County Commissioner won't seek re-election

In announcing he won’t seek reelection in November, Gary Peterson unofficially kicked off the local election season Monday during the Carlton County board meeting.

“It’s time for me to graduate from my county commissioner job,” said Peterson, a longtime educator who still substitute teaches in the area.

Peterson, 71, will have served 12 years, or three full terms, on the board by the time his term representing western Carlton County wraps up at the end of the year.

“Twelve years is long enough,” Peterson told the Pine Knot News. “When I see what goes on in Washington, D.C., where some of these people stay in these jobs forever, I don’t agree with that. It’s good to have turnover.”

Peterson’s announcement comes roughly a month before the opening of the candidate filing period, which starts May 21 and runs through June 4.

John Peura, of Moose Lake, announced on Wednesday his intention to file for the District 5 seat. District 5 represents the western half of Carlton County, including Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and Moose Lake. The candidate and others will be profiled by the newspaper at a later date.

Districts 1 and 3 also will be up to the voters to fill. Incumbents are District 1 commissioner Dick Brenner, representing west Cloquet, Scanlon and Sawyer, and District 3 commissioner Tom Proulx, representing most of Cloquet. Their terms conclude at the end of this year. Election day is Nov. 5, with any primary elections scheduled Aug. 13.

A 1971 Barnum graduate, Peterson taught social studies and government during his full-time career as a teacher, and he said it’s important to give other voices a chance.

“We’re so close to the people as commissioners,” he said. “One of the things I’ve been proud of is that for 12 years my phone number is right out there. I have been available to my constituents, and anybody in Carlton County, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”

Born in Mahtowa, Peterson and his wife, Barb, live on County Road 6. Barb is a beekeeper and the couple likes to garden. Both their families have more than 100 years of history in the county.

“We’re pretty outdoorsy people,” Peterson said. “We like spending time on our property.”

Peterson joined the board in 2013, after defeating longtime incumbent Ted Pihlman, of Moose Lake, who served 28 years in the seat.

“My whole campaign was people need a choice,” Peterson said. “Ted did a good job. The only reason I was able to win is I door-knocked on every house in the district.”

Peterson won that first election by 111 votes.

He went on to win twice more, running unopposed in 2016, and handily defeating Alex French in 2020, winning 67 percent of the vote.

He found county work to be engaging, but also intense — both in terms of the heavy volume of committee assignments and the reaction from constituents.

“It is a commitment and takes up quite a bit of time,” Peterson said. “It’d be a very difficult job for a person working full-time.”

A basketball official, the oldest in the Lake Superior region, he said, Peterson employed his thick skin when listening to upset residents or reading angry emails.

“You’ve always got somebody mad at you,” he said. “But you have to listen to people, and I’ve always pushed that we don’t rush into things real fast before we get public input.”

Before he announced his decision not to seek reelection Monday, Peterson was atop one of his annual soapboxes — advocating for No Mow May.

“When I grew up on the farm, I had to mow lawn … and I mowed in the middle of the day,” he said. “I was driving over and killing bumblebees. And what I learned now is pollinators go in in the evening. That’s the time that I mow now, is later in the evening. When my wife’s bees have returned to the hive, a lot of native ones do, too. If we can be aware of protecting our pollinators, it’s important.”

Courthouse renamed

Also Monday, the county board unanimously agreed to rename the Carlton County Courthouse, since the new Justice Center is opening this fall.

The board agreed to rename the building Carlton County Historic Courthouse. It will be designated as such on maps and future signage.

The $75 million Justice Center is currently under construction, and will feature a new jail, courthouse and Sheriff’s Office. In renaming the old courthouse as “historic,” the board wanted to be sure that folks were directed to the correct location once the Justice Center opens along County Road 61 in Carlton.