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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At the start, it was as if no one really knew how or whether to panic. So they cleared shelves of toilet paper and anything that could be used to kill germs on surfaces. As the state ordered places to shut down in order to quell the spread of Covid-19, it continued to only slowly seep in just how radically things might change in a pandemic world. Adam Bailey, owner of Cloquet bar The Jack, was like anyone else trying to navigate just what was happening. "Uneasy," he told the Pine Knot News in...
A drive-thru vaccine clinic organized by Carlton County last Tuesday is getting national attention for creating a vehicle - pun intended - for getting Covid-19 vaccines into arms quickly while still abiding by social distancing precautions. Time.com featured photos of the clinic and interviews with Carlton County Health and Human Services staff here in a story Dec. 30, "How Drive-Through Covid-19 Vaccine Clinics Could Help Inoculate the U.S." Although the Dec. 29 clinic was the county's first... Full story
Law enforcement officials named the victim of last week's shooting - Joseph James Peterson, age 16 - last week after charges of second-degree manslaughter were filed against Joseph James Fohrenkam, 18. Fohrenkam, who had left the area with his mother, Littlefawn Fohrenkam, after the shooting, was located and arrested Wednesday afternoon at an apartment complex on the White Earth Reservation in Mahnomen County. "We've had a lot of people working hard on ways to locate him, so we're really...
Julianne Emerson, a former Carlton school board member who was elected again to the board in November, was nominated and regained the chairwoman position in an online organizational meeting Monday, Jan. 4. Emerson and Eryn Szymczak are new members to the board this year after chairwoman LaRae Lehto and Jennifer Chmielewski did not seek re-election in the fall. Emerson served on the board for eight years beginning in 2011, and was elected chairwoman of the board for the first time in 2012. Emerson received the most write-in votes in November...
After a tough year of Covid-19 orders restricting bars and restaurants from the usual flow of customers, the Carlton VFW is struggling to pay the bills. Members of the Carlton High School student council are hoping they can help, by launching a GoFundMe fundraiser for the local veterans club, where veterans and others can gather in more normal times for drinks, music, cards and even the occasional horseshoe tournament. To make a donation, go to gofundme.com and search for the Carlton VFW. “The post has been a staple of our community since F...
The Carlton County Board of Commissioners had its annual organizational meeting Tuesday with expected leadership changes. As has been the tradition, each of the five commissioners takes a turn as board chair over a five-year period. District 3 commissioner Tom Proulx, representing Cloquet, was elected Tuesday and takes charge of running the board meetings. District 5 commissioner Gary Peterson was elected vice chairman and is taking his turn as chair of the Committee of the Whole. District 4...
Rep. Mike Sundin (DFL–Esko) was sworn in Tuesday for his fifth term in the Minnesota House. He represents District 11A, encompassing all of Carlton and portions of Pine and St. Louis counties. “I’m honored and humbled to have this opportunity to continue serving at the State Capitol. I continue to take this enormous responsibility seriously,” Sundin said. “Minnesotans are facing some difficult times and I look forward to the work ahead to ensure everyone in our state can have a strong future once we move past this crisis.” This session, Re...
Cloquet's newest city councilor, Elizabeth "Lyz" Jaakola, was sworn in Tuesday in a most unusual format, with city administrator Tim Peterson asking councilors and anyone watching the virtual meeting "to imagine" a more conventional ceremony. In reality, Jaakola was not visible as she held her hand up and repeated the oath of office as "caller 02" on the GoToMeeting screen. Jaakola garnered the most votes for the Ward 5 council seat in November's election, beating fellow challenger Dennis...
• Ruby’s Pantry serves about 200 people on the fourth Wednesday of each month in Cloquet, providing an abundant amount of food for a $20 donation. Ruby’s Pantry will distribute food shares 10-11:30 a.m. Jan. 27 at St. Paul’s Evangelical Church at 1705 Wilson Avenue in Cloquet, rather than its usual location at the Cloquet Armory. • The Second Harvest Mobile Food Pantry comes to the Our Savior’s Lutheran Church parking lot in Cloquet to distribute food 10:30-11:30 a.m. on the third Thursday of each month. Simply drive up, and volunteers... Full story
A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed outside a home on the Fond du Lac Reservation early Monday morning and an arrest warrant was signed Tuesday for another teenager, 18-year-old Joseph James Fohrenkam, who is wanted by police. According to a press release from the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office, deputies and officers from the Fond du Lac Police Department responded to a call at 1:19 a.m. Monday reporting that someone was shot. When officers arrived at the rural St. Louis County home, they...
There will be a free Covid-19 saliva testing event 1-7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5 at Moose Lake School. This is open to all families and community members in the area. You don’t have to have symptoms to test. Results will help public health better understand the spread in the community along with identifying any asymptomatic individuals who may unknowingly be spreading the virus. Questions? Email [email protected] The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is holding another free three-day Covid-19 saliva testing event Jan. 6-7 at the F...
Martin “Dude” Barr, who owned Barr Brothers Funeral Home in Cloquet with his brother, passed away Dec. 26. He was 95. Barr and his brother, Bob Barr, started their first funeral home in Carlton in 1951, then quickly bought a funeral home in Cloquet, according to Dude’s son, Brad Barr. They were in business here for more than 30 years, during which time Bob worked as the county coroner and Dude as the deputy county coroner. “That was before you had to be a medical examiner,” Brad said. Although they never worked together, funeral director...
Carlton County residents are encouraged to recycle their Christmas trees during Treecycling, a free program with dropoff locations throughout the region that will take trees through Jan. 11. • SAPPI Fine Paper gatehouse entrance, Cloquet. • Moose Lake compost site across from city garage. • For other locations, visit wlssd.com Holiday light strings can be recycled at the Carlton County Transfer Station....
Despite an 8-percent increase in health insurance costs, the Carlton County Board of Commissioners approved the smallest property tax levy increase in years on Monday, voting to set it just 2 percent higher than last year. The levy for 2021 will raise $28,790,977 through property taxes. Following are some of the ways the levy will be allocated: • $8.2 million for public health and human services; • $3.67 million for roads and bridges; • $3.46 million for the sheriff’s office; • $2.5 million for the county jail; • $2 million for community c...
Locally, nationally and internationally, Sappi has been working hard at sustainability practices and people are taking notice. In February, Sappi North America received the SEAL Business Sustainability Award for Environmental Leadership, in particular for the land application program at the Cloquet mill. On Dec. 3, Sappi North America won a different sustainability leadership award, this one for a reclaim and reuse project at its mill in Skowhegan, Maine. And in early December, all three regions... Full story
Duluth's Lakewalk hugs several miles of the city's Lake Superior shore, from the Canal Park tourist district all the way to Brighton Beach. With its sweeping view of the lake and the city, the trail is a destination for locals and the more than 6 million people who visit the city every year. But for the past few years, it's also been an active construction site, as the city slowly rebuilds the Lakewalk after sections of it were ripped to pieces by a series of intense storms a few years ago -... 
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Residents and visitors to the Stanton Lake area on the Willow River will see increased levels of construction activity and truck traffic in the coming weeks as the damaged Willow River dam is removed and is replaced with a rock arch rapids. The dam, built in the 1940s, breached in July 2016 after a large flood overtopped the dam and eroded the adjacent embankment. Earlier this month, workers temporarily diverted the river channel and dewatered the work area so they could remove the failed concrete dam. In the next phase of construction — expect...
A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed outside a home on the Fond du Lac Reservation early Monday morning and an arrest warrant was signed Tuesday for another teenager, 18-year-old Joseph James Fohrenkam, who is wanted by police. According to a press release from the St. Louis County Sheriff's Office, deputies and officers from the Fond du Lac Police Department responded to a call at 1:19 a.m. Monday reporting that someone was shot. When officers arrived at the rural St. Louis County home, they... Full story
The 16-year-old boy who was shot and killed earlier this week was Joseph James Peterson, of Cloquet and Fond du Lac, according to a press release from the St. Louis County Sheriff's office Friday morning. St. Louis County Sheriff's Office deputies and officers from the Fond du Lac Police Department responded to a call at 1:19 a.m. Monday, Dec. 28 reporting that someone was shot. When officers arrived at the rural St. Louis County home on the 3600 block of Giiniw Road, they found a deceased... Full story
Carlton County residents are encouraged to recycle their fresh-cut Christmas trees during Treecycling, a free program with dropoff locations throughout the region. “Holiday trees, like yard and garden waste, are banned from the trash in Minnesota,” said Karen Anderson, WLSSD’s director of community relations. “Trees contain valuable resources that can be reclaimed through Treecycling. Collected trees will be beneficially reused as fuel, as mulch to line paths or for other purposes, while recovering resources and saving landfill space.” As in th... Full story
The 2020 Christmas Lighting Challenge winners were announced this week, with individual winners for Duluth, Cloquet, Superior and Hermantown. In Cloquet, Reliable Insurance on Carlton Avenue won Best in business, not surprisingly, and will move into the Masters category next year. Steve Torgeson won for Cloquet in the residential category; find his home at 5164 Canosia Road. Duluth was voted favorite Christmas City and Superior’s Brett and Amanda Defoe won the master category; find them at 2101 East Third St. in Superior. Find all of this y...
According to an email from Cloquet schools superintendent Michael Cary, the district is eying Jan. 4 for the Cloquet school district to begin to evaluate its ability to return elementary students to classrooms. This follows new recommendations from the state which allows and even encourages school districts to return elementary students (not secondary) to full in-person instruction, even when county case rates remain elevated, beginning on Jan. 18. If districts choose to return students to in-person or hybrid learning, the implementation must...
The good news for the Carlton school district is that there were no surprises and things stayed pretty much the same as years before in the annual audit released Monday night. That’s also the bad news as the district continues to face rising costs associated with more students living within the district choosing to go to school somewhere else. The district is not getting “economies of scale,” reported Matt Mayer from BerganKDV, which performed the audit. He was reporting at the final regular meeting of the school board for the year. In 2016,...
Prekindergarten through second-grade students in the Esko school district will return to in-person learning effective Jan. 19, following both the recommendation of Gov. Tim Walz and a unanimous vote by the Esko school board Monday night. The governor — a teacher for more than 20 years — announced last week that the state’s Safe Learning Plan had been updated to allow every elementary school across the state to return to in-person learning effective Jan. 18, as long as they can implement addit...
The Thomson Town board came through bigtime for Esko Community Education during its meeting Thursday, Dec. 17. These are tough times for the organization, which is part of the Esko school district. Community Ed has suffered financially from the pandemic — which restricted classes and activities, resulting in reduced revenue — and asked for funds from the town’s recreation fund. After agreeing to donate $2,000 to Community Ed as it has for years, along with an additional $2,000 to sponsor Esko...
