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  • United Way apps open for use

    Pine Knot News|Dec 31, 2021

    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....

  • County, Cloquet office closures

    Pine Knot News|Dec 31, 2021

    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....

  • New jail efforts come to fruition

    Lois E. Johnson|Dec 31, 2021

    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...

  • County levy increase stays at 4.9 percent

    Dan Reed|Dec 31, 2021

    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...

  • Dispose of trees smartly

    Pine Knot News|Dec 31, 2021

    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...

  • Residents, board fight back on fire district taxes

    Rebekah King|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • history mystery solved!

    Pine Knot News|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • With school saved, massive cuts loom

    Mike Creger|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • Former coach gets a year in jail

    Jana Peterson|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • New jail funding and land is secured

    Dan Reed|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • Former Pedro's building debated

    Pine Knot News|Dec 24, 2021

    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....

  • Board rolls back budget, stiff tax increase

    Jana Peterson|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • Wish list is at $8 million; paying for it is up in air

    Lois E. Johnson|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • Husband held in death of woman

    Jana Peterson|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • DAV offers Christmas dinner

    Pine Knot News|Dec 24, 2021

    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....

  • Holiday closures

    Pine Knot News|Dec 24, 2021

    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....

  • A business shoe-in

    Pine Knot News|Dec 24, 2021

    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...

  • Forgotten memorial finds a family home

    Mike Creger|Dec 17, 2021

    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...

  • Outrage grows over tax increase

    Jana Peterson|Dec 17, 2021

    The fact that Cloquet Area Fire District taxpayers have been paying more than their share of ambulance expenses for over a decade didn't pacify Thomson Township residents Thursday during the CAFD truth-in-taxation hearing. Close to two dozen people attended the CAFD hearing, nearly all of them township residents, most of them shocked and angry that their proposed ambulance district taxes showed a more than threefold increase from the previous year. "I look at my proposed tax statement and I see...

  • Postal workers keep up with holiday surge

    Jana Peterson|Dec 17, 2021

    Cloquet postmaster Todd Manisto gazed at the piles of boxes - some towering over even the tallest letter carriers - stacked in carts clustered in the mailroom at the post office Monday. "This is nothing compared to yesterday," he said. Add all the gifts and holiday cards to everything else that people started ordering online during the pandemic, and these are busy times. The Cloquet office delivered 1,695 packages on Sunday alone, Manisto said. On Monday, they were at it again. Manisto had...

  • History Mystery

    Pine Knot News|Dec 17, 2021

    Last week's photo from the Carlton County Historical Society, at right, had many people chiming in on where the photo was taken. It was obviously Scanlon, and readers pointed out that it was most likely taken near where the Rendezvous Sports Bar & Grill is today (1) at Jefferson Avenue and Scanlon Way. Using Google Earth technology, below, we found that two homes in the old photo, just below the school building off Washington Avenue, appear to still be standing (2). And the Google Earth image...

  • In Carlton, lament over loss of school

    Jana Peterson|Dec 17, 2021

    More than 30 people spoke Monday in a last ditch effort to convince Carlton School Board members to keep the high school open and the district a preK-12. Ostensibly, the public hearing at Carlton High School was about a proposed tuition agreement with Cloquet High School that both boards appear to favor. Under the terms of that agreement, Cloquet would guarantee acceptance of any Carlton student in grades 9-12 when the high school is closed there, possibly next year. But the meeting was really...

  • Husband held in woman's death

    Jana Peterson|Dec 17, 2021

    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 Monday afternoon on charges of murder in the second degree, with intent-not premeditated. Bail was set at $1 million. Carlton County County 911 dispatch received a call at 2:35 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, requesting a...

  • Few objections heard on 4.9% tax bump

    Dan Reed|Dec 17, 2021

    Only a few people attended Tuesday’s Carlton County board of commissioners Truth in Taxation hearing. The commissioners held the hearing to talk about the property tax levy they are proposing for the 2022 budget year and how the individual county departmental proposed budgets affect the overall county financial picture. Of those who came, several complained about their property tax bills, which by law are not addressed at this hearing. A handful came with a few questions. Auditor/Treasurer Kevin DeVriendt reported that he received no c...

  • Cloquet mask debate lingers as cases climb

    Lois E. Johnson|Dec 17, 2021

    The mask requirement for students was discussed at length during the working meeting of the Cloquet School Board Monday, Dec. 13. Superintendent Michael Cary presented data from the Minnesota Department of Health and Carlton County Public Health comparing the number of people that have been vaccinated versus the number that had not been vaccinated in the different age categories. The data was not available for children 5-11 years old, but data for older children showed that 22 percent had started the vaccination process, and that 17 percent...

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