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 1834 - 1858 of 3909
After struggling with only one win in the final month of the 2021, the Wilderness have started 2022 on the right foot. After falling behind 2-0 and 3-1 in the first period Saturday, Minnesota came alive to outscore Fairbanks 4-1 for the game’s final 40 minutes to win, 5-4, forcing a split in the two-game weekend series and snapping the Ice Dogs’ nine-game winning streak. Reid Conn was the hero, as he scored the game-winner with 6:57 remaining in the third period. Conn took advantage of a neutral ice turnover, picked up a loose puck in fro...
Santa came through for winter sports fans. After back-to-back storms starting the night after Christmas - once he and the reindeer were safely back in the North Pole - there is now plenty of snow for cross country skiing, sledding and even snowmobiling. The National Weather Service in Duluth estimated Carlton County got between 12 and 14 inches of snow this week, depending on where in the county. The folks at the Cloquet Forestry Center measured a total of closer to 10 inches, with a base of...
We have found some more clues in the curious case of a plaque honoring Sigfred Johnson, a World War II veteran from Cloquet who died in 1948. As reported in the Dec. 17 issue of the Pine Knot, the plaque was discovered hanging on a wall at a salvage yard in the area. Bonnie Edin called after reading the story and insisted that she found the plaque among her father's things when he passed away and gave it to Ken Johnson, Sigfred's nephew. We found Ken after John Prouty showed us a picture of the...
The goal of declaring the former Mexico Lindo restaurant building a "vacant and hazardous substandard building" is not to demolish the historic structure, community development director Holly Hansen told the Cloquet city council. Rather, it is to attract responsible ownership to repair and revitalize the building in the heart of downtown. When Cloquet city councilors voted unanimously to declare the building hazardous last week, they also set a public hearing for Feb. 1, as the next step toward...
An empty semi-truck that was stuck on the railroad tracks near the Sappi guardhouse was hit by a Burlington Northern train Monday. According to Cloquet Area Fire District battalion chief Jeremy Hutchison there were no injuries: the driver had gotten out of the truck before it was struck by the train. The call came in at 12:18 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27. CAFD, the Cloquet police department and the Minnesota state patrol responded. "There were no injuries, no spills or fire or hazardous chemicals,"...
The 2021 Christmas Lighting Challenge results are in and the winners were announced Dec. 22 at Bentleyville. More than 2,700 votes were submitted and more than 20,000 views of the online map and entries proves the community loves Christmas lights. Carlton County winners included: Home, Steve Torgeson, 5164 Canosia Road. Business, Reliable Insurance Agency, Carlton Avenue, Cloquet. The Masters Home Winner was Luke Gages of 7249 Industrial Road, Saginaw. Duluth got the most votes for Christmas City....
If you have unwanted or no longer working holiday lights, please recycle them at the Carlton County Transfer Station located at 1950 Highway 210. The program provides free holiday lights recycling. Electric cords are also accepted. The year-round hours for the Carlton County Transfer Station are Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. For efficient recycling, remove all decorations from your string lights. Remove them from any type of plastic spool, cardboard packaging, or plastic bags. Place the clean...
Applications for 2022-23 funding from United Way of Carlton County are available through the United Way of Carlton County website, www.unitedwaycarltoncounty.org. Funding is available for all eligible nonprofits working in Carlton County. Applications will be accepted until February 11. Final funding decisions will be made in the spring of 2022. Last year, UWCC granted more than $175,000 to local nonprofits. For more information or to check eligibility, please contact Ali Bilden Camps at 218-879-8404....
Cloquet City Hall is closed Friday, Dec. 31, along with all Carlton County offices in observance of New Year’s Day. This includes courthouse, human services as well as transportation department offices and more. The Minnesota Highway 210 Transfer Station will be open on Friday and closed Saturday....
Carlton County will break ground on the new justice center/jail this summer, a massive undertaking. "This is the largest project Carlton County has ever undertaken since the courthouse was built," said jail administrator Paul Coughlin. "We are putting all of our efforts towards making sure that it will be the best." The new jail/justice center will be located next to the Carlton County Transportation Building on Highway 61 west of the city of Carlton, which annexed the property from Twin Lakes...
The Carlton County board of commissioners gave final approval for a property tax levy increase of 4.9 percent for the 2022 budget year. The new county budget was set for $69,772,168 in expenditures, revenues of $37,966,520, use of fund balances of $1,603,123, and an actual levy sum of $30,202,525. The vote was unanimous at this last meeting for the year of 2021 held Tuesday, Dec. 28. Of interest in the budget for next year, fund balances of $837,942 for Road and Bridge and $950,474 for Human Services were used in those departmental budgets for...
Decorating the house is a much-loved activity during the holidays. “But we don’t want to let those lovely greens bring trouble to our landscape,” says Lori Seele from the Duluth Cooperative Invasive Species Management Area. “Various pests that are not native to our region can hitch a ride on Christmas trees, wreaths, boughs, vines, and plants with colorful fruits and seeds.” According to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the disease dangers include elongate hemlock scale, boxwood blight, Oriental bittersweet, gypsy moth, brown marmorate...
Thomson Township residents and its board of supervisors are still unhappy with the proposed tax increase levied by the Cloquet Area Fire District. After attending the truth-in-taxation public hearing and the monthly CAFD board meeting earlier this month, township board members shared their feelings of frustration with the public and searched for solutions at their meeting. Supervisors Anthony Compo and Jason Paulson told the board about their experience at the CAFD board meeting on Dec. 15, where they brought up the township’s concerns, not o...
An alert reader sent us his discovery after seeing this photo printed in the Dec. 3 issue of the Pine Knot News. Sean Sundquist said he recognized it as a shot of what was known as the Outlaw Bridge over the Pigeon River in far northeastern Minnesota, a forerunner to the U.S.-Canada connection on Highway 61 near Grand Portage. A wooden bridge was erected by Rotary members from the area in 1917 in a rather remote area northwest and inland from the current highway along Lake Superior. A hotel...
It was difficult to hear the pleas from students, parents and other district residents begging the school board to keep Carlton High School open. They were talking through masks and the speakers hanging from the ancient walls weren't optimal in the dimly lit and cavernous "small gym" that also serves as a cafeteria. Custodial machines could be heard in adjacent hallways. There was a varsity boys basketball game going on in the nearby main gym and buzzers and fans could be heard intermittently. A...
The victim spoke first in Thursday’s sentencing hearing for the former Barnum girls basketball coach. She talked about how she fell in love with basketball at age 12, and how the sport is forever tainted by her experience. She shared how her 33-year-old coach first started messaging her on the phone over Snapchat, asking if she would play on a slow pitch softball team that weekend, and how he didn’t want to take “no” for an answer. It got worse. He would ask her uncomfortable questions about her personal life, did she have a boyfriend, things...
Unanimously, the Carlton County board of commissioners approved the sale of $10,000,000 worth of bonds to pay for early planning and early construction costs of the new jail/justice center to be built just south of Olsonville at Carlton Junction. In action at the regular session on Dec. 14, the board sold the bonds, which are scheduled to be paid off in 2043 at an average interest rate of almost 1.758 percent. Auditor/Treasurer Kevin DeVriendt commented, “The funding package came in as expected, the true interest cost is a good rate, and this w...
After repeated attempts to contact the owners of the building that formerly housed first Mexico Lindo, then Pedro's Mexican restaurant, Cloquet City councilors voted Tuesday to declare the historic downtown Cloquet building "a vacant and hazardous substandard building." Community development director Holly Hansen said the hope is to acquire (via condemnation) the building at 915 Cloquet Avenue and then try to find a developer who would revitalize the building. A public hearing is set for Feb....
After a month of hearing from irate taxpayers in mostly Thomson Township, the Cloquet Area Fire District is right back where it started 12 months ago. Following the CAFD Board vote Wednesday at the Scanlon Community Center, the property tax levy for 2022 will be exactly what it was a year ago: $3,143,425. Likewise, the ambulance district levy will be set at 0.019 percent of estimated market value (EMV), exactly what it was a year ago. The fire and rescue levy will be close to what it was a year...
At a special meeting Dec. 7, the Barnum school board approved, by a 4-3 vote, specific facility maintenance projects totaling more than $8 million. However, board members tabled anything to do with funding those projects this week. Some of the items would be funded by bonding for health and safety, which does not require a vote by school district residents for approval. Other projects, such as roof replacements, are not covered under health and safety, just long-term facilities maintenance, explained Barnum superintendent Mike McNulty in a...
Editor’s note: Because of a production error, several paragraphs were missing in this story that ran in the Dec. 17 issue of the Pine Knot News. We are reprinting it in whole here. A Kettle River woman was allegedly shot and killed by her husband Friday, Dec. 10. Raymond Arthur Julian, 65, allegedly told police he killed his wife, Tracy Ellen Julian, 62, when they came to his house Friday. Raymond made his first appearance in Sixth District Carlton County Court Dec. 13 on charges of murder in the second degree, with intent-not premeditated. B...
Here’s one final reminder that the Carlton County Disabled American Veterans Chapter 18 is hosting the annual community Christmas dinner in Cloquet this year from a new base of operations at the Cloquet VFW, 210 Arch Street. You don’t have to eat alone on Christmas or even cook for yourselves. Everyone is invited to enjoy a free sit-down or pickup meal from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Christmas Day. The deadline to order pickup meals ended at noon Thursday, but people coming in to dine don’t need to sign up in advance....
The Pine Knot News offices will be closed Friday, Dec. 24 and Dec. 31, for the holidays. Cloquet City Hall will be closed Thursday-Friday, Dec. 23-24 and Friday, Dec. 31. All Carlton County offices will be closed on Friday and Monday, Dec. 27, in observance of the Christmas Day holiday. This includes courthouse offices, government services, transportation department, human services, public health, motor vehicle license bureau, veterans services, and the Extension service....
Carmen LaPlant cuts the ribbon at the grand reopening celebration at Burger's Shoes in Cloquet on Dec. 9 surrounded by family and friends. LaPlant is the new owner of the store after taking over from Maria Leyrer, standing left of LaPlant, whose father, Ludwig Burger, started the store 54 years ago. At right, the two women hug after the ceremony. The store, at 1609 Carlton Ave., is now in the hands of LaPlant, who worked under Leyrer for seven years. "We knew we had to make it work so this...
Sigfred Johnson considered himself the "black sheep" of his family. It was likely because he liked to drink beer while most of his relatives were teetotalers. And there were a lot of them. Born in 1909 to Severin and Anna Johnson, Sigfred was in the middle of a pack of 12 children growing up on 22nd Avenue in Cloquet, where the city rubs against Scanlon's west side. Sig, as he was known, worked for the city of Cloquet's sewer and water works department and had an outsized personality. He drank h...
