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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The Walli family home, just northwest of the city of Cromwell, required a septic system redo, which has consumed our lives for some time. The project called for both intelligent labor and impressive machinery, including two backhoes and a vintage dump truck. We started this summer by logging off the larger trees, mostly birch and poplar. We tossed the long skinny boughs downhill like javelins. The larger trunks Rod cut to manageable lengths - more or less than 2 feet - with his chainsaw. We...
What good is a state flag? According to flag expert Lee Herold of Rochester, Minnesota, a good flag creates a distinctive brand. Ideally, Minnesota's flag should also create unity, representing our state's values everywhere it flies. But this has not always been the case. The people of Minnesota have altered their state flag design in the past to meet changing needs. They are continuing to do so today. Thirty-five years elapsed between Minnesota statehood (1858) and the creation of an official...
There seems to be a cultural crisis facing Barnum that threatens the very existence of the city and its high school. The crisis? Kids at the school this fall elected two boys as the top homecoming royalty. There’s been no such thing as a homecoming “king and queen” in Barnum since 2019, when the annual tradition morphed into “royalty,” rather than kings and queens. Now, the students vote for a slate of popular kids and the top two vote-getters are the royalty of the homecoming court. No kings....
Shut your eyes, picture it's the Fourth of July or Labor Day in Cloquet. It's parade time. The veterans have passed by, now here comes the music. You recognize the familiar trailer, with its red, white and blue decorations. It's the Cloquet Community Band. Cloquet has a decorated city band history dating back to at least the early 1900s. Even before World War I, according to "A Hometown Album: Cloquet's Centennial Story," Cloquet boasted "a first class city band and the local Finnish population...
I was saddened when I learned that Sunnyside nursing home was going to be closed. But I was not surprised, since they had been operating at a loss for many years. Reimbursement was not keeping up with expenses so the inevitable was bound to happen. Sunnyside was 5-star-rated for many years, even though it was old and outdated. I have heard many positive comments about its operation thanks to the friendly staff and sound administration. It was indeed a real asset for our community. I feel sorry for the residents who considered it their home and...
There’s a real need for housing in Cloquet. It seems to me, slowly but surely, the central part of the city is deteriorating as more and more people move out to the larger lots available on the city’s edges. For example, some lots in the Sunnyside neighborhood are about one-third acre, while many lots in the older parts of Cloquet are much, much smaller. So when those older houses get too worn out to repair, they become vacant, taking up space that can’t readily be sold, because the lots are t...
Bruce Ahlgren Park. It has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I’ve been suggesting to anyone who will listen that we should be naming our public parks and facilities after the public servants who made such things possible. In Cloquet, there’s no one more deserving than Bruce Ahlgren, who served as mayor for many years, and on the school board before that. Bruce recently passed away, way too young, and it’s time to honor his legacy by naming a public park after him. I suggest we rename Wentwor...
An autograph can become valuable, but most people usually don’t collect them for the money or as an investment. They collect these cherished documents and put them somewhere in their personal treasure chest. An autograph can turn a fleeting moment with a celebrity into a lifetime memory. When doing some certainly unscientific local research, I got a variety of answers and reactions when I asked about seeking autographs. When she was 5 years old, my wife asked legendary Scanlon accordion p...
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This really happened ... On a bright, azure-sky Christmas day, 2003, my wife and I corralled the kids and the dog and strode out into the snowy landscape to find a good place to take a Christmas card photo. We'd fallen into the tradition of featuring just the kids in our annual photos because either Blythe or I would have to take the photo. And having just one parent in the photo would give the wrong impression. Eventually, we ended up at Spafford Park after unsuccessful attempts at Pinehurst,...
We worked at the same place for six years, but in different areas, so hadn’t met. Plus, I lived in Cloquet and he lived in Superior. Then I decided to take up archery hunting and a co-worker said to me, “You should talk to Rick Brill, he is a big bow hunter.” That moment forever changed my life. It was 2006, and I sent Rick an email, not really expecting a whole lot. Before I knew it, he was at my office door wanting to help me get prepared to take up bow hunting. That was the beginning of the most treasured friendship I have ever had. Rick...
It won’t be long before I can relax during the last few weeks of October, maybe get some yardwork done before the snow flies, clean the car, take a leisurely walk in the woods in our neighborhood. But for now, with a fourth-grader at home, fall means Halloween. It’s all-consuming in our house. Some of you may know Alexa, the internet-based voice-activated tool that’s become very popular in recent years. It’s like having the entire wealth of human knowledge at your disposal by simply asking....
The recent announcement that Community Memorial Hospital will close its Sunnyside Health Care Center came as a shock. The longtime nursing home serves some of our most vulnerable elders, and got high marks for doing so in a loving and compassionate manner. Being attached to the hospital was a plus — not only did it make emergency care more accessible, services such as occupational and physical therapy were only an elevator ride away. And ice cream at the Warming House was just down the hill. T...
People keep asking me what I’m doing with my building in the West End. It’s the original Barr Brothers funeral parlor on the corner of Avenue C and Vine Street. Most recently, it was the home of Carol and Gene Risdon’s The Rock Place store. For months now, the windows have been boarded over and some exterior canopies have been removed. I have lots of ideas. We haven’t had a restaurant in the West End since the terrific Avenue C restaurant closed after less than a year in business. Whateve...
I enjoyed reading your columns in the Sept. 29 issue of the Pine Knot celebrating National Newspaper Week. I value local newspaper reporting, that is why I subscribe to three local newspapers. As I listened to a radio program (the CBC’s “As It Happens”), I learned that northwest Canada and Alaska have lost three local newspapers over the last month: the Fort Nelson News, Alaska Highway News, and Dawson Creek Mirror. In December of 2022, the region lost the Anchorage Press. These were local and regional news sources that had many decades of pu...
Drop a line The Pine Knot News encourages readers to participate on these pages. Let your voice be heard by following these basic guidelines: • Letters to the editor should be kept to under 300 words. Longer pieces may be considered for a guest commentary, which should be about 600 words. • If you write a guest commentary, be sure to include some background information and any expertise you may have to lend credibility to your piece. • Items dealing with local issues will take first priority. • Letters over the word limits will be edited...
For many small-town residents, cemeteries host gatherings and remembrances that bring us together. On the western edge of Carlton County, on South Finn Road, the Lakeside Cemetery serves this purpose. It is well-managed by a team of elders, who keep track of plots and ensure that burials are properly situated and that headstones accurately record their inhabitants. We recently buried the ashes of my husband Rod's older brother Jim Walli (brother Jack's identical twin). Jim had served in Vietnam...
Given everything that’s been taking place on Capitol Hill, I’d guess you missed the announcement a few months back that the House Civility Caucus has been revived. It would be hard to call this earth-shattering news, but it’s a notable measure of hope. The caucus first came into being in 2018, when two members of Congress from Columbus, Ohio — Democrat Joyce Beatty and Republican Steve Stivers — launched the group with the idea that disagreement is inevitable in politics, but being disagreea...
I learned about monks during my time at Saint John’s University, a college near St. Cloud run by a Benedictine monastery. Being a monk is fascinating. They live a communal life, a true socialist society that actually works. One popular monk, Brother Willie, spent his evenings as the night watchman, with a toy “Sheriff” badge hanging off his overalls, checking doors and keeping an eye on things. Father Jerome was the abbott then, overseeing the university, prep school, liturgical press busin...
On Sept. 4, Labor Day, my 160-acre Nemadji Creek tree farm was in the direct path of the Carlton County Road 11 wildfire. Because of the quick and effective response, the damage to my woodlands was minimal and none of my pine and spruce plantations were burned. Over the subsequent days, I was in close contact with county law enforcement, and volunteer and professional firefighters from the local to the state level. At times there were up to 67 pairs of boots on the ground or in the air. I want to express my sincere thanks to those on the scene...
Autumn has been my favorite month since I was a child. I loved the bursts of orange and yellow. Raking up the leaves in our small Minneapolis yard. Piling them to jump in with neighbor kids. Putting on our tweener (between seasons) jackets. Feeling the chill on my cheeks. Anticipating the applesauce and cider my mom and dad were cooking up in the kitchen. And looking forward to seeing my schoolmates again. We're living on the crest of a glacial hill, with a moraine sloping down toward the west,...
The Court of Appeals met in Duluth recently, and I was lucky to watch it and attend a reception afterwards, meeting all three of the Court of Appeal judges hearing the cases. One of the cases involved the old Kozy Bar building in Duluth, as a group backed by one-time owner Eric Ringsred sued the city of Duluth, which had issued a demolition permit to have the building torn down. Regardless of how you feel about that eyesore in downtown Duluth or how much you miss having a beer and an argument...
I am writing to express my concern about a request by Ken Maki to have land rezoned from residential to highway commercial in the Sunnyside area behind Sunnyside Auto and Gordy’s Hi-Hat and Warming House. He wants to build a building large enough to house four dump trucks, according to Al Cottingham, the city zoning administrator. I have been his longtime neighbor for several decades without any issues. However, he has had two dump trucks parked at his home in recent years, which have been particularly disruptive to my son’s young family. The...
This week, and every week, newspapers are for you. Americans have more media options than ever. We are inundated with stories, memes, videos and promotions 24 hours a day. Most of us are on social media, which is built to provide an endless feed of content to keep us glued to our screens. And unfortunately, misinformation is prevalent and much of that content isn’t fact-checked, verified or professionally produced. The result is that we’re not always shown what we need to know, or the information that is most likely to impact our lives. Tha...
I’m disturbed by the attorney general in Texas. Recently, he was acquitted by the Texas legislature on corruption charges, even though every Texan who cares knows the man is corrupt. In fact, even the legislature who declined to convict him knows he’s guilty. So why did they acquit? Politics. Then, New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat, was indicted (again!) on corruption charges, and while a good number of his fellow party members are encouraging him to resign, his reaction has been to...
