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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Editor’s note:In response to questions about efforts by three area school districts — Barnum, Moose Lake and Willow River — to explore ways to share resources and expenses, committee members share the following update with the Pine Knot News. In early 2020, school board chairs from Barnum, Moose Lake and Willow River began meeting to discuss opportunities to share costs and services between the three districts. Previous conversations had been ongoing between superintendents, and the chairs decided to build on these relationships and expan...
After five special sessions since the regular session ended in May, the Minnesota Legislature last week passed a $1.9 billion bonding bill. It was signed Wednesday by Gov. Tim Walz. The bonding will allow for public works projects across the state, including a $7.5 million grant to Twin Lakes Township to design and construct a water main from Carlton County along the Minnesota Highway 210 corridor to Interstate 35. The waterline will alleviate fears about wells contaminated with arsenic and also offer an expected economic boost to the business...
A police call Monday for a disturbance at a local apartment building ended well, but only after police and firefighters converged on the building for hours. Nearly a dozen police cars and four fire department vehicles lined Carlton Avenue outside the Carlton Lofts apartment complex Monday afternoon, as police negotiators tried to convince a man in an upper floor apartment to come out and surrender. Billy Joe Martineau, 26, of Cloquet, was ultimately arrested. He was charged with first-degree...
A Cloquet police officer made his first virtual court appearance Oct. 15 after being arrested for driving while impaired in August. The next court action will take place Nov. 5. Andrew Michael Murray, 34, allegedly crashed his car near 223 Gillespie Road in Carlton on Aug. 6, and fled into some nearby woods, according to a Minnesota State Patrol incident report. In addition to the MSP, Cloquet and Fond du Lac police officers assisted at the scene. Murray was located a short time later and taken into custody without incident. Murray is being cha...
The new motor for the Cloquet Middle School pool is installed and running. Senior Swim and Lap Swim will resume on Monday, Oct. 26, according to Cloquet Community Education. A faulty dehumidifying fan on the roof of the middle school put the three-year-old $6 million pool out of commission for close to six weeks. The first replacement motor didn't work, but a specially built one did, and the swim team can resume practicing, along with all the community education classes and upcoming swim...
The Extension Office in Carlton has an opening for a three-year District 1 term starting in 2021. The committee meets five times per year (bi-monthly February-November). If you are interested in getting involved, please call or email the extension office for an application and more information. Application deadline is Nov. 16. To find out more, contact Carlton County Extension volunteer coordinator Ann Rust at 218-384-3511 or [email protected]....
Carlton County is looking for a Carlton County resident to serve on its Airport Commission. The commission reviews the day-to-day maintenance, operations, and construction at both the Moose Lake and Cloquet airports. Commissioners are appointed for a three-year term and can serve up to three terms. A per diem of $60 will be paid for attending meetings. Contact Quinten Anderson, airport manager, at (218) 879-4911 or email Quinten.anderson @co.carlton.mn.us for more information....
Wrenshall teacher Molly Kidd has been honored with the K-12 Art Educator of the Year award by Art Educators of Minnesota. The veteran teacher was nominated by Wrenshall's speech language pathologist, Theresa O'Gara, after O'Gara saw time and again how Kidd presented engaging, creative lessons and then let her students fly. Kidd said she is dedicated to the growth of her students as artists and critics of the world, and she has spent years crafting her lessons so they build upon each other year a...
Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College is among the 30 colleges and seven universities of Minnesota State waiving application fees in October for all or part of College Knowledge Month, an annual statewide effort to encourage students to apply to college. The college is also offering virtual information sessions for interested students and parents to connect with college staff to learn more about the college. “We always encourage and recommend that students apply early for college admission and start the next steps of their futures,” sai...
Winter weather has arrived, and the Minnesota Department of Transportation wants drivers to be ready for conditions. Hundreds of snowplow operators work during winter storms to keep road conditions as safe and clear as possible. Motorists should remember to slow down, stay alert, and stay back at least 10 car lengths and use extra caution when driving near snowplows. The same goes for general safe driving on winter roads. The Cloquet Police Department on Wednesday reported that the Tuesday...
After almost eight years of refusing to allow residents on normal city lots to raise chickens, the Cloquet City Council voted unanimously Monday to do exactly that. The move came after members of the Cloquet Planning Commission recommended the change, and that hearing followed a movement started by Cloquet resident and chicken owner Emily Tracy, who circulated an online petition that garnered more than 1,000 signatures. "When it comes to the benefits, well, they are endless," Tracy told the Pine...
Sympathy goes to the family of Brian A. Holte, 40, of Anoka, who passed away Oct. 14 at his home. The preliminary autopsy showed that Brian had an enlarged heart. Send condolences to his mother, Judy Olson, at 1827 South Ferry St. Apt 214, Anoka MN 55303. Mary J. Purcell, 92, formerly of Wright, died Oct. 9 in Minnetonka. I sure am going to miss sending Mary this news article every week, as I did for the past five or six years after she gave up her computer access. I also will miss the letters...
As the Minnesota Legislature breathed its last gasps of air of the 2020 session, Carlton County can find some wins and some big losses when contemplating what became a session extended by five months with mostly unproductive special sessions since May and until this week. A school district consolidation will have to wait. A long-planned waterline project is a go, as is a grant for the county jail to explore increasing services for female offenders. On the flip side, the county will have to wait for permission to ask county voters to allow a...
A Carlton County grand jury voted last week to charge a Cloquet man with five counts of first-degree murder, another development in a case that shocked county residents last spring when the bodies of a pregnant woman and her toddler were found hidden in their home, brutally murdered. Sheldon James Thompson, 33, was charged in March with two counts of second-degree murder and a third count of second-degree murder of an unborn child. As a result of the grand jury indictment, he faces a total of...
Neighbors on the Bromfield Road in Atkinson Township voiced concerns about a proposed Enbridge staging yard at the Carlton County board of commissioners regular meeting Tuesday. The Atkinson town board’s approval of Enbridge’s use of the road for access and the Carlton County planning commission’s clearance for the yard site had seen little public input until now. Alex Omar has property on road which has been leased by Enbridge for the staging yard and has a proposed access road about 500 feet from County Road 61 off Bromfield. The propo...
The Cloquet Chamber of Commerce will hold a local candidate forum 6-9 p.m. Oct. 21 in the council chambers at Cloquet City Hall. No spectators will be allowed at the forum, which will be livestreamed on the city’s website at cloquetmn.gov and aired repeatedly on CAT-7 leading up to Election Day Nov. 3. Featured races (in order of appearance) include candidates for Cloquet City Council (6 p.m.), District 5 Carlton County Commissioner (6:30 p.m.), Cloquet School Board (7 p.m.), and the state legislative candidates (at 8 p.m.) for house and s...
A Duluth man was airlifted Saturday after he was injured in a dirt bike accident Saturday, Oct. 10. According to a press release from the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office, the accident occurred in the 300 block of the Harlis Road in Holyoke Township. Rylan Wantaja, 20, apparently lost control on the Wilderness Trail while traveling with a large group of riders. He sustained several significant injuries due to the accident and was taken off the trail by medical, law enforcement and rescue personnel. The awaiting medical personnel assessed the p...
Carlton County Road 1 north of Esko opened in the past week after a months-long project to replace the bridge across the Midway River. The reopening came on schedule....
A public hearing to discuss allowing residents to raise chickens drew no public participation during Tuesday's Cloquet Planning Commission meeting and was passed unanimously by the commission. The change would require amending two different sections of the city code. Planning commission members voted 5-0 to change the lot size from a staff suggestion of 11,000 square feet to 10,890 square feet, which is exactly a quarter-acre, for the language in Chapter 8.4.02 of the City Code, the city's...
The Barnum school district got some good news recently, in a year that saw the small rural school district facing financial woes and then a pandemic. In this case, however, two negatives made a positive. The fund balance for the Barnum school district should be around $450,000, the finance committee reported at the school board’s working meeting Tuesday, Oct. 6. Final figures will be presented to the board by the auditor at its monthly meeting Tuesday, Oct. 20, said superintendent Mike McNulty in a telephone interview this week. “Fifty per...
DFL Congressional candidate Quinn Nystrom made a campaign stop in Cloquet Saturday as part of a whistlestop tour across every county in the 8th Congressional District. Nystrom addressed close to 30 masked and mostly socially distanced supporters at the gathering in the parking lot between Premiere Theatres and L&M. She started by being thankful for the sunny fall weather. "After announcing this 18-county tour, we didn't know if it was going to be more of an 'Amy Klobuchar announcing a...
National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is Saturday, Oct. 24. Come to the lobby of the Cloquet Police Department from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to drop off any old or unwanted medications. This national day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 9.9 million Americans misused controlled prescription drugs. The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends, often from the home medicine cabinet. Help prevent drug addiction...
Minnesota schools and communities wanting to develop safer places for students to walk and bicycle can apply for three different grant opportunities this fall through the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program. Communities and schools can apply for planning assistance grants to help assess current conditions and create plans to improve walking and bicycling through programs and infrastructure. SRTS “Boost” grants supportexisting SRTS work, like adding bicycles to schools to improve physical education curri...
Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Paul Thissen is trying to retain the seat he was appointed to in 2018. His challenger is Michelle MacDonald, a controversial lawyer who is making her fourth bid for the court. This is the first time Thissen will face voters as a Supreme Court justice, but it’s not the first time he’s faced voters. Before he was appointed to the court two years ago by then Gov. Mark Dayton, Thissen had a long run as a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. He served from 2003 to 2018, including a stint as spe...
Haunted Ridge As the nights grow longer and Halloween approaches, there are some who gravitate toward the frightening and the macabre. And then there are those who don’t. A farm at 1781 County Road 1 (about halfway between Carlton and Wrenshall) aims to satisfy both inclinations. Home to two businesses operating side-by-side, Ru-Ridge Corn Maze offers wholesome family fun while the Haunted Shack — with its haunted hayride and haunted corn maze — offers shrieks and giggles after the sun goes down. In daylight, it is Ru-Ridge Corn Maze, a place...
