Our view: Thumbs up, down

THUMBS UP to Cloquet public schools and Members Cooperative Credit Union for working toward an agreement on naming rights in return for getting $4.25 million in athletic facilities upgrades across the finish line.

MCCU has sent a letter of intent to the school board to pay $1.25 million in exchange for naming rights, plus up to $300,000 for a new scoreboard.

The proposed arrangement would run for 20 years and give the now regionally based MCCU exclusive naming rights to the campus stadium as well as a host of other on-site sponsorship opportunities.

As it stands, the proposed upgrades include replacing the current grass football and soccer field with turf and widening the field for soccer, redoing and widening the track, relocating and doubling the tennis courts from four to eight, moving the discus and shot put platforms to the current tennis courts, reconfiguring seating in the bleachers, and adding a new scoreboard.

Existing funding includes $2 million in bonds to be paid back with capital facility funds from the state rather than local tax levies, and $1 million in federal pandemic relief funds.

Board members were right to carefully scrutinize the proposed naming rights deal, and equally correct in being agreeable to most of it. The deal looks like a win-win.

THUMBS DOWN to St. Louis County Sheriff Gordon Ramsay for soliciting Rep. Jeff Dotseth’s potential “no” vote on proposed gun legislation. The legislation, House File 396, would impose penalties on the reckless storage of firearms, and require locking devices be included with firearm transfers. Whatever your thoughts on gun control, Ramsay overstepped when he wrote a letter seeking the Carlton and St. Louis county Republican’s vote. Sheriff is a nonpartisan elected position, and for Ramsay to pen the letter — one rife with conservative rationale — on his first day in office, Jan. 3, was too strong an indication of where his true allegiances could lie. Ramsay courted all voters when he ran for the nonpartisan office, and he failed to consider his entire constituency with one of his first acts as sheriff.

THUMBS UP to the Wrenshall school board. Featuring a trio of newly elected members, the board did good diligence by surveying community members on how to approach the district’s superintendent search. While the board deals with $300,000 in budget cuts due to sagging enrollment, board members also are getting involved in community fundraising for items such as basketball court shot clocks, which will be mandatory to conduct home games in 2023-24. The board is in the process of reviewing and updating scores of policies — some of which hadn’t been visited in nearly 15 years. It has also created transparency by adding open study sessions. Finally, the board is tackling the district’s messy and spendy technology situation by putting the brakes on unchecked invoices, while at the same time digging deep to understand the school’s technology instead of just leaving it to the minds of IT authorities.

THUMBS UP to Kendra Kelley for resuming her sprinting career following one year off to care for her newborn son. A Cloquet graduate, Kelley competes for North Dakota State University and is turning in a banner indoor season in her return to the track, breaking school records and finishing on the podium wherever she goes. Last week, she set a new NDSU record in the 200-meter dash, running the race in 23.88 seconds at a meet in Grand Forks. In a world that is increasingly nontraditional, Kelley is a role model for athletes, young parents and people everywhere who aim to achieve personal dreams while juggling family demands as well.