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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After repeated requests from bars and restaurants that were hammered financially by closures and restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Cloquet City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to reduce liquor license fees by 50 percent for the next license year starting July 1. The reduction applies across the board to all liquor license fees, including the more expensive bar and restaurant licenses as well as liquor store licenses. The city normally takes in around $30,000 in liquor license fees, finance director Nancy Klassen said. City...
By the narrowest of margins, the Cloquet City Council voted to overturn the city's Project Labor Agreement, as recommended by staff last month. The 4-3 vote came after extensive public comment during Tuesday's meeting, which set a record for participation since the council started meeting virtually because of the pandemic. Including councilors and city staff, more than 50 people logged on or called into the meeting. Seventeen addressed the council directly Tuesday, and three had submitted...
The latest news regarding Minnesota property tax assessments was good for Enbridge and other utility companies and fairly dire for local governments, who find themselves on the hook for many years’ worth of past overpayments. Carlton County is no exception, with the total payback estimated at close to $5 million after the Minnesota Tax Court ruled that past tax assessments were too high on state utilities and pipelines. With that in mind, the Carlton County Board of Commissioners scrambled at their meeting Tuesday to formally support state l...
For the third year in a row, the Advanced Wound Clinic at Community Memorial Hospital was awarded the Center of Distinction award by Healogics, the nation’s largest provider of advanced wound care services. The Advanced Wound Clinic achieved outstanding clinical outcomes for 12 consecutive months, including patient satisfaction rates higher than 92 percent and a minimum wound-healing rate of at least 92 percent within 28 median days to heal. There were 555 centers eligible for the Center of Distinction award and 278 achieved the honor. “We are...
The Carlton County Historical Society has seen its fair share of change over the past year, including a new roof and a new director who came and went in that time. Former board president Ed Kavanaugh resigned in March to serve as interim director following the resignation of Beth Lyle, who served March 2020 until March 2021. Lyle has taken a full-time job elsewhere, as the CCHS job is part-time. The board has begun the search process for a new executive director. Kavanaugh will return to the...
The Cloquet branch of Members Cooperative Credit Union (MCCU) was recognized recently with a CUNA Diamond Award for its distinctive lobby design and aesthetics. Hosted by CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council, the annual Diamond Awards ceremony took place in a series of virtual events recognizing credit unions nationwide for creative excellence and outstanding results in marketing. The event drew 1,278 entries across 35 categories. MCCU was chosen Best in Category (Color) with an award...
Vandals spraypainted a Nazi swastika and a Star of David - a widely recognized symbol of Judaism - on the back of the toilet shelter at Cloquet's Veterans Park last week. The symbols and the letters "olf" and maybe "jaz" or "taz" were quickly removed by city parks staff, who power-washed the building. Cloquet parks maintenance worker Karin Stedman said they found more graffiti underneath the Highway 33 overpass, letters and numbers that may have been gang signs. There were also more...
Music can have some surprising ways of bringing people together. And now - after several years apart - the Carlton choir is back by popular demand. They're set to livestream their spring choir concert on Sunday. Carlton's previous youth choir had to disband in the spring of 2013 after nearly five years of making choral music. Last year, high school students who had sung in that choir as elementary schoolers remembered how much they had enjoyed singing together. They got together and asked that...
For several years the Rotary Club of Cloquet has sponsored two local projects revolving around literacy, an important mission of Rotary International. This month a total of 299 third-graders from Churchill, Washington, Winterquist, South Terrace, and Wrenshall elementary schools each received a handy dictionary/reference book to keep. In addition, 286 kindergarten students at the same schools each received a personal story book with the characters and the settings preselected by each student and woven into a story. The kindergarteners are...
The U.S. Census Bureau released the first population data from Census 2020 Monday, showing that Minnesota’s population grew by 7.6 percent to 5,706,494, outpacing most Midwestern states and keeping pace with the national average.The state grew just enough to hold on to all eight of its congressional seats. “I want to thank Minnesotans for their nation-leading civic engagement, which made us the No. 1 state in responding to the Census,” said Gov. Tim Walz. “Because of that participation, we will be fully represented in Washington and will ha...
Despite cold (for April) temperatures and a layer of snow that covered the ground, close to 50 people turned out Saturday for an Earth Day cleanup organized by the Boldt Company along with the city of Cloquet. "It's still easy to find the big stuff," said Camille Wilton, who was picking up trash with her daughter, Lynnea, age 8, along the south side of the St. Louis River on Dunlap Island. "We've found towels, plastic, lots of liquor bottles." Volunteers were divided into five groups of roughly...
It is now apparent that the construction of a new jail/justice center will be the most significant Carlton County project since the Carlton County courthouse was built in 1922. County coordinator Dennis Genereau related that one of the candidates for a new Carlton County auditor/treasurer position shared that observation during the job interviews earlier in the day before the Carlton County Board Adjourned Session Monday, April 26. With that as a backdrop, Genereau requested permission from the...
As the school year winds down to a close, Cloquet school administrators and board members began signaling changes for the next school year Monday. In actions taken every spring, board members approved terminating 10 long-term substitute teacher assignments at the end of the current school year, along with those of 11 first-year probationary teachers. Sometimes those probationary teachers — who have not achieved tenure — are rehired for the next school year, superintendent Michael Cary said, and other times it gives administrators the opportunit...
A psychologist at the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) in Moose Lake was arrested last week for allegedly engaging in sexual relationshp with two clients over the past four years at the treatment facility. Michelle Dawn Brownfield, 38, was charged in Carlton County Sixth District Court on Monday, April 26, with two counts of felony third-degree criminal sexual conduct. MSOP is a secure treatment facility serving clients committed as sexually dangerous persons and sexually psychopathic personalities. Brownfield is a Minnesota licensed...
In just over two weeks, 600 finalists from around the world will gather for the Regeneron International Science and Engineer Fair to dazzle scientific experts with their projects and compete for nearly $5 million in awards, prizes and scholarships. Four Northland students will be attending, three of them from Cloquet: junior Harmony Tracy and sophomores Emily Sapyta and Rowan Rock. Joining them is East High School sophomore Emelyn Beaster. Only this year, it will be virtual. Sports competitions...
The kids aren't the only ones who were recognized at the 84th annual Minnesota State Science and Engineering Fair this spring. Cloquet science fair mentor and computer programming whiz William Bauer won the prestigious Seagate Excellence in Science Mentoring Award, which recognizes an outstanding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teacher who finds creative ways to nurture students' interest in scientific research and discovery. Cloquet science teacher and science fair...
After July Fourth celebrations were canceled en masse last summer due to the pandemic, community members are looking forward to some sort of celebration of our nation’s birthday this summer in Cloquet. What kind of celebration is the big question. After all, Covid-19 hasn’t gone away. In fact, thanks to variants and the fact that plenty of people are not yet fully vaccinated, it may even be making a comeback. With that in mind, we sat down with July Fourth coordinator Alyson Leno and her top...
The same day that a Minneapolis jury was hearing closing arguments in the case of a police officer accused of killing a Black man, nearly three dozen Carlton High School students walked out of school to stand in solidarity against racial injustice. The students and some teachers marched from the front of the high school to the teachers' parking lot, chanting "No justice, no peace, prosecute the police," as they walked, led by speaker Jaylah Willis. She also led protests in Duluth last summer...
Even as people flocked to downtown Minneapolis Tuesday to celebrate the guilty verdict in the case of former police officer Derek Chauvin, many of Minnesota’s elected leaders vowed the state’s fight for racial justice wouldn’t end with this case. “I would not call today’s verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration,” said Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. “But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice, and now the cause of justice is in your hands.” The verdict of guilty on all three counts of... 
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After a yearlong delay due to the pandemic, the "West End Flourish" is once again back on track to celebrate arts and community. The project aims to revitalize Cloquet's West End business district and will feature the works of more than two dozen local and regional creative artists over the next 20 months as they imagine the West End of Cloquet as their canvas. Artists of all types - ranging from painters, sculptors, actors and dancers to musicians, writers, photographers and filmmakers - are...
Although April 22 marked the actual Earth Day and the 51st year of the annual event, there are plenty of opportunities to do your part this weekend, on your own, with family and friends, or in a larger group. There are at least two community cleanups scheduled for Saturday, April 24. In Cloquet, The Boldt Company and the city will host an Earth Day cleanup starting at the Dunlap Island Park shelter, where participants are asked to gather and register between 9:30 and 10 a.m. The cleanup will go...
A community of cooperative members “plugged in” — literally — to Lake Country Power for a virtual annual meeting held via Zoom videoconference Thursday evening, April 15. More than 125 members and guests heard about working through the pandemic, favorable achievements in 2020, new meters, and the co-op’s commitment to manage member resources wisely. Director election results were announced. District 3 was a special election to fill a two-year vacancy. The other three districts will fill three-year terms. Candidates ran unopposed in Districts...
With an end-of-year clock ticking, county officials are digging into the details of what a new Carlton County jail building plan will look like. The county's building committee, court system, finance committee, and the jail steering committee have focused on the project. Now a special Committee of the Whole meets at 2 p.m. on the third Monday of each month to study issues related to a new or expanded jail. The state has set a deadline of July 2023 for the county to have a new facility in place....
The Carlton school board agreed this week to move forward with a survey of district residents on a list of options for the future of the district. The survey will come after attempts to consolidate with neighboring district Wrenshall have stalled on issues around debt sharing and the fact that a state bill that would provide financial assistance remains in limbo. In a 6-0 vote at its regular monthly meeting Monday, the Carlton board agreed to begin gathering information for a survey that will...
The Pine Knot News team is soliciting submissions of bird images in any genre (photography, paintings, sculptures, woodworking, mobiles, etc.) for The Knot Gallery on Avenue C. Please send a few images and brief descriptions to our curator, Ann Markusen, at [email protected], by Monday, May 3. Your work can be listed for sale or not for sale. We have a Walker System and a deep front-window sill for display options. Questions? Please email Ann Markusen or call the office at 218...
