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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Local school board members faced crowded board rooms this week as parents and others turned out in opposition to school districts requiring masks when kids return to school after Labor Day. Unlike last fall, there is no statewide state of emergency, which means decisions are local. Board members in Cloquet and Esko listened attentively to their constituents, but made no promises this week. Rather, they scheduled special meetings to discuss the issue in greater depth, and said they will wait to...
Elaine Osborne remembers walking along Highway 61 near her home between Scanlon and Esko on a balmy January day in 1984, when she realized the nearby Maki Swamp appeared to be steaming. "It was brown, frothy and smelled of sewage, and it was situated directly above the troubled sewage line," Osborne wrote in her new book, "If I Felt Alone." It wasn't the first time the line carrying sewage from Cloquet, Scanlon, Carlton and Wrenshall to Duluth had broken - releasing wastewater that included...
Cloquet school board members approved “continued discussions” with Carlton about a tuition agreement for Carlton’s high school students, but removed language that indicated approval of the “general framework” of discussions so far. Cloquet superintendent Michael Cary told the board they were not approving the agreement, just the general direction of discussions so far, when they voted on the resolution. Cary said discussion so far includes moving some, but not all, state money per student t...
Two people are dead after a vehicle went off an Interstate 35 bridge near Scanlon and ended up in the St. Louis River. The crash happened at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the car was traveling southbound on I-35 when it left the highway near milepost 239 and "submerged into the St. Louis River." First responders donned water rescue gear to reach the vehicle, a 2004 Ford Explorer, which was mostly submerged but partly visible in the water underneath the...
After a pandemic delay of more than a year, the final public meeting for Thomson Township's 2040 comprehensive plan was held Monday night. More than 30 residents attended the public hearing, with many voicing concerns about proposed changes on the future land use map portion of the comprehensive plan, changes that could bring more business development to their area. The plan initially proposed a change to the land use south of Interstate-35, from single-family residential and agricultural, to...
The prosecution and defense each made opening arguments Wednesday, Aug. 11, in the trial of Timothy Scott Young Jr., after two days of jury selection. Scott has been accused of both first- and second-degree criminal sexual conduct stemming from an incident in April 2020 involving a person under 16 years old. He could serve up to 30 years if convicted. Carlton County attorney Lauri Ketola addressed the jury first, after Sixth District Court Judge Robert Macauley read preliminary instructions to...
Almost every morning for 10 weeks, college student Emma Waugh has risen out of bed and logged onto her computer in her Cloquet bedroom to start work on a project for NASA. With specialized computer programs open, she spends her time coding and analyzing data from satellite imagery of several lakes in central Texas, monitoring for potential algae blooms. Waugh's four colleagues meet with her on Zoom at least once a day to discuss the project, and hours are spent learning in front of the...
Since Dakota Koski went from being a volunteer mentor as a high school sophomore to being executive director of REACH 10 years ago, the local nonprofit organization has been evolving. Over that time REACH — an acronym for Recreational Experiences Achieving Community Harmony — has gone from primarily a mentoring program to one that still works with youth, but takes a much more comprehensive approach to helping them tackle the various challenges of being young in today’s world, from homew...
Cloquet City Councilors took action Tuesday to correct a large deficit in the fund that is used to pay for street projects, among other things. Councilors approved the transfer of $435,000 from the city’s General Fund into the Permanent Improvement fund, wiping out a deficit from city street overlay projects in 2017. The permanent improvement fund pays the city’s share of projects. That includes street projects, but also larger projects such as the Washington Avenue project, which also inc...
After more than a year of pandemic delays, Thomson Township residents will have one final opportunity to weigh in on the township’s evolving Comprehensive Plan. A public comment session regarding the proposed 2040 Thomson Township Comprehensive Plan is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Monday, Aug. 9, 2021 in the boardroom at the Thomson Town Hall, 25 E. Harney Road, Esko. The comment session is open to all. Each speaker or group representative will be provided two minutes to share their thoughts related to the Comprehensive Plan update. The public c...
Northern Lights Community Action is holding a Back to School supply drive through Aug. 13. Needed items include pencils, paper, backpacks, calculators, rulers, pens, staplers, tape, glue, colored pencils, markers, erasers, binders, folders, composition books, crayons, scissors, etc. Drop off at 901 Cloquet Ave. between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Distribution is Aug. 23. Sign up by calling 218-879-2119....
Minnesotans who received unemployment income at any time in 2021 now have access to extremely low-cost health insurance through MNsure. The new benefits were implemented as part of the American Rescue Plan legislation enacted earlier this year. New federal subsidies for private health insurance on MNsure act as an instant discount for consumers, lowering the cost for monthly premiums. MNsure encourages anyone who received unemployment income for at least one week in 2021 to visit MNsure.org to check out their options. Current MNsure enrollees...
Three weekends ago, Cody Sheik was at a friend's wedding on Duluth's Park Point, sipping champagne on the Lake Superior beach, when he spotted something unusual in the normally crystal clear water. "It was definitely a bloom,” he recalled. “It’s indescribable. Chalk-green, when it should be nice and clear." Sheik would know. He’s a microbiologist at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Large Lakes Observatory who studies blue-green algae blooms. He snapped some pictures, but he didn't have a... 
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By Yasmine Askari / MinnPost Minnesotans are just now emerging from a week that some have described as "apocalyptic." When northern winds brought in gray skies full of pollution from Canadian wildfires, a drought and recurring high temperatures had already been plaguing most of the state. Lee Frelich, the director of forest ecology at the University of Minnesota, says the last time Minnesota experienced a summer so extreme was 1988. "That was pretty much like this summer that we're having right... Website
At least one person died after a vehicle went off an Interstate 35 bridge near Scanlon and ended up in the St. Louis River. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, the crash happened at 12:03 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10. First responders donned water rescue gear to reach the vehicle, which was mostly submerged but partly visible in the water underneath the bridge. Killed in the crash was the female passenger, Barbara Jean Kimber, age 78, of Carlton. The driver of the 2004 Ford Explorer, an...
While Cloquet finance director Nancy Klassen painted a mostly positive picture of the city’s financial position last week, one number in particular stood out: a $3.2 million actuarially determined increase in the city’s long-term public safety expense, to cover ongoing and future insurance benefits for former police officers on disability. The issue is complicated because it involves actions by both the State of Minnesota and the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) which resulted in t...
The Carlton County Board of Commissioners on Monday voted unanimously to build the proposed jail and justice center next to the Carlton County Transportation Building. Requested by Twin Lakes Township official Diane Felde-Finke, a motion by commissioner Dick Brenner in support for the “green site” passed with no discussion or dissent. The 20-acre site is just northeast of the current Transportation Building along old Highway 61 in Twin Lakes Township. Engineers and architects have projected that the site is relatively level, sandy, and doe...
The Chub Lake Park swimming beach is closed until further notice. E. coli levels are high, according to a Carlton County press release from last week. Water contact is not recommended....
To help ensure public safety and protect natural resources, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is expanding burning restrictions. Effective 12:01 a.m., July 27, areas within state jurisdiction in Aitkin, Becker, Benton, Carlton, Clearwater, Mahnomen and Stearns counties are included in burning restrictions already in place for the eastern portion of Roseau County and all of Beltrami, Cass, Cook, Crow Wing, Hubbard, Itasca, Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Lake, Morrison, St. Louis, Todd and Wadena counties. The state will not issue...
The Superior City Council voted July 20 to support the transfer of burial lands on Wisconsin Point to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. According to a story by Wisconsin Public Radio, the strip of land was once home to a vibrant Ojibwe community and represents the end of the Ojibwe migration story. At least seven generations were laid to rest at a cemetery on Wisconsin point. In 1918 nearly 200 graves were removed (and reburied at St. Francis Cemetery), followed by living tribal members several years later forced off by U.S....
Despite some recent rains, things are still pretty dry in these parts. So dry that firefighters were called to Athletic Park Monday afternoon for two grass fires: one on the outfield of the baseball field, the other next to the playground. Cloquet Area Fire District crews quickly extinguished the fires with assistance from the Cloquet DNR. There were no injuries, but CAFD officials would like to remind people of the abnormally dry conditions. "An unintentional spark in these conditions could be...
It's not only big-city police departments that are using embedded social workers. Thanks to a state grant, a social worker from the Human Development Center is working with four law enforcement agencies here: the Cloquet, Fond du Lac and Moose Lake police departments, along with the Carlton County Sheriff's Office. Troy Homstad has been working out of an office at the Cloquet Police Department since April. Cloquet Sgt. Nate Cook said he loves having Homstad along when he is called to situations...
Work on the new Carlton County budget for 2022 has started, with each department making presentations for their needs during the next budget cycle during the county board meeting Monday. Increased health insurance and employee salaries are again a focus with more than 400 on the county payroll. Historically, county program budgets that can have fund balances at the end of the budget year have been used to cushion the need to keep the property tax increase low for the coming year. The county land department and the county recorder’s office, f...
Atkins Northland Funeral Home may have new owners, but don't expect any big changes, said Bob Atkins, who officially sold the business in May. "Very little will change with the ownership transition," Atkins told the Pine Knot News this week. "The business names will stay the same and our employees will still be here with the goal of continuing to provide exceptional service while growing the business." The new owners are Foundation Partners Group, a privately held funeral services company with...
Public-record filings are indicating that there may be another shakeup in the direction of Cloquet’s only new car dealership, and its one-time owners have filed for bankruptcy. June filings with the Minnesota Secretary of State office shows that Cloquet Auto Center has renewed the various assumed names attached to Cloquet’s Ford and Chrysler dealership. What’s new is that the Cloquet Auto Center name was renewed in May with an address associated with Duluth-based car dealership group Evergreen, which owns dealerships in the Twin Ports and a...
