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 2297 - 2321 of 4092
The Hot Summer Nights concert series returns after last summer's pandemic pause at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet. The 2021 series will include two weeks of free concerts in the college's spectacular amphitheater, featuring local bands Whiskey Trail and Rock-A-Billy Revue. The popular performances are open to the public and will be held 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, July 29 and Thursday, August 5. "We're excited to bring back the Hot Summer Nights concert series with two local favor...
Summer festival season is upon us. This weekend Moose Lake and Wright will celebrate their signature events, with Agate Days running Saturday and Sunday and Wrong Days in Wright kicking off Friday. Wright may be the only city in Carlton County that can still claim an “annual” festival, as organizers there did not pause the Wrong Days in Wright celebration because of the pandemic. It was business as usual last year — with masks added to the mix — and it’s business as usual this year: think three days of smalltown fun for everyone. Check out...
Calling all artists, future artists and wannabe artists: Cloquet's West End is inviting you to bring your art supplies and sense of adventure to a West End Art Day on Saturday. Organized by artist Phyllis Ducey with assistance from a West End Flourish grant, the event is a way of getting art out into the community, specifically Fauley Park and Avenue C. There will be space on Avenue C for artists to set up and paint in the city's historic West End. "I'm hoping to have people sprawled out in the...
A property in Scanlon with political flags on a pole disparaging President Joe Biden and voters with expletives, and supporting former President Donald Trump, is being sold, and the flags are gone. According to real estate listings, the home at 22nd Street and Doddridge Avenue on the border with Cloquet was listed in earaly June for $250,000. The home hadn't sold as of early this week and the price had been reduced to $224,000. In March, the Pine Knot News had a story about the flags and...
A woman who was severely injured in a fire at Cloquet’s Larson Commons apartments last month has died. Nancy Carlson, 70, was a tenant at the senior high-rise on Cloquet Avenue; the fire started in her apartment the morning of June 13. The Cloquet Area Fire District responded to a 911 call around 9:30 a.m. June 13, for a fire and possible trapped victim. Upon arrival, CAFD crews forced entry into the apartment and found the residence full of smoke with zero visibility. Crews found and removed Carlson, then extinguished the fire. Carlson was t...
Police are still investigating an armed standoff Saturday that ended with the suspect shooting himself and dying at the scene. According to a press release from the Cloquet Police Department, officers from Cloquet, Fond du Lac, Carlton County and the Minnesota State Patrol responded to a home on the 300 block of Ridge Road at 10:19 a.m. Saturday, July 10, on a report of a man armed with a gun who entered the house and threatened the residents. The home is on the Fond du Lac Reservation within Cloquet city limits. The responding officers were...
The Wrenshall school district is moving ahead with plans to update a moldering building on its campus into a space for industrial and technology classrooms. The school board approved a plan Monday that requires $3.1 million to shore up the former rec building, money that would likely come from a non-voter-approved levy. This is adding to the $9.3 million nonvoter-approved levy the board passed in early 2020 to cover projects that are now being completed at the school. The district is allowed to...
Sam Kavanaugh, a 2009 Carlton grad who recently won the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, will have the seat of honor (likely in an antique fire truck) in the Carlton Daze parade at 1 p.m. July 25. Kavanaugh won a total of $156,202 on Jeopardy in 2019 during a five-day winning streak, which qualified him for this spring's Tournament of Champions, when 15 top performers came back to the Jeopardy stage for the chance to win $250,000. Kavanaugh credits his teacher parents and going to school in...
On top of 34 awards and a trophy for Most Outstanding Weekly Newspaper in the Better Newspaper Contest organized by the Minnesota Newspaper Association, the Pine Knot News recently won two more awards from the Minnesota Society for Professional Journalists for 2020 work. Competing in the category of newspapers with a circulation of under 50,000, newspaper page designer and reporter Mike Creger, editor Jana Peterson and other staff took third place in the category of Best Issue, for the entire issue from March 20 that focused on the rapidly...
The Esko School Board approved pay hikes for noncontract substitute workers during its July 12 meeting, citing a need to not only attract new substitutes but also to show appreciation for the current roster of substitutes. The rates for substitute teachers did not change, and will remain at $120 per day or $60 per half-day. But substitute paraprofessionals, food service, and custodian workers and program assistants all will receive $12 per hour, a raise of 50 cents per hour. Superintendent...
A tiny Carlton County department gained national recognition recently for work they did to limit person-to-person contact during vaccination clinics held during the pandemic. Geographic Information System coordinator Jared Hovi and GIS specialist Siona Roberts were awarded the prestigious Special Achievement in GIS award for their work creating a digital tracking system for residents wishing to be vaccinated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Their goal was to eliminate paper forms and limit human...
In the wake of the pandemic when substitute teachers were in short supply, Cloquet School Board members approved raising the daily pay for substitute teachers to $150 a day during Monday’s meeting, up from $116 a day. They also moved the position to the district non-union rate sheet. In the future, superintendent Michael Cary said the substitute pay will be increased annually by the same percentage as the teacher contract because of the move. Cary explained that substitute teachers work eight h...
Cloquet's Jake Schwinn is facing some hefty medical bills after a flash fire from a bonfire last month left him with first- and second-degree burns across his torso, hands and arms. Schwinn has no health insurance and had to take two weeks off while he was recovering before returning to work. A spaghetti feed benefit, including a quilt raffle (quilt pictured below), bake sale and silent auction, is scheduled for 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 17 at the Cloquet VFW on Arch Street....
Wrenshall's August event calendar is filling up fast, so I want to take a moment to make sure everyone has a preview of the upcoming activities in your neighborhood! The month kicks off with Brickyard Days, Aug. 6 and 7. A community picnic will open the festivities 5-7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 6, in the city hall parking lot. On Saturday, Aug. 7, there will be a 5k run, and the traditional celebratory parade starts at 10 a.m. This year the parade will feature the first of what will be an annual...
In a normal year, the oppressive heat over the Fourth of July weekend may have kept people home or at the lake. But 2021 isn't a normal year. We are free to go about our community business as the Covid-19 pandemic eases. And as the temperature gauge rose into the mid-90s Sunday, people kept flocking to downtown for the 11 a.m. parade. Not everyone made it through the entire lineup, seeking shade here and there or some other cooldown. The scene was a sure sign that things are coming back to...
Sixth District Judge Robert Macaulay will retire Aug. 31, the Pine Knot confirmed on Tuesday. Macaulay has served as a Carlton County judge since he was appointed in February 1995 by Gov. Arne Carlson, winning elections in 1996, 2002, 2008, 2014 and 2020. Prior to his appointment, he served as an assistant Carlton County Attorney from 1984 through 1995. Macaulay, 64, served as mentor judge to the other Carlton County judge, Rebekka Stumme, who was appointed to a vacancy on the bench in Carlton County in May 2019. Minnesota’s Judicial S...
It’s official. Nancy Klassen, longtime finance director for the city of Cloquet, is retiring. And she will be missed by city administrators. “I already tried to tell her no. That didn’t work,” city administrator Tim Peterson joked with council members during Tuesday’s unusually short meeting, which lasted all of 23 minutes. Klassen, who wins accounting awards like clockwork for her work for the city of Cloquet and the Cloquet Area Fire District, said her last day will be Sept. 30. The personnel committee will conduct interviews and the city hop...
Minnesota officials have settled a long-running tax case with Enbridge Energy, agreeing to pay the oil and gas company more than $45 million for overvaluing pipeline property after losing in state court. In conjunction with the deal, state lawmakers approved almost $30 million on Wednesday to cover the share owed by local governments along the pipeline routes. Even though the Department of Revenue had made faulty evaluations, the refund bill threatened to blow a hole in the budget of 13 counties, plus numerous cities, towns and school boards... 
Website
Minnesota has a new $52 billion, two-year state budget, but it didn’t come easy. The Legislature needed almost all the time between the end of the regular session on May 17 and the end of the fiscal year at midnight Wednesday to finish the budget. The special legislative session was one of a series over the past year and marked the first time many lawmakers were able to meet face to face in months. The budget came together without any of the tax increases that DFL Gov. Tim Walz and House Democrats had proposed earlier in the year, when the s... Website
A Cloquet man who was suspected of shooting a man in the leg was arrested last week. Nicholas Joseph Ammesmaki, 26, was taken into custody July 1 on an unrelated charge and is being held at the Northwest Regional Corrections Center in Crookston, Minnesota, according to a press release from the Cloquet Police Department. An arrest warrant for Ammesmaki was issued in Carlton County for possible charges of first-degree assault and possession of a firearm, stemming from two incidents in May. That’s when CPD officers responded to Scotty Drive in C...
Despite Covid-19, despite protests that called for defunding the police, last week Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College graduated every single student who enrolled in the law enforcement training program two years ago. The students made it through the difficult program and faced other challenges from Covid-19 to some who lost jobs and housing. "I was really excited and proud of this class," said program director Wade Lamirande. "With everything, all the unintended obstacles, we had everyone...
The nonprofit group Solar United Neighbors (SUN) is partnering with the Iron Range Partnership for Sustainability to launch the second Iron Range solar co-op. The group will help homeowners, farmers, and small businesses on the Range go solar. Carlton County residents are welcome, organizers said. The first community meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, July 14 in Virginia at Hope Community Presbyterian Church (212 S. 5th Ave.). A second community meeting will be scheduled for Grand Rapids Aug. 11 at the YMCA (400 River Road). Both meetings...
Although it squeaked through at the very last minute, Carlton County had a lot to celebrate in the final budget bill passed by state legislators and the governor last week. The agreement (see Page 1) that the state would cover Enbridge tax repayments for counties, schools and townships was a tremendous relief for local officials. Additionally, legislators also approved two different local sales tax requests and the fire district’s ongoing plea for appropriate taxing authority for emergency m...
Health insurance helps individuals and families prepare for life’s unexpected challenges. To enable more Minnesotans to gain the security of health insurance during the COVID-19 pandemic, MNsure has offered a five-month special enrollment period (SEP) that closes this Friday, July 16, 2021. If you’re uninsured or are currently enrolled in a health plan outside of MNsure, the COVID-19 SEP is a unique opportunity for you to find affordable, comprehensive health care coverage for 2021 through MNsure. The next open enrollment window won’t be until...
In the waning shadow of the pandemic, something special is happening at Evergreen Senior Living in Cloquet: residents of the two memory care wings are "waking up." No one died from Covid-19 at Evergreen Knoll, but the cure of social distancing brought its own challenges. When visitors were no longer allowed, in response to the pandemic, 95-year-old Evelyn "Evie" Graham had a hard time understanding why her family stopped visiting her in the memory care unit. This spring, she broke down in tears...
