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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Wearing fluorescent yellow vests and armed with whistles and broomsticks to help them comb through brush and other terrain, volunteers fanned out last week in search of 31-year-old Peter Michael Martin. Martin was last seen and heard from on Friday, March 8. A Fond du Lac Band member who grew up in the Reservation's Mahnomen neighborhood, Martin graduated from Albrook High School in 2011. A news release described Martin as approximately 5-foot-10, 185 pounds with dark brown eyes. He also has a s...
Carlton High School grad and former Jeopardy game show champion Sam Kavanaugh will compete in the first-ever Jeopardy Invitational Tournament. Kavanaugh had his first run of wins on Jeopardy in 2019, when he won five straight games and $156,202 during Season 35. Kavanaugh then won the 2021 Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. The upcoming invitational tournament will feature 27 former players - four of those from Season 36 and earlier joining the three relegated players from Season 1 of Jeopardy...
Easter meets ice later this month when the Easter Bunny comes to Northwoods Credit Union Arena in Cloquet. Kids of all ages are invited to skate with the Easter Bunny from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 30 at the arena. The free event will include music, kids activities, face painting, prizes and the Cloquet Pep Squad, courtesy of Community Ed and the city of Cloquet. Concessions available for purchase. No hockey sticks allowed, helmets are encouraged but optional. Grab some breakfast before the skate 8-11 a.m. at Carmen’s Restaurant on B...
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is restricting the open burning of vegetative debris due to increased wildfire risk resulting from unusually warm temperatures and exceptionally dry conditions across most of Minnesota. Beginning Monday, restrictions apply in Carlton, Chisago, Isanti, Itasca, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Pine, and St. Louis counties among counties in the north. The DNR will not issue permits for open burning of brush or yard waste in these counties until restrictions are lifted....
The final investigative report of the deadly Jan. 8 shooting at the Super 8 hotel in Cloquet revealed new information, including that the shooter had subcontracted with the city of Cloquet and recently relapsed into drug use. It also expanded information already released. Shooter Nicholas Elliot Lenius, 32, appeared to be having mental health problems and did not know his two victims: Cloquet resident and Super 8 employee Shelby Trettel, 22, and Patrick Jeffrey Roers, a 35-year-old Deer River...
The Cloquet school board meeting turned into a mini science fair Monday, with students taking turns explaining a host of projects examining everything from lake water, to study and sleep habits, to using traditional indigenous cures to solve modern medical issues. After that, it was time to get down to business. With spring break coming up next week, superintendent Michael Cary said the administration team is close to completing its budget proposal, to be presented at a board work session April 8, including staffing cuts. The board won’t t...
Join a group hike on the North Country National Scenic Trail at the Wisconsin-Minnesota state line on Saturday, March 30. The North Country Trail Association’s Brule-St. Croix Chapter is sponsoring a 5-mile hike on a new section of trail in the Nemadji Valley. The new trail follows a historic rail grade, visits overlooks of Clear Creek and crosses the MacQuarrie Wetlands. Hikers can meet at 10 a.m. at the State Line Trailhead, 6 County Road 4, Wrenshall, Minnesota. More information is at www.meetup.com/sscbhikers....
Some time ago, during her workaday life as a wife, mother and corporate insurance manager, Santana Haggy heard a friend comment about joining a local volunteer fire department. "I laughed it off," Haggy said. But months later she found herself faced with sleepless nights, imagining herself doing it. "All of a sudden, it was like, 'What does that look like? How do you run a career and volunteer at the same time, and train and all that stuff?'" Haggy said. Soon, Haggy was volunteering for the...
Spring load restrictions are in effect. The restrictions are as follows: • Unpaved roads are restricted to 5 tons per axle. • Paved roads that are restricted will be posted with the maximum axle weight. Paved roads that are not posted remain at 10 tons per axle. • School buses, vehicles transporting milk, public and cooperative utility maintenance vehicles, recycling and garbage vehicles, and cargo tank vehicles delivering home heating fuel are provided special allowances by Minnesota Statutes. The ending date for spring load restr...
Carlton school board members got some healthy news this week: enrollment numbers in the district are on the rise, and the American Indian Parent Advisor Committee gave the school district a passing grade, both things that haven’t happened in recent years. Superintendent Donita Stepan reported enrollment numbers had shot up to 315 students as of the beginning of this month. Carlton had begun the school year expecting 295 students. If sustained, the new numbers are a reversal of a years-long trend. Last year, the district lost more than 50 s...
The “mud bog” is coming back to Ma & Pa Kettle Days. More than 40 people attended the Ma & Pa Kettle meeting March 10 and showed their support of the mud bog event, signing up to be members. At the meeting, Eric Senarighi of the Carlton County ATV Riders presented an environmental mitigation plan to handle potential problems for the Kettle River Mud Bog, scheduled Aug. 10 in conjunction with Ma & Pa Kettle Days. Senarighi has had extensive environmental mitigation training as an employee of Minnesota Power, based out of the Thomson Dam hyd...
The record snowfall winter of 2022-23 continued to reverberate at Carlton city council on March 13, when the council voted to use Donald Holm Construction, of Duluth, to repair Four Seasons Sports Complex. The city-owned arena suffered exterior damage from the ice and snow in the winter of 2022-23. The damage remains obvious to passersby, as the arena side facing Highway 210 features a long crumpled strip of steel siding. Ice and snow buildup came off the roof, and when it hit the ground it banged into the building and caved in lower parts of...
The annual rite of spring in Cloquet is the opening of Gordy's Hi-Hat on the hill in Cloquet. Customers will notice little change in the decor there, and, according to the Lundquist family, perhaps never will. Meanwhile, next door at Gordy's Warming House, the all-year coffee shop and eatery, there has been a total reimagining of the interior. "It needed a facelift," said Sever Lundquist, third-generation Gordy's owner. The Warming House opened in 2005 and was outfitted like many coffee shops...
On behalf of the Carlton County Retired Educators and ADK Sorority, we are requesting funds to buy school supplies and books to give out to the children and youth at the Carlton County Fair held in August at the Barnum fairgrounds. We volunteer all four days of the fair at the Little Red Schoolhouse, welcoming all the folks who stop in during the fair. We also clean the building, desks, slate chalkboards and windows, and generally keep the building in order. We also maintain the many displays, on the walls and bulletin boards, of the Carlton Co...
A 21-year-old man from Pengilly, Minnesota was arrested for criminal vehicular homicide Thursday, March 21 after a pedestrian was struck and killed by a vehicle in Moose Lake. The Carlton County Sheriff’s Office said Brent Keranen was transported to the Carlton County jail. Responders believed that alcohol impairment was a contributing factor in the incident that occurred just after 2 p.m. The sheriff’s office said reports from staff at the Minnesota Corrections Facility came in about a pedestrian, Justin McNeil, 61, of Moose Lake, laying in...
Senior Isaac Hill sat in the auto shop building at Cloquet High School Friday morning, parking an 18-wheeler over and over again, a different scenario popping up on the video screen in front of him each time, then being graded after each simulation. Hill can feel the change in steering pressure as he practices each maneuver. Most of the time he gets 100 percent, when 80 percent is required to pass. On the parallel parking exercise, he got only 96 points out of 100. That's because he turned too...
Call them hiccups or hurdles, the consolidation efforts between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts were bound to encounter them. But so soon in the process? A third meeting of the shared consolidation committee yielded an impasse on Tuesday, when the Wrenshall contingent pressed contract issues, while the Carlton contingent balked. "If that is where the line is drawn," Carlton board chair Julianne Emerson said, alluding to potential for a deal-breaker, "we can all have a really free...
As Minnesota continues to face record-high winter temperatures, Gov. Tim Walz announced last week that Minnesota has unlocked federal funding for small businesses impacted by this winter’s historic drought conditions. Amid the warmest winter on record, federal Economic Injury Disaster Loans are available because of ongoing federal drought declarations affecting 81 Minnesota counties. “From skiing and snowshoeing to winter festivals, snowy winters are part of our way of life in Minnesota. The low precipitation we’ve experienced this winte...
The Carlton school board met Monday in a working session devoted mostly toward preparing for the next night’s consolidation committee meeting with Wrenshall. Carlton was still smarting from a set of emails exchanged primarily between the board chairs regarding information and agendas. The messages are terse, and like all emails had the potential to stir up raw emotions if written or received in a tone not intended. A March 4 meeting between the consolidation teams was intended to smooth over the disagreements and was partially successful, b...
A search was underway Wednesday morning on the Fond du Lac Reservation for a 31-year-old Native American man last seen and heard from on Friday. Peter Michael Martin is considered a missing person, according to a Fond du Lac Band news release. A search and rescue effort began at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, March 13, using police and volunteers combing the Mahnomen neighborhood. The search-and-rescue effort was being coordinated out of the Brookston Community Center at 8200 Belich Road in Cloquet....
Two adults have been charged and two juveniles have been petitioned after the Feb. 24 shooting into a home in Cloquet. Carlton County Attorney Laura Ketola made the announcement after last week’s issue of the Pine Knot went to press. Arrested were Raymond Peterson, 19, and Mukwa Belanger, 18. Police investigating the shooting on Bagaan Street, near the Fond du Lac Supportive Housing complex, said they spoke with four people they believe were involved in the shooting, leading to the arrests. According to police, Peterson had an altercation w...
The regular Cloquet City Council meeting scheduled for March 19 has been canceled, due to a lack of agenda items, said city administrator Tim Peterson. The next regularly scheduled council meeting is set for April 2 at 6 p.m....
After flirting for weeks with a resolution that calls for wolf management in the state, the Carlton County board voted unanimously Tuesday to appeal to federal and state legislators to delist gray wolves from endangered species protection. The board agreed to send letters to Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, as well as Rep. Pete Stauber, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and local state legislators, Sen. Jason Rarick and Rep. Jeff Dotseth. "We are hopeful that you will support this effort to delist...
The annual meeting for residents of Thomson Township ended Tuesday with a standing ovation for clerk-treasurer Rhonda Peleski, who is retiring at the end of the month. Jason Paulson, a former township supervisor and current resident, made the motion to thank Peleski for her nearly 31 years of work for the township. "On behalf of Thomson Township citizens, I'd like to thank Rhonda Peleski for your decades of service to this community," Paulson said, requesting the motion be entered into the...
It’s been nearly nine years, but two more blocks of Eighth Street — from Prospect to Sahlman Avenue — are getting a much-needed overhaul this summer. Cloquet city councilors unanimously approved the reconstruction of the pothole-ridden street, along with replacing water, sanitary sewer and storm sewer infrastructure at a total estimated cost of $1.5 million. Construction is expected to begin in May or June and be completed in September. The majority of the costs will be paid through state aid dollars, which come with requirements that set t...
