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
Tim Peterson began his job as Cloquet's city administrator last week. He's familiar with the area, coming from jobs in Moose Lake and Proctor.
Cloquet's new city administrator started work last week, but he's no stranger to the Cloquet area. Tim Peterson lives in Esko with his wife and their two children, ages 12 and 8, and had worked as the city administrator in Moose Lake for three and a half years before taking the Cloquet job. Prior to working in Moose Lake, he was deputy clerk finance director for the city of Proctor; before Proctor, he worked as finance director for the LifeHouse nonprofit that provides support to homeless and street youth in Duluth.
The new city administrator is bullish on Cloquet, and thinks the city is in a good place, despite the fact that a former city employee filed a lawsuit against the city in Peterson's first week on the job. He loves all the work that's been done on the parks, and is excited about future possibilities here.
The Pine Knot News sat down with Peterson for a just a few minutes before his first City Council meeting in Cloquet to learn a little more about the city's newest leader.
Q What do you like about being a city administrator?
A When I first got out of college, I thought I was going to be in accounting or finance for the remainder of my career. I quickly realized that I like administration or management. And with cities and local government, every day is different. Generally, somebody from the public comes in and says this or that is a problem and that's kind of where your day leads. I like that every day is kind of different than the last.
Q What made you want to apply for the job in Cloquet?
A Living in Esko, our family's pretty tied to the area and we rely on the city of Cloquet for all those normal things a family needs. We use the parks and trails and all that the community has to offer.
Other than that, I'm excited about the opportunity that Cloquet has. There's a large number of projects that are getting done in the community: the parks have had a large investment into them; there's a couple of road projects that have been done recently and a couple coming up that are exciting. I think that the city really has a great opportunity and is actually in a really good place. The staff are fantastic, very knowledgeable and welcoming, so I'm pretty excited.
Q If you could hang out or have dinner with any three living people, who would it be? It should be someone you don't usually eat with.
A One. Tiger Woods. I grew up in the era of "Tiger Woods was greater than life." When I got into golf. I remember watching him beat everyone so soundly that it left no doubt that he was the greatest golfer. I would have said Arnold Palmer, but he passed away.
Two. Paul McCartney. I took a ridiculous elective in college called the Music and Lives of the Beatles. Basically we were required to watch The Beatles Anthology and listen to their music. In class we sat and discussed everything about the Beatles. Turns out I love the Beatles and it was one of my favorite classes. John isn't alive, so it has to be Paul.
Three. Lou Holtz. First, I love Notre Dame football. Second, Lou has some amazing quotes and speeches through his time. Third, the guy is just oddly funny and seems like he would be cool to hang out with.
