Articles written by Mike Creger
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It's berry time in Carlton County
The weather is heating up and so is berry season. Despite struggles with keeping plants watered during what has been a dry spring and early summer in Carlton County, strawberries are ripe at Spectrum... Full story
Youth sports inching toward games
For some, the slow opening of youth sports in Minnesota during the COVID-19 pandemic comes too late. For others, it offers a ray of hope for action outside of practice. State health officials... Full story
School budgets offer tale of two districts
The two districts attempting to pull off a consolidation in the next year showed strikingly different anticipated budgets for the next year. The Carlton and Wrenshall school boards met in regular monthly sessions Monday night via online platforms....
Big Lake sewer project is 'dead'
The minutes from the Perch Lake Township annual meeting in March were stark. “The sewer project is dead.” After months of negotiations in 2019, the failure to reach a new joint powers agreement between the Big Lake Area Sanitary District and the...
Voices, silence mark vigil
Geese honked in unison overhead. Then, after they passed over, the few of the formation's stragglers gave fading squawks individually. Birds chirped from newly flowered fauna. There were the whirs... Full story
Carlton picks short-term superintendent
The Carlton school board has chosen its next superintendent to replace Gwen Carman, who is leaving for a job in southeastern Minnesota. John Engstrom said the Carlton job appealed to him because it's...
Budget is rosy for consolidated schools
School board members got a glimpse this month of what a budget for a Carlton and Wrenshall consolidated district might look like. Some rough data project a significant fund balance increase for school operations in a consolidation. With current...
County stung by stalemate at capitol
When the Minnesota Legislature ended earlier this week without passing major bonding and tax bills, those waiting for funding word in Carlton County had to feel the sting. The failure to meet the deadline, and the push into a likely special session i...
Consolidation plan headed to state
The school boards from Carlton and Wrenshall earlier this week approved in separate online meetings a consolidation plan to be sent to the Minnesota Department of Education. It’s a formal step in a process with many parts as the districts edge clos...
UPDATED: Grads gear up for drive-up ceremonies
The Cloquet school district made graduation ceremony plans before Minnesota Department of Health officials joined state education commissioners last week to announce guidelines for schools honoring... Full story
Song, video bring area musicians together
About 14 years ago, Kate Isles gave her partner in life and music, Bill Isles, some direction while they were driving in St. Cloud. "Don't go down by the bridge," Bill recalls Kate saying. "(And) I... Full story
Boards fine-tune school site plans
A joint committee made up of school board members from Carlton and Wrenshall districts is chipping away at site plans for a consolidated district. The boards have to submit a plan to the Minnesota Department of Education next week on what it will be...
State numbers confirm staggering job losses
Reflecting what all Minnesotans are seeing in their local economies during the COVID-19 “stay at home” orders, the jobless numbers that are coming out are startling and historic. And they are rising by the scores daily in counties across the... Full story
Carman resigns as Carlton superintendent
Gwen Carman, superintendent of the Carlton school district, has resigned. In a letter to school board chairwoman LaRae Lehto dated April 14, Carman said she had accepted the superintendent position in the Lewiston-Altura school district in...
Delivered ... at a distance
Things are a "lot different" at Carlton County post offices these days. Different from normal times. Of course, these are pandemic times, and the people who sort and deliver mail are trying to... Full story
Cloquet graduate has COVID-19 in her sights
Cloquet native Dr. Kelly Cawcutt is an assistant professor of medicine and board certified in critical care medicine and infectious diseases with an academic and clinic practice at University of... Full story
Carlton superintendent takes another job
Gwen Carman, superintendent of the Carlton school district, has resigned. In a letter to school board chairwoman LaRae Lehto dated April 14, Carman said she had accepted the superintendent position in the Lewiston-Altura school district in... Full story
Wrenshall lines up air quality, asbestos removal bids
The Wrenshall School Board earlier this week approved bids for indoor air quality improvements at the school in Wrenshall. The board accepted the low bid of $4,158,000 from Max Gray Construction out of Hibbing to improve air quality in the older part...
Churches find ways to connect despite social distancing
Can you imagine pastors Jeff Walther and Tom Brinkley preaching from the roof of St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Esko on Easter Sunday? Below them in the parking lot are parishioners in their cars... Full story
He helped a family, and likely himself
It was Christmas Eve and traffic was expectedly heavy on the interstate just north of Minneapolis. David Rice was headed home to Cloquet from a temporary construction job. He wasn't exactly in the...
Boards agree on consolidation plan, sort of
The Wrenshall school board wanted the full support of the Carlton school board this week when it comes to the next steps of the school district consolidation process. But some Carlton school board members are still lukewarm about the two-site plan....
Consolidation survey: A resounding 'yes'
Sue Peterson had some choice words about the survey results released this week regarding how residents feel about the possible consolidation of the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts....
Northern Pacific Railroad started in Carlton County 150 years ago
It was supposed to be an "impromptu" act, a quiet ceremony more for employees than the general public. There was likely good reason to keep things on the down-low. While the Northern Pacific Railroad...
House fires displace county residents
Mike Creger and Jana Peterson Fires this past week have displaced at least seven people in north Carlton County. A family of four in the lower unit of a duplex on the 100 block of 13th Street in Cloqu...
Carlton, Wrenshall residents say 'Yes!' to consolidation
The results are in and an overwhelming number of people who filled out a recent survey support the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts creating a consolidated district. Across the board, in age... Full story
