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 2595 - 2619 of 3909
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...
Community Education is a department of the public school that helps connect school to community. We promote learning for all age levels. Our mission at Cloquet Community Education is "To promote, provide and facilitate learning opportunities and social activities to serve individuals and families, while bridging generations, inspiring collaboration and building community." In Cloquet, we are fortunate to enjoy a very robust community education department. We offer a broad, diverse range of...
Peter Cox MPR News More people soon will be able to visit loved ones in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The changes are set to go into effect on Saturday, Oct. 17. Right now people can visit elderly relatives at some nursing homes outside, through a window or as an essential caregiver. That means people can visit a family member in their room and do caregiving tasks for them. Not long ago, the state added indoor visits to that list, as long as the facility had not had a COVID-19 exposure in 28 days and spread in the surroundi...
Jim Huhta Jim Huhta District 8 Covid has altered all our lives with social distancing and limited contact with essential service personnel. Some activities still demand attention in spite of precautions implemented over the past months, and providing power to our Lake Country Power members is one of those activities. Communication, however, has been adversely affected with our member meetings suspended, and some of us “oldtimers” having an aversion toward electronic devices, hindering useful updates and information. Newspapers still remain a r...
Elizabeth Shockman MPR News Minnesota educators are stressed, overwhelmed, and worried — and 29 percent of them are considering quitting their jobs. That’s according to a survey recently published by Education Minnesota, the state’s largest teacher union. Denise Specht, the president of Education Minnesota, said low educator morale is the result of a pandemic that has forced the majority of the state’s students out of full-time in-person learning and virtually all educators to change the way they teach. “They’re especially worried about their...
High school sports may not look exactly like normal this year, but at least athletes are back on the fields and courts. With family members and friends allowed a limited number of tickets to attend events, where does this leave loyal fans? The Esko school board has a solution — use a streaming service to bring athletics and the arts into the homes of their numerous fans and community members. This plan to stream events is just one of the many things that the Esko school district has done this year to handle the issues presented by the C...
As the nights grow longer and Halloween approaches, there are some who gravitate toward the frightening and the macabre. Others don't. There's a farm between Carlton and Wrenshall that can satisfy both ... they call it Haunted Ridge. (Cue the scary music.) In daylight, it is Ru-Ridge Corn Maze, a place where children and adults can find their way through a uniquely designed corn maze, ride horses, commune with animals at a petting zoo, go on a hayride and tackle the kids' Ninja course. When the...
The Santa's Home for the Holidays parade will not be happening this year. Cloquet city councilors said "no" in an informal vote Tuesday after discussing the pros and cons of holding the annual holiday parade during a pandemic. Positives included the fact that the parade and fireworks are both outside in the cold - transmission is less likely outdoors and people would probably be masked up to stay warm anyway - and the desire to have some kind of community celebration. Negatives also centered...
An investment by the federal government at the Cloquet Carlton County Airport is helping a local business. As a result, that business will be making its own investments with increased staffing and offerings at the local airport. That's exactly how the "opportunity zone" grants are supposed to work, said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, after announcing last month that the department's Economic Development Administration was awarding a $1.2 million grant to establish an aeronautics workforce...
The Carlton County board of commissioners last week approved a preliminary 2-percent levy increase for the budget year 2021. This is set to raise $28,790,977 from taxable property in Carlton County. The final levy amount will be approved sometime in December with a Truth in Taxation hearing Dec. 8 at the transportation building. Several areas of the budget could reduce the increase. The final figure for health insurance has not been finalized. The gas tax revenues are expected to be down just 11 percent instead of the projected 15 percent....
Students can apply now for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Voice of Democracy contest for grades 9-12 and Patriot’s Pen contest for grades 6-8. The deadline to apply is Oct. 31. The Voice of Democracy program for students in grades 9-12 offers more than $1.9 million in educational scholarships. This year’s audio-essay theme is “Is This the Country the Founders Envisioned?” The national winner receives a $30,000 scholarship paid directly to the recipient’s American university, college or vocational/technical school. Other national scholarsh...
The Minnesota Department of Transportation is hosting an online public meeting at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 13 to describe pedestrian crossing safety improvements at Minnesota Highway 210 and Mission Road in Sawyer. There will be time for questions after the presentation. To access the meeting, visit https://bit.ly/3jiKeOm. Those without internet access can also call 855-282-6330 to join the meeting. The meeting access code is 146 565 2596. A recording of the meeting will also be posted on social media, and available by contacting...
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is accepting grant applications through Nov. 13 for project funding through Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program. About $500,000 will be available for projects to begin fall 2021. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office for Coastal Management provides the funding for these grants. The priorities for 2021 are projects that improve or protect the water quality of Lake Superior and coastal area streams; reduce future damage from coastal hazards such as climate change, flo...
A public hearing regarding the 14th Street improvement project got only one public comment during Tuesday's Cloquet City Council meeting, despite the fact that some residents don't like county plans for a roundabout at the intersection of Washington Avenue and 14th Street. Those folks were in the minority, said SEH project engineer Dan Hinzmann during a presentation Tuesday. Because the project uses state aid funding, he said the state would have required an intersection improvement there over...
