Familiar face up for fire chief

Following interviews in April that resulted in a renewed and somewhat altered search for a new leader, Cloquet Area Fire District board members interviewed two new fire chief/CEO candidates on Wednesday.

One of them, Brian Fritsinger, is familiar to Cloquet residents, as he led the city for nearly two decades as city administrator before taking a job as deputy county administrator in neighboring St. Louis County in 2017.

Candidate George Esbensen currently works as the director of sales and marketing for a company in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He was fire chief and director of emergency prepare...