The year that was 2019

How does one rank the top stories from an entire year? Are calculations made in terms of long-term health, dollars spent, numbers of people affected? What about long-term historical effects, or maybe Facebook clicks?

No matter what metric you choose, 2019 was an eventful year in Carlton County, with elected and appointed officials making changes, kids smoking again and building moves that will stand for generations to come.

Rather than ranking our top stories of 2019, we chose to place them in a roughly chronological order. Remember that although a decision might have been made at a certain point in time, its implications can reverberate throughout the year and even over a lifetime.

Vaping

It's impossible to put a timeline on vaping - the use of e-cigarettes to inhale various substances including nicotine - but it was certainly on the rise in Carlton County in 2019.

Tim Prosen, assistant principal at Cloquet High School, calculated that he dealt with five vaping incidents over the 2017-18 school year. At the start of the school year in 2018, he handled five in the first week of school. "Sometimes I find five in a day now," he said in a May 2019 interview.

According to a 2018 Minnesota Health Department survey, Minnesota youth tobacco use is going up for the first time in 17 years, with 26 percent of high school students using some form of nicotine or tobacco, up from 24 percent in 2014. Youth e-cigarette use was up 50 percent during that same timeframe.

A 2016 Minnesota Department of Education study dug even further and found that more than one in three Cloquet 11th-graders had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days.

Ask high school students now, three years later, and they'll tell you that number is much higher. It also crosses all student populations.

It's not just an issue locally. In 2019, lawmakers in cities and counties across the state passed laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products, e-cigarettes or vaping devices to anyone under the age of 21, with the Carlton County Board of Commissioners passing its own resolution unanimously during their Dec. 23 meeting. President Trump even signed a bill this month that will set the age for tobacco and e-cigarette sales at 21 years old effective September 2020.

New faces

Public officials elected in November took office in January and made their mark fairly quickly in some cases.

Under Lauri Ketola - who had defeated longtime incumbent Thom Pertler in November - the Carlton County Attorney's Office ramped up its efforts to make sure law enforcement officials in its jurisdiction could pass muster on the defense stand.

After hiring a consulting attorney with expertise in Brady/Giglio issues to help them conduct integrity reviews, the county attorney's office dismissed a case in February that resulted in a man imprisoned for second-degree assault being set free, plus seven more post-conviction dismissals.

All of the cases were dismissed as a consequence of dishonest behavior by former Cloquet police officer Scott Beckman, who was disciplined after lying on a search warrant application. Such behavior falls under the purview of two different Supreme Court cases - Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States - which requires prosecuting attorneys to disclose any material that could help exonerate a defendant of guilt, specifically including misconduct findings involving law enforcement officers or information that would impeach the character or testimony of a witness.

A second Cloquet police officer, Detective Sgt. Scott Holman, was identified by the county attorney's office as a Brady/Giglio cop due to past misconduct issues in 2019. Holman was dismissed by the Cloquet City Council (4-2) in June, and lost an appeal of that dismissal in arbitration in November. His attorney, Mike Padden, has said they intend to file a lawsuit against Ketola, Carlton County and the city of Cloquet.

In addition to dismissing Holman, the Cloquet City Council (with several new members) in 2019 hired a third-party investigator to look into allegations by former police chief Wade Lamirande of wrongdoing by police chief Jeff Palmer, and lesser claims against city employees Aaron Reeves and James Barclay. Later the council also voted to have Soldo investigate Lamirande's claims against city councilor Steve Langley.

The council voted to exonerate Barclay, Reeves and Palmer of all charges, after investigator Michelle Soldo reported that they could not be substantiated. The council voted 5-0 in June to censure Ward 5 councilor Langley, after Soldo substantiated Lamirande's claims that Langley had sent an unwanted text message to Lamirande and contacted and complained to Lamirande's current boss in Langley's capacity as city councilor. The council resolution stated that Langley had violated the City Council Values statement. The censure had no tangible impact, such as a fine, suspension or loss of voting rights.

Consolidation?

Talk of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts has been going on and off for nearly 60 years, starting with a study done in 1960.

The past year saw that dance intensify again, starting with a letter in November 2018 from Wrenshall that stated the school district would consider a two-site consolidation option. Carlton replied that the discussion could wait until its new board members were seated in 2019. Talks started again in February.

Since that time Wrenshall hasn't budged much, and Carlton continues to explore other options, including talks with Cloquet about cooperative efforts and even thoughts of dissolving the high school and operating only a preK-8 school system.

The districts did take a giant step toward a more collaborative future, however, by combining forces for football this fall, a move that was greeted with great enthusiasm by residents of both districts. The new team, named the Raptors, wore combined school colors of blue and orange and went undefeated in the regular season, won the first playoff game and lost the second.

Now the two districts have agreed to fund a survey of residents before proceeding any further. According to a press release, every household will receive a paper survey in the mail during the week of Jan. 6. Residents can either complete the paper survey and mail it back to School Perceptions in the envelope provided, or take the survey at the website listed on the survey.

If those results are positive regarding consolidation, the two school districts plan to lobby the Minnesota Legislature term starting in February to acquire nearly 50 percent in aid for the nearly $40 million in estimated costs toward consolidation and school renovations.

Election flaws

News on Jan. 3 that Minnesota Sen. Tony Lourey was leaving his District 11 seat to become commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services sparked a fast and furious race for his senate seat.

The accelerated timeline of the special election also created challenges for everyone from the candidates themselves to political parties and county officials tasked with running the election.

The primary was held fewer than three weeks after the announcement. Lourey's son, Stu, defeated retired newscaster Michelle Lee by 235 votes, but 413 mail-in ballots arrived too late to be counted. The total number of late, uncounted mail-in primary ballots was just 54 ballots fewer than the 467 mail-in and absentee ballots that were actually counted in Carlton County for the District 11 primary election.

The fact that the Duluth post office no longer handles first-class mail was certainly a factor in the delayed ballots. Instead of going from Carlton to Duluth to Cromwell, for example, mail now heads south to the Twin Cities to be sorted before coming back to Carlton County for delivery, sometimes taking as long as five days from door to door.

There were fewer problems with the Feb. 5 special election mail-in ballots, in part because many people voted at the Carlton County Courthouse instead of mailing their ballots. Still, Carlton County auditor Paul Gassert received 144 late ballots in the week following the election.

The election itself upset a longtime DFL-held seat, as Republican Jason Rarick defeated Stu Lourey with 8,127 votes to Lourey's 7171. Legal Marijuana Now candidate John "Sparky" Birrenbach garnered 298 votes.

Oh, and the appointment that started everything? Tony Lourey stepped down from his new position at Human Services in July, and we still don't really know why. Ongoing reports indicate that the department has long-standing problems.

Train derails

A BNSF train derailed 40 of 121 loaded coal cars at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 16, on the Fond du Lac Reservation along the St. Louis River near Pine Island, about four miles west of Cloquet. Several of the derailed cars were on their sides near or partially in the frozen St. Louis River, with some coal spilling out into the river.

While BNSF officials responded very quickly to the derailment with cleanup efforts, officials from the Reservation were unhappy that the train company did not include them in the response.

"We have jurisdiction; it's within our lands," said Kevin Dupuis, chairman of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. "We are the lead agency and we should have been contacted. There should have been collaboration to ensure the cleanup is done the right way within the eyes of the band, so we take the precautions that are needed with the environment and, most importantly, the safety issues."

A week later, the tribe and the railroad were working together and by Feb. 27, approximately 85 percent of the coal spilled on land by the derailment of 40 train cars Feb. 16 had been recovered. An undetermined volume of coal remained locked between ice layers and under the ice in the river, where a sediment containment wall had been built. In May, the BNSF reported that the derailment was caused by a broken wheel. A railroad spokesperson said 99 percent of the coal had been removed at that time.

Police shuffle

Leadership at the Cloquet police department was in flux in 2019, with police chief Jeff Palmer going on leave effective April 16 and remaining on leave until Aug. 8, when he resigned.

Patrol commander Carey Ferrell was acting chief for five months in Palmer's absence and following his resignation, but then Ferrell himself went on leave effective Sept. 16. Since that time, investigative/administrative commander Derek Randall has been acting chief.

The council decided to wait until new city administrator Tim Peterson starts Jan. 13 to begin a search for a new police chief.

Because of retirements, other officers going on leave and the dismissal of detective Scott Holman in June, the police department faced ongoing staffing shortages in 2019. Randall reported to the Cloquet City Council in November that the department was seven officers down from its approved staffing levels. They have hired one officer since then and are in the process of interviewing candidates for other positions.

Building boom

In June - after months of renovation - City of Cloquet and police department employees began moving out of their longtime separate buildings into a new joint facility in the former Members Cooperative Credit Union building at 101 14th Street.

In total, the purchase and renovation of the building cost the city close to $4 million, but it was $2.4 million less than the anticipated $6.4 million it would have cost the city to carry out its original plans. Those plans included tearing down the fire department side of the Public Safety Building at 508 Cloquet Ave. and rebuilding and remodeling the shared facility into a police department only.

Instead of having to vacate the building by the end of 2019, the Cloquet Area Fire District took over the building in June. CAFD chief Kevin Schroeder said it was a good thing for the immediate future, as plans to build an entirely new $10-$12 million building had been held up by the state legislature in 2018, but not the answer to the fire district's long-term needs.

"What this building does is buys us some time to look at things, slow down a step and make sure we do things right," Schroeder said.

In 2019, the state legislature passed the language allowing the fire district to bond for building funds, but in June Schroeder said the fire district needs to take its time and reevaluate, he said, pointing out that the fire district has grown since that plan was drawn up, with the addition of East and West Brevator.

An estimated $2.4 million addition to the Cloquet Public Library is going up fast. In January, the library got news it had received a $784,000 library expansion grant from the state of Minnesota. In September, Cloquet city councilors committed to bonding for $1.5 million to help pay for the project. In addition, the library foundation promised $250,000 toward construction costs - money they already have - plus they are in the middle of a capital campaign to help raise funds and donations for furnishing the library.

The new addition will add flexible meeting space to the library that can be divided into one- to three rooms, a dedicated children's area, a dedicated teen area and spaces for comfortable seating, along with many other improvements to aging ventilation and heating systems that might not be as visible. The expansion should be complete by the summer of 2020.

Honorable mention

• Weather: Spring of 2019 saw big snowstorms in February, there was flooding in southern Carlton County in September and two snow storms before and after Thanksgiving dumped over 2 feet of snow on Carlton County.

• CAT-7 goes off air for months: The local cable access television station, CAT-7, went off the air following a move from the longtime studio space at the high school to the new city hall building. Cloquet city councilors learned that a previous council - along with Thomson Township supervisors, Scanlon City Council and Carlton City Council - had signed a joint powers agreement that gave the cable commission the power to govern CAT-7, drawing into question the city administrator's moves to cut staffing at the station without ever meeting with the commission. City attorney Frank Yetka argued that the JPA was invalid because it had never been implemented and the council effectively decided to ignore the agreement and continue to consider the station as part of the city's responsibilities. CAT-7 is now broadcasting again, but the rebuilding process continues since key components were damaged in the move.

• Sports teams go to State: The Cloquet girls softball team took third at state in 2019, just like the Lumberjacks boys golf team. Other teams that competed in state tournaments included the Esko and Cromwell boys basketball teams; Cloquet/Carlton girls soccer; Esko, South Ridge and Moose Lake/Willow River football teams; as well as numerous athletes from Carlton County who went to state individually in track, tennis, wrestling, cross country and alpine and Nordic skiing.

• Esko grad Karson Kuhlmanis part of the Boston Bruins, which played in the Stanley Cup final, losing to St. Louis.

• County auditor/treasurer Paul Gassert retired May 31 after 29 years as county auditor.

• Businesses ebb and flow: Two motels were razed in Cloquet and Scanlon, longtime Gramma Polo's Bottle Shoppe was sold to Kwik Trip, the Esko Self Serve at Esko's Corner closed in September and NE BBQ Bar and Grill closed in October. Essentia Health announced it will open a clinic in Cloquet in 2020 and Community Memorial Hospital and the Raiter Clinic are joining together effective Jan. 1. In Moose Lake, Essentia was selected to "partner" with Mercy Hospital.