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
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Carlton County's new home for its Sheriff's Office, courts and jail got its public unveiling last week. Too massive to cover behind a curtain, the new Carlton County Justice Center sat gleaming in front of the more than 100 guests who attended the outdoor grand opening. Among attendees Aug. 22 was Chief Justice Natalie Hudson of the Minnesota Supreme Court. She toured the facility, tripling up her "wows" when she walked into one of the three second-floor courtrooms. "Wow, wow, wow, this is... Full story
Jim and Carlie Nynas of Esko received a $25 gift certificate to Outdoor Advantage in Cloquet for being spotted for having an "I Think Knot" bumper sticker on their vehicle. The supporters of our independent, locally owned Pine Knot News were attending the grand opening of the Carlton County Justice Center last week....
A summer’s worth of cooling off between sides in the proposed consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts is coming to a close without any sense of how the districts expect to proceed. Both sides say they’re waiting to hear from the other. Neither side appears prepared to nudge talks forward. A clearer picture of the division began to appear following recent Pine Knot interviews, data requests and school board meetings. In short, Carlton wants consolidation to run through superintendents and Wrenshall does not, pre...
Ten months ago, the Pine Knot News reported on concerns Carlton County officials expressed about the potential for runaway health care costs for county employees starting in 2025. A high number of claims had forced the county to use 5- and 10.5-percent caps on premiums in 2023 and 2024, with the county facing an uncapped future. At risk was a higher tax levy and the hard decisions that could have resulted from trying to contain other costs. But based on what transpired Aug. 13 during the county board meeting in Cloquet, it’s safe to say, ...
Dan Reed's pickup truck figures to add a couple thousand more miles now that he's the leading vote-getter following Tuesday's primary election in District 5 in Carlton County. Reed and Alex French advanced to the Nov. 5 general election, receiving 37.6 percent and 25.3 percent of the vote. "I was very humbled," Reed said about seeing his name atop the ballot totals. Reed has been knocking on doors across the district, with a goal of reaching every door in every township. "The response,... Full story
The upcoming back-to-school issue of a popular Wrenshall publication will be its final print edition. Images, the monthly Wrenshall school newsletter that's distributed community wide, is moving to an online-only format. Beginning in October, Images will appear only on the school's website, isd100.net. The school board approved the move at its business meeting Monday. The move will save the district roughly $6,500 a year. Images publishes 10 times a year, with printing, delivery and postage...
Judge Rebekka Stumme offered no leniency Friday, Aug. 9 when she sentenced a 41-year-old Cloquet man to nine years in prison for cornering and attempting to assault a 12-year-old relative who was under his care. “You, sir, are the farthest things from amenable to treatment,” Stumme said in Sixth District Court in Carlton, denying Tony Allen Gohl’s plea for a lesser sentence. Now twice convicted of violent sexual encounters, Gohl received a “top of the box” sentence, based on state guidelines. The 108-month sentence followed Gohl’s jury convicti...
In the only Carlton County board primary to be decided during Tuesday's primary election, six candidates will vie for two spots in the Nov. 5 general election for District 5 commissioner. The position was left open earlier this year after Gary Peterson announced the end of his three-term run in the seat. Peterson is seeking to keep involved by running unopposed to become a soil and water supervisor. District 5 spans the western half of Carlton County, including Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and... Full story
For the first time in anyone's memory, Wrenshall school will head into the new school year with multiple sections of multiple elementary grades as enrollment continues to rise during the summer offseason. A kindergarten split was approved in July as the class hit 25 prospective students. Last week, the board agreed to split fourth grade, as it approached 30 students. The board will vote at its Aug. 12 business meeting to post a job opening for a second fourth-grade teacher at the school. "This...
Known for its hydroelectric power generation and appeal to kayakers, the Thomson Reservoir is soon to be the site of a $36 million construction project. Contractors are set to converge in August on the parking lot alongside Minnesota Highway 210 outside the Thomson Dam. They’ll be there through next summer, working to apply a layer of carbon pellets that will cover up and bind to contaminated sediments at the bottom of what is the St. Louis River. The process will prevent contaminants from t... Full story
Come Thursday, the city of Moose Lake will have officially adopted the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office as its law enforcement provider. Both the county board and Moose Lake city council approved a services agreement this week. The contract begins Aug. 1 and runs through the end of 2026. It stipulates the county will supply four deputies and a part-time clerical administrator to the city located on the county’s southern border with Pine County. They’ll be based out of the city’s former police headquarters in the city’s emergency response...
One of Carlton County's premier used bookstores resides in one of its least populous towns, where roughly 5,000 titles of inventory is more than 10 times the resident population. "As my son would say, 'We're a hidden gem,'" said Janis Martin, who was working the desk at Twice Told Tales in downtown Mahtowa last week. Twice Told Tales has been around since 2006, and moved into its charming cottage of a bookstore in the spring of 2023. A brainchild of Mahtowa Covenant Church's mission and outreach... Full story
Using stellar pitching, defense and hitting, a youth baseball team from Cloquet brought home a historic state title last weekend, winning its age group in the Gopher State Tournament of Champions. An unbeaten run through the tournament in Sartell, near St. Cloud, saw the Cloquet Lumberjacks 12-and-under AA baseball team beat Osseo-Maple Grove in the title game Sunday, 15-3. In doing so, it became the first baseball team in the history of the Cloquet Youth Baseball and Softball Association to... Full story
Law enforcement took center stage Monday at the Carlton County board’s first meeting in July. A series of public tours of the new $75 million Justice Center along County Road 61 in Carlton was announced for August. It was a surprising development, given an expected delay in the opening of a facility that will feature a courthouse, jail, and both sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices. “It’s so exciting,” board chair Susan Zmyslony said, later turning to jail administrator Paul Coughlin, who oversaw the multiyear construction project. “C... Full story
The Wrenshall school board converged Monday on Holyoke, where board members watched a sudden downpour and a whistling train outside, and were met by Wrenshall mayor Gary Butala. Butala agreed with the board that the city and school district ought to examine how to share snowplowing duties in the winter as well as fuel costs and access, already located on school district property. “We would like to share if we could with the school,” Butala said, inviting board member Eric Ankrum, head of the school’s building and grounds committee, to the J... Full story
Christopher Henagin wanted to have a say in how Carlton County addresses its housing crisis, and on Monday the county board granted his wish. Henagin and three others were unanimously appointed to the oversight board of the county's first Housing Trust Fund. "I've used real estate myself to get a leg up," Henagin, 36, said. "I was raised in poverty, and I brought myself up to middle class." A resident of Cloquet, Henagin was once a member of the One Roof Community Housing board in Duluth. One... Full story
Brady Slater [email protected] A pair of major projects took over the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College campus this spring and summer. One, the renovation of the commons area, is ongoing, while the other wrapped up earlier this month. As part of the Forest Stewardship Project, the college underwent a significant tree-thinning effort, dubbed a selective harvest. Built on the remnant timber plantation, the college’s tree thinning effort sought to improve fire safety and ... Full story
Earlier this month the Pine Knot reported on a proposal by Talon Metals to bring a nickel mine to Tamarack, near the border of Carlton County and Aitkin County. But it’s not the only mineral-based exploration being conducted in the area. Rio Tinto, the second-largest mining group in the world, has conducted an exploratory drill in Carlton County, outside Tamarack, in an attempt to locate bedrock that would be ripe for carbon sequestration. The area is part of the 11-mile Tamarack Intrusive Complex that has had 500 exploratory drills in s...
Erik Peterson does what he loves, consulting for grassroots advocacy in agriculture, the environment and social justice. It finds him regularly doing work with people all over the world, including as far away as Australia. All of it he does from his home off North Cloquet Road in Esko, since 2009. For some tasks, he's got to make sure his wife is not on the computer, so that his internet connection through telephone lines isn't disrupted. It was years before the Petersons learned that not all... Full story
The Wrenshall school board meeting Monday featured one of the more enthusiastic votes a board can give. Each of the five members exclaimed their affirmative vote to extend the contract for part-time superintendent Jeff Pesta. In doing so, the members lightly razzed the administrator about his loquacious manner — getting their money’s worth as far as the number of words he uses, they said. But thorough, detailed explanations were necessary to help get the district out of a $300,000-plus deficit last year. In accomplishing that, as well as ini...
An impasse between the Carlton and Wrenshall school boards is threatening consolidation efforts by the districts. The Carlton school board reached a consensus at its working session Monday to not have further discussion with Wrenshall until August at the earliest. An email later this week between superintendents - obtained by the Pine Knot News through a public records request - confirmed the Carlton position. "(B)ecause sending letters back and forth to each other doesn't seem to be getting us...
Pull into Tamarack, 36 miles west of Cloquet on Highway 210, and it’s easy to locate the publicly traded mining company that wants to extract nickel from deep beneath the grassy swamps that surround the town. Visible from the city park, what’s notable about Talon Metals headquarters is that it’s located in a small yellow house. Across from the office on Warren Street, there’s an open garage where workers process the company’s core samples. For a mining company, it looks an awful lot like a co... Full story
The candidate filing period for political races subject to a primary election ended on Tuesday, yielding a ballot with more than a few surprises. In Cloquet, councilors Lara Wilkinson, Iris Keller, Kerry Kolodge and Lyz Jaakola will all run unopposed, barring a write-in campaign mounted against any of them, on the Nov. 5 ballot. In Carlton County, the commissioners’ races are a tale of three different outcomes. To replace outgoing Dick Brenner in District 1, representing west Cloquet, Scanlon and Sawyer, Sarah Plante Buhs and Caleb Dunlap will...
Earlier this week at the group home, we experienced a harrowing moment. One of our residents fell from bed, screaming he was hurt. Lying tense on the floor as we assessed his condition, his vocalization turned to a new refrain, “I’m afraid!” We felt so bad for him. We know him well, and understand his history of traumatic falls. We consoled and comforted him until he calmed. The Cloquet Area Fire District paramedics were able to assess him, deem him unharmed, and help return him to bed. Our resident shared a cathartic conversation with Jorda... Full story
Members of the Carlton County board and the Fond du Lac tribal council are scheduled to meet in June. The entities meet twice annually, and the topic of how the county ought to host the meeting came up during the board’s March 14 meeting in Carlton. When Fond du Lac conducts the meetings, attendees are greeted with a catered meal. Historically, that has not been the case when the meetings are hosted by the county. “When they come here, we get them donuts and strawberries,” said county coordinator Dennis Genereau, who sought state guida...
