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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About 95 percent or about 143 million households in the country have received an initial invitation to respond to the 2020 Census in their mailboxes the past week. The Census Bureau says the materials can help the public know what to expect and avoid scams. Households are encouraged to respond when they receive their invitation. Depending on how likely the area is to respond online, households will receive either an invitation encouraging them to respond online or by phone (about 112 million households), or an invitation along with a paper...
Cloquet schools superintendent Michael Cary woke up at 5 a.m. Sunday, March 15 to numerous messages on his cell phone. Five hours later, the rest of the state got the message that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was requiring every school district in the state to close by Wednesday, March 18 through March 27. Ostensibly, the time off is to be used to make plans for "distance learning" for students, in case schools close for a longer period of time following the break in response to the spread of...
Minnesota State Chancellor Devinder Malhotra announc- ed March 12 that all Minnesota State colleges and universities will suspend classes an extra week following spring break. At FDLTCC, that means classes will be suspended March 23-29 following spring break this week. Additionally, Malhotra said all events or other gatherings totaling more than 100 attendees are canceled until May 1, and the situation will be re-evaluated. “While there will be no classes during each campuses’ extra week, administrators, faculty, and staff will spend that wee...
This week's Cloquet city council meeting laid out a new world order, before even a word was said. Councilors sat one or two chairs apart, with two attending via conference call to make space for social distancing (the recommended 6 feet between individuals). More than half the chairs for audience members had been removed, to make sure no one sat too close to one another. By the end of the meeting, the council implemented even more changes to minimize the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused...
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the judicial branch has also made some adjustments to its usual procedures that were effective March 16. • All court facilities shall remain open. Service windows at court facilities will also remain open, and courts will continue to accept filings in all case types. The Judicial Branch discourages the public from making any non-essential visits to court facilities. • Each judicial district will identify cases by priority, and proceed with “super-high priority” and “high priority” cases. • Other than th...
Cloquet Area Fire District firefighters responded to a fire Wednesday, March 18, on the 1200 block of Carlton Avenue in Cloquet. CAFD battalion chief Gordy Meagher said the fire was confined to a small room on the third floor of the house, and everybody was out when they arrived. The firefighters used the ladder truck to reach the top of the home. "We got it extinguished quickly," Meagher said, adding that they vented the roof and checked ceilings inside to make sure the fire hadn't spread....
The Barnum school board voted to cut positions from the school staff for the next school year at its monthly meeting on Tuesday, March 17, despite a plea at a community meeting a couple of weeks ago to cut the positions slowly. “We are where we are,” board chair Colleen Fetters said, and called for approval of the reduction of one full-time elementary teacher, a half-time Spanish teacher, a full-time physical education teacher, a full-time math teacher, and a third-time science teacher. All passed. A vote on the reduction of a half-time mus...
Cloquet City councilor Lara Wilkinson had harsh words for a man who was selling rather expensive face masks and gloves out of the back of his vehicle in a Cloquet parking lot on Sunday morning, as reported in the Duluth News Tribune earlier this week. “No. 1. It’s unethical,” Wilkinson said. “Plus people can’t come in here and sell masks from the back of a truck. It’s not legal here.” She said the city of Cloquet has a requirement for a transient merchant license in cases like that. “So I hope no one thinks they can do that.” Last week Minneso...
On Tuesday, the Cloquet school district announced its plan to distributed free bagged lunches Wednesday-Friday to children ages 18 and younger and any persons with disabilities who are enrolled students and participate in school programs. The email essentially outlines pickup at the schools for walkers, and pickup at bus stops for children who ride the bus to school, that list is located online at https://www.isd94.org/Page/1338. The text of the entire email from the Cloquet School District is below: During the school closure March 18th – M...
The Cloquet School District sent out an update regarding childcare, both for the children of medical and emergency responders mandated by the governor and already enrolled children. Find a copy of that communication below: Due to the school closure ordered by the governor from March 18th thru March 27th the following actions will be taken by the Cloquet School District and Kids’ Corner in regards to the care of children during this time. Kids’ Corner will remain open from 6 am to 6 pm March 18th-20th, March 23rd-27th, and March 30th to pro...
The Cloquet Police Department announced the following changes in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic and the decision to close city buildings in Cloquet to members of the public for now, including the joint city hall and police building at 101 14th Street. Calls for service Calls for service requests will continue to be routed through the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center. • For emergencies, call 911 • The non-emergency number is 218-384-4185 A phone to contact dispatch will remain available in the southwest lobby at the polic...
Out of every extracurricular activity, Knowledge Bowl may be the least known. Only five U.S. states have Knowledge Bowl at the high school level. What most people know is that it is a school activity and, like others, its season was curtailed last week when all winter seasons were canceled. So, what exactly is Knowledge Bowl? Knowledge Bowl is all about knowledge - as implied in the name - and being able to remember those facts and produce them on the spot, plus it's fun, challenging, and you...
Western Lake Superior Sanitary District officials warn residents and businesses about the hazards of flushing any products except toilet paper. Wipes, paper towel, facial tissue and other paper products are not flushable and must be disposed of in the trash. “Toilet tissue has been in limited supply in local stores and we’ve heard some folks have substituted paper towel, facial tissue, wipes, napkins, and more,” said Al Parrella, WLSSD’s Manager of Operations and Maintenance. “Wipes bind with...
The Carlton County Board of Commissioners will meet virtually today, Monday, March 23 at 4 p.m. All public are encourage to join the County Board Meeting using the link below. https://meetings.webex.com/collabs/meetings/join?uuid=M715HEBLSUE3OCJ89ML313GI3E-SEH7...
Two days after Jackie DeFoe and her 20-month-old child were found dead, a crowd of more than 75 friends, family and fellow Fond du Lac band members gathered and marched in her memory. Before starting the trek along Big Lake Road they made a giant circle, prayed, listened to drums and song, and smudged - wafting the smoke from a bowl of burning sage over their bodies to purify the body and soul, and cleanse any negative energy. The walk started only a block or two away from the house where DeFoe,...
Carlton County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to Black Bear Casino and Resort Monday, March 9, after a caller reported a person with a hand gun and a shot fired inside the Seven Fires Steakhouse there. According to a press release from the Sheriff's Office, deputies arrived and found a male deceased, by self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, in the restaurant. There were no other injuries and the incident was isolated to the steakhouse. The investigation is ongoing. The male was...
When she was murdered, Jackie DeFoe joined a long list of Native American women who have been victims of violence. A 2016 National Institute of Justice report revealed that four in five American Indian (and Alaskan Native) women have experienced violence in their lifetime, and more than half have experienced physical violence by intimate partners. It’s an issue that touches everyone, said Cloquet’s Sheila Lamb, who sits on the statewide Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women task force and works...
A Cloquet man was charged with killing his girlfriend, Jackie DeFoe, her 20-month-old son, Kevin, and her unborn child in Sixth District Carlton County Court on Tuesday, March 10. Sheldon James Thompson, 33, faces two charges of second-degree murder and a third count of second-degree murder of an unborn child. The killings, disclosed Sunday morning by the Cloquet Police Department, rocked the communities of the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation and Cloquet, where the victims and the suspect lived....
Two national traditions will combine Sunday, March 15, at the annual Mojakka Cook-Off, when at least 15 area cooks will show off their best Finnish soups, all washed down with the buyer’s choice of green or purple beer. The cook-off starts at 1 p.m. at the historic NorthEastern Hotel on Dunlap Island in Cloquet. The mojakka and the purple beer pay homage to St. Urho’s Day, March 16, the day that St. Urho dined on a hearty bowl of the soup before heading out to rid the Finnish vineyards of a plague of grasshoppers. The green beer, of cou...
Dan Bremnes “Wherever I go” 2020 Spring tour and documentary screening is coming to Common Ground Coffee Bar & Deli at 103 Avenue C Sunday, March 15 starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are $15. This intimate acoustic performance will feature hit records “Wherever I Go” and “Up Again” as well as a screening of his documentary about the making of the “Wherever I Go” music video, which was filmed around the world over eight days. It’s a fam-ily-friendly performance....
Councilors nearly tabled a project that would repair some of the city's worst streets after a public hearing Thursday, March 5 revealed the biggest pothole in the project: attitudes about the planned addition of a sidewalk to Prospect Avenue between 14th and 22nd streets. On one side were numerous residents, many who live in homes that came with small front yards that would likely get smaller. On the other side were people advocating for pedestrian safety: representatives from the Cloquet Area F...
Esko residents learned that Canosia Road North of Highway 61 will be closed starting July 1 and into the fall for replacement of a bridge over the Midway River. The news about what is also known as Carlton County Road 1 came at Tuesday night’s Thomson Township annual town meeting, where a handful of residents joined township officials and employees reviewed the annual financial statement, heard from department heads, and discussed other town business. It was a 40-minute meeting at Thomson T...
Changes unfolding in the Carlton County Extension Office were laid out in a report presented by acting supervisor Donna Lekander at the Carlton County Committee of the Whole meeting March 3. The Extension program has been under intense scrutiny since Troy Salzer, longtime Carlton County/University of Minnesota Extension Service agriculture educator, left for another job. An initial evaluation of the Carlton County program showed a lack of supervision for staff working there and a need to set staff guidelines for their particular job. County...
A community meeting brainstorming solutions to financial issues in the Barnum School District aimed to bring people together Wednesday, March 4. A circle of 21 stakeholders, made up of three members of school personnel, students, parents, community members and support staff expressed their views about what needs to be changed in the Barnum School District now that the school board is discussing cuts in staff because of a deficit budget. Facilitators Laraine and Paul Mickelson of Mickelson Consulting led the discussion using a circle process,...
A former Barnum School District payroll employee who took — and paid back — $14,062 from the school’s food service fund pleaded guilty to theft last fall under the terms of a plea deal. Nancy Colleen Monfeldt, 58, was initially charged with embezzlement of public funds, one count of failure to pay over state funds and two counts of felony theft in March 2019. The embezzlement and state funds charges were dismissed when she pleaded guilty to the theft charges. According to the criminal complaint, then Superintendent David Bottem contacted the Ca...
