Articles written by Mike Creger
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Cards shown at school merger meeting
There was history. There was agreement. There were dull-as-unbuttered-toast moments. And, like a main event, the moment everyone had been waiting for - direct opinions from each school board member...
Talking turkey vultures
I have always had an eye on the old sheds sitting in the meadow at North Cloquet Road and Midway Road. They are so photogenic in different lights each day. So, with the camera in the car and tooling...
Wrenshall, Carlton boards to meet
The full boards from the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts will meet July 9 to discuss the possibilities of consolidation. The public meeting begins at 7 p.m. at South Terrace Elementary School in Carlton. There will be no public comment...
Carlton schools budget stays red
Despite making $143,000 in cuts, the Carlton school board faces an approval Monday of a 2020 budget that shows the district $580,809 in the red when comparing expenditures versus revenue. At a discussion meeting Monday, business manager Renee...
Carlton schools continue course toward consolidation
The Carlton school district is flirting with the possibilities of consolidation with Cloquet as discussion with Wrenshall has ebbed and flowed over the past few years. At the school board meeting Monday, there was some back-and-forth about how...
Big Lake sewer plan remains at an impasse
After years of study and infrastructure planning, the Big Lake Area Sanitary District is having trouble getting over the final hurdle in cleaning up a lake that is surrounded by failing residential sewer systems. The district has been trying to get...
Liquor store ownership change remains a family affair
There is some celebrating going on at Cold One Liquor in Cloquet this weekend. It's billed as a "new ownership grand opening" but the faces at the 15-year-old store will be familiar. Dean and Alison...
Wrenshall drops teacher position to deal with deficit
The Wrenshall school board on Monday night passed a resolution to not renew a contract for a probationary elementary school teacher. The move was discussed the week earlier at the committee of the whole meeting as a way to erase a $43,313 deficit in...
One football team for Carlton, Wrenshall?
A historical sports co-operative between schools in Carlton and Wrenshall could be approved as early as Monday by district school boards. Football coaches and activities directors from both schools made presentations to the public in Carlton and the...
Cloquet officially designates 'school forest'
The largest classroom at Cloquet schools is poised to receive some expert help from the state, and all the Cloquet School Board needed to do is give the classroom a name. This week, the board approved designating the 15 acres of woods, fields and...
Utility tax payback cases add up
Two recent resolutions in Minnesota Tax Court are part of a trickle that is expected to lead to a flood for taxpayers in Carlton County and in a swath of counties to the northwest. In early March, the tax court in St. Paul’s Ramsey County affirmed...
Wrenshall students have their say on school plans
Sometimes, it's the most obvious thing that can be neglected. In the past two years, the Wrenshall school district has offered up two referendums to make improvements at its K-12 school. Part of that...
Legendary Scanlon liquor store sold
Gramma Polo's Bottle Shoppe has been a family-owned business for 73 years. Come May 1, that will change. Polo's has been purchased by neighbor Kwik Trip, which will run its third liquor operation in...
Carlton County women face drug charges
Two Carlton County women are facing seven felony drug counts after a traffic stop in southwestern Minnesota earlier this month revealed the pair was traveling with 50 pounds of marijuana and marijuana wax used in vaping, police reported. Asia Ann...
Esko shines at robotics regional
Among the din of the pits in Pioneer Hall in Duluth, adjacent to the DECC Arena where robots were going head to head before a raucous crowd, the SubZero robotics team from Esko was quietly and systema...
Annual township meeting tradition continues Tuesday
One of the oldest traditions in the history of Minnesota carries on Tuesday in the annual township meetings. The township system of government was established as part of the Northwest Ordinance of...
Building bond vote will return in Wrenshall
The Wrenshall school district will offer the third building bond proposal in two years to voters in May. While some might think of the past two failed attempts to raise taxes as a warning from residents, school board members have looked at the votes...
New music classes get children in a development groove
It's a wonder what Ruthie Breuer might get up to with two good legs. She was infectious enough Monday morning, despite wearing a walking boot on her left leg, to get nearly a dozen toddlers jamming...
'Blue Zones' pitched in county as way to improve community health
Pine Knot NewsA bad economy may have meant good timing for people in the far southern Minnesota city of Albert Lea. In the depths of the economic downturn that began in 2008, city leaders decided to t...
With districts locked in, consolidation is out
The exchange of letters in the past six months between the school boards in Carlton and Wrenshall — to find common ground in consolidation talks — reached an icy end this week. Carlton Superintendent Gwen Carman says her district is moving on....
Yep, there's been a lot of snow this month
"Extreme" would be the proper term for the 2019 side of winter so far. More than 20 inches of snow in the first two weeks of February came on the heels of a polar plunge of minus-20s temperatures at...
Carlton school board discusses possible budget cuts
Carlton school board member Jennifer Chmielewski captured the recent grim discussion about the district’s budget next year. “What are you going to say?” Her plain question was directed at Superintendent Gwen Carman, who is burdened with the...
Will new year bring thaw to Wrenshall, Carlton school talks?
Talk of consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts has been going on for nearly 60 years, starting with a study done in 1960. The debate on whether to join forces or not outlasted the Cold War, and “cold” would be an apt...
'The man who was Santa Claus'
They came in droves to Zion Lutheran Church in Cloquet. On this Wednesday in mid-September 1947, shops and factories closed, children eschewed school. There, at the church, flowers - some paid for by...
Cloquet Goodwill store to close
Eleven people will be out of jobs this holiday season as the Goodwill store in Cloquet will close Dec. 22 after more than 30 years of operation here. "Economically they just couldn't do it anymore,"...
