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
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“We know that Mr. Hansen abused every child in his orbit.” Those were the words from Assistant U.S. Attorney Ruth Shnider Tuesday as she spoke to a judge in federal court in Duluth about the proper sentence for Stephan Hansen, the 30-year-old former foster parent and Carlton resident who was found, and who admitted, to be in possession of more than 1,600 exploitative and pornographic pictures or videos of children. After a plea deal made last fall, Hansen was facing a 15- to 30-year prison sentence. U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell hea...
The Arrowhead Library System’s Bookmobile visits Kettle River is 1:30-2:15 p.m. Aug. 5 and 26 on Main Street. Mark your calendar so you can visit the bookmobile. National Night Out is 5-7 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 6 at the Kettle River senior center. Ma & Pa Kettle Days is August 9-10. The steak fry is Friday night. The pancake breakfast, pie social, midway, mud bog and bingo happen on Saturday. More information to come. When I was living in an apartment in Chicago with three other girls, one of the girls brought home a baby duck. That duck was l...
The 59th annual Wrong Days in Wright is now in the books. This year's event was one of the best ever. The parade set a new recent record, I think. Our thanks to Mark and Linda Dahlman for their leadership this year, and for all the volunteers, vendors, flea markets, steak fry cooks and servers, and those ran activities that all added to the event. Thank you to everyone who helped in any way. Now, let's make next year's 60th even bigger and better. With that in mind, please collect any Wrong...
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will be closing CSAH 61 under the I-35 bridge starting from Friday, July 26 to approximately Aug. 9. MnDOT will re-open once bridge painting has been completed. The DNR trail under the bridge will remain open during this time. Traffic will be detoured on County Road 61 to County Road 4 to County Road 5. For more information and a detour map, please visit the project website: https://www.dot.state.mn.us/d1/projects/atkinson-bridge/index.html...
Standing under the Dunlap Island picnic shelter, celebrating the unveiling of the new riverfront cultural legacy signs along the St. Louis River in Cloquet, Jeff Savage shared the history of that particular area. Where Community Memorial Hospital stands today, there once was an Indian village. Even before that, the area around what is known today as Dunlap Island was a very important stopping place on the portage from Lake Superior to the Mississippi watershed, said the Fond du Lac museum...
The Cloquet Police Department hosted four training sessions over the past week to help prepare officers and other first responders for active shooter response. The intense, all-day training was hosted by the CPD, and included approximately 120 people from across the area, including Cloquet and Fond du Lac police departments, Carlton County Sheriff’s Office and dispatch, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota State Patrol, Cloquet Area Fire District, and several fire department m...
One of the county's smallest cities will again hold its unique celebration Friday through Sunday, for the 59th year in a row. Almost nothing goes right at Wrong Days in Wright, and that's by design. Softball players bat opposite their usual stance, running to third base first, then second, first and home. Instead of bingo, folks play ognib. They also play cribbage, but they play to lose, not win. They even dress for the occasion. "You wear your clothes inside out, unmatching sox. Most of our...
A 64-year-old Esko man was rescued Saturday evening after falling off a jet ski on Caribou Lake in Canosia Township. According to the St. Louis Sheriff’s Office, the man had taken the jet ski for a ride but was not wearing a personal flotation device. While riding, the jet ski flipped and the man fell off. The man struggled to stay above water and a good Samaritan saw him struggling in the water. The good Samaritan then responded on his jet ski and pulled the man from the water and to shore, where the man lost consciousness. The call came i...
Minnesota’s ruffed grouse spring population counts are similar to last year and to other recent peaks in the 10-year population cycle of grouse — a pattern recorded for 73 years. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and its partners use spring drumming counts to help monitor the ruffed grouse breeding population through time. The trend includes a low point in the cycle in 2021 that was not as low as previous lows, followed by the highest peak this year since 1972. Warm temperatures and dry conditions that favor high nest success and...
The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced this week that 13 sites have been selected to move to the next step in the process to receive funding from National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. The funds will be used to build and maintain EV fast charging stations across the state. Grant dollars are a part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act which is designed to provide a convenient, affordable, reliable and equitable national network of EV chargers. MnDOT selected 13 locations from 38 applicants along the desig...
Esko school board members bought a house Monday. Or rather, they took the first step, unanimously approving a purchase agreement of $280,000 for the buildings and land at 25 Lincoln Lane. The lot is adjacent and just east of school property, behind the former RAM Insurance building, now the Esko Education Center. It is one of six houses on that block, and the closest one to the school. Superintendent Aaron Fischer recommended the purchase, after the homeowners reached out last week and gave the...
An upbeat Carlton schools superintendent Donita Stepan believes the school district's switch to a four-day school week in September will trigger an uptick in enrollments. Nothing definite in terms of filed paperwork, "But we've done several tours," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We've probably got at least eight or nine new kids interested in coming so far." Regarding families possibly leaving over the same issue, Stepan indicated she had not seen any paperwork for kids leaving the...
The challenge has vexed Jason Amundsen for a few years. He’s brought in engineering students from the University of Minnesota Duluth and St. Thomas University in St. Paul. He’s hired one of them full-time to tackle the problem. At Farm LoLa in Wrenshall, the mission is capturing water from the air — in a sense, making the concept of the indoor humidifier work outside. Amundsen said the world is starving, and he wants to find a way to better water crops. He cites endangered citrus crops in Texas...
Thomson Township passed its 2023 audit with flying colors, with one major suggestion - the township should probably have less money in its reserve fund. Auditors from Abdo, an accounting and consulting firm based in Edina, Minnesota, told township supervisors the general recommendation is to keep a minimum of 35- to 50 percent of the operating budget in the general fund reserves, to cover any unexpected costs or payment delays. "You guys are well above that. You have almost 200 percent of your...
If all goes as planned, construction on a new dental clinic will start this fall or in the spring in the city’s Business Park, after Cloquet city councilors approved the sale of a 1.3-acre lot just off Highway 33, behind the business park sign. Dentist Wendy Peterson attended Tuesday’s meeting. Peterson plans to build a $2.3 million dental facility called Woods & Water Family Dental with space for up to seven operatories, starting with four. Peterson started her career as a dental hygienist in 2006, then went back to school, graduating fro...
A Carlton County man charged with sexual contact involving three juvenile girls will be sentenced in August. Jamie Alden Godbout, 35, originally faced 10 felony charges in a 2022 case that combined charges for abuse of all three girls, but his attorneys requested the cases be split. Carlton County Attorney Lauri Ketola said her office had to honor the request, which meant dividing the charges and resulted in two of the cases being filed in 2023. According to Ketola, a jury found Godbout guilty three weeks ago in the first case to reach trial. O...
National Ice Cream Day is July 21, proclaimed 40 years ago by President Ronald Reagan to take place on the third Sunday of July each year to honor a "wholesome and nutritious food eaten by 90 percent of Americans." Ice cream recipes appeared in print for the first time in 1718 in a cookbook written by Mary Eales, described as the confectioner to King William and Queen Anne, rulers of England, Scotland and Ireland. Eales wrote: "to ice cream, you must have a Pail, and lay some Straw at the...
There are no term limits for Reservation Business Committee members, once elected by the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa band members. That does not guarantee a lifelong career for those who hold office when band members decide to make a change, as happened with two of the three seats in the June 11 election. Newly elected RBC chairman Bruce Savage and returning District I Cloquet representative Wally Dupuis were officially sworn into office Friday, July 5, while Earl Otis, the new...
Moose Lake will celebrate the state gem - the Lake Superior agate - by throwing its biggest party of the year this weekend: the 55th annual Moose Lake Agate Days. The event includes a gem and mineral show in the hockey arena (with a free kids' dig outside) and free admission to Moose Lake State Park and its Agate and Geological Center both Saturday and Sunday, July 13 and 14. One of the area's three agate pits, near the Moose Lake airport, will also be open all weekend for those who enjoy...
The Cloquet Police Department will be hosting an "Active Shooter Response" law enforcement training event at Cloquet High School from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. July 11, 15, 16 and 18. CPD wants the community to know this is a planned event. Community members may hear loud sounds, sirens, emergency lights, yelling, and there may be a display of firearms in or outside of the school. Expect a large police presence in and around the school. Cloquet police chief Derek Randall stressed that...
Minnesota farmers looking to add safety equipment to their on-farm grain storage facilities can now apply for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) Grain Storage Facility Safety Grant program. The program reimburses up to 75 percent of the cost to purchase and install eligible safety equipment for on-farm grain bins or silos. Applicants are eligible to receive up to $400 per bin or silo, with a limit of $2,400 per farm per year. Find out more at https://www.mda.state.mn.us/grainstoragesafetycostshare....
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has named Eric Senarighi, of Carlton, as the 2023 ATV instructor of the year. He also won the award in 2021. Senarighi is president of the Carlton County Riders ATV Club and works to expand the sport while ensuring people have the knowledge they need to ride safely and in an ecologically sound way. The club trains about 100 kids per year in ATV safety. Senarighi also founded a community group in Moose Lake to ensure a positive relationship between...
Four "surprisingly young kids" caused thousands of dollars in vandalism at Cloquet High School on July 4, superintendent Michael Cary told school board members Monday. Cary said camera footage shows the children checking doors at the school until they found one that was not securely latched. Much of the incident was recorded on school security cameras, inside and out. Police have identified the suspects, who won't be named because they are juveniles. Technology director T.J. Smith told the...
Carlton County's Farm Family of the Year is the crew at Pasek Dairy Farm, run by Jeff Pasek and his family in rural Kettle River. Each year the University of Minnesota's Farm Family Recognition Program honors farm families from each county in Minnesota for contributions to the agriculture industry and their local communities. The Pasek Dairy Farm in Split Rock Township has been in the family since Jeff's great-grandfather bought it in 1909. As the farm was passed on from one generation to the...
Law enforcement took center stage Monday at the Carlton County board’s first meeting in July. A series of public tours of the new $75 million Justice Center along County Road 61 in Carlton was announced for August. It was a surprising development, given an expected delay in the opening of a facility that will feature a courthouse, jail, and both sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices. “It’s so exciting,” board chair Susan Zmyslony said, later turning to jail administrator Paul Coughlin, who oversaw the multiyear construction project. “C...
