HomeHelpMN. The program is funded with $109 million from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Minnesota housing commissioner Jennifer Ho announced the program’s launch on Tuesday, urging people to sign up as soon as possible. “This is not a program for procrastinators,” Ho said.... 
Website
Fresh ginger at a farmers market in northern Minnesota? Yes, indeed. Thanks to John and Kelly Lenkowski of Farm Sol, who grow this tropical crop in hoop houses, customers can enjoy a milder, aromatic version of the grocery store staple. Earlier in the season, the couple creates fresh salad blends with lettuces and greens that change weekly. During tomato season, their stand offers colorful mixes of red, orange, purple, green and yellow heirloom varieties. Like most farmers, the Lenkowskis...
A special meeting of the Wrenshall school board took a surprising turn Tuesday evening when board members voted to postpone discussion of an extension to principal Michelle Blanchard’s one-year contract. While school boards typically perform annual evaluations of principal and superintendent performance in closed session, Blanchard had requested that Tuesday’s evaluation meeting be open to the public. No public comment was taken. Superintendent Kim Belcastro began by recommending that the boa...
The Barnum school board hired Melisa Maxwell as the elementary principal at its monthly meeting Tuesday, May 17. Maxwell is currently K-6 Dean of Students in the Isle School District and will start with Barnum in July or August, after the new financial year begins. The board approved her appointment as part of its consent agenda vote, with no discussion. Representatives of the Northern Lights Special Education Cooperative spoke to the board and explained that there has been legislation to apply for $6 million in state funding for a facilities...
The triple murder trial for a Cloquet man began Tuesday with opening statements by attorneys and dramatic testimony. Sheldon Thompson, 35, is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend, Jackie Defoe, their unborn child, and 20-month-old Kevin Lee Shabaiash Jr. in March 2020. Thompson’s cousin Taylor Smith struggled to speak through tears and struggled to remember details during her testimony. But she clearly remembered what Thompson said to her on March 6, during a drive to Kwik Trip in Cloquet....
Cloquet school board members voted unanimously Monday to continue livestreaming meetings on the district YouTube page for citizens to watch during or between meetings. Superintendent Michael Cary said he has objected “a little bit” to livestreaming in the past, because he liked the board meetings to be more participatory. Not any more. “I've gotten to a point where I feel if people have something they really want to say directly to the board they do show up,” he said. “And so I have heard enough positive things from community members about bei...
The status of the children formerly in the care of Dawn and Nicole Ammesmaki remains the same after several court appearances in the past month. The two sisters, who once had 10 children in their care, continue to see some of them on supervised visits and the hope that they can soon have unsupervised visits. The cases aren’t likely to be resolved in the courts until at least this fall, as the court calendar has filled up and assessments of the fitness of the two mothers are continuing. In early May, Nicole Ammesmaki entered a not guilty plea i...
Carlton County coordinator Dennis Genereau gave a pitch for three new leased pickups for the property management department during Monday’s meeting, sparking a discussion by the Carlton County Board of Commissioners about replacing all county-owned cars with leased vehicles. Carlton County assessor Kyle Holmes is pushing for the change. Holmes oversees the “county fleet” of 16 rental vehicles: seven county at the courthouse in Carlton and nine used by Health & Human Services in Cloquet. These had been owned in the past and were upgraded throu...
Residents of Thomson township are looking at higher sewer rates for the first time in more than 20 years. Following many discussions about the township’s sewer system’s needs and the cost to maintain the system, township engineer Joe Jurewicz and the Thomson Township board of supervisors informed the public at their May 19 meeting that rates need to be adjusted. According to Jurewicz, the township last altered sewer rates in 2000, but with the township replacing parts of the system this year, they need to have the funds to be able to mai...
In the end, the 2022 session of the Minnesota Legislature left a lot on the table after its deadline Sunday night. Plans on what to do with a huge budget surplus — cutting taxes and spending — remain in limbo as leaders of the two political parties hemmed and hawed this week on whether legislators would come back for a special session. In Carlton County, it means more waiting on state help for the new justice center and funding for improving facilities for the Cloquet Area Fire District. A spe...
