Council adopts preliminary levy

​​At a short regular meeting Monday, the Cloquet City Council officially adopted a 2022 budget and a proposed levy increase of $109,400, or 3.49 percent. The levy can’t go up from that percentage when the levy is set in December. A public hearing on the budget and levy will be held at the Dec. 7 regular meeting.

Running the numbers in the future will be new finance director Katie Bloom. She was approved by the board this week after the city’s first choice, Joshua Bailey, decided to keep his auditing job with the city of Duluth. Longtime finance director Nancy Klassen will be retiring Sept. 30. Bloom has been the city administrator in Moose Lake since June 2020, replacing Tim Peterson, who took the job as Cloquet’s city administrator. Before the top job, Bloom was Moose Lake’s deputy clerk and finance director. She also has experience as an accountant at Black Bear Casino Resort.

As expected, the council approved a hockey facility lease with the Cloquet school district. The three-year deal, approved by school board members last week, will feature a 3-percent increase each year, or $138,808 to $147,261 in the third year. The city and school agreed to meet more regularly about operations of the facilities.