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
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 37
No one was hurt Saturday when the pilot of an experimental light sport aircraft made an emergency landing on the ice-covered Big Lake Saturday afternoon. The Carlton County Sheriff's Office described the aircraft as a "home-built fixed-wing aircraft" in a news release, explaining that the landing was planned after pilot Rich Mattson realized one of the landing gear wheels had broken off when he departed from Fish Lake in Fredenberg Township in St. Louis County. After originally planning to land...
Nearly 100 people appeared Tuesday at a public hearing in Wrenshall related to proposed RV park regulations. About 15 percent of attendees spoke at the hearing, doing so resoundingly and to repeated applause. Their message to the city's planning commission, which is also its town council: leave business owner Jeff Bloom alone. "For you to pick this man out and single him out and try to create ordinances to cause him to spend more money that could possibly cause him to go out of business is compl...
A fire at the site of Bergquist Imports along the Minnesota Highway 33 frontage road in Cloquet drew a large response Wednesday afternoon as smoke poured from the back of the complex of buildings. Steady smoke curled from the back, carrying across the four lanes of Highway 33 and blowing south. Firefighters with axes and steel wrecking bars were entering at the back of the complex, disappearing into thick smoke. "I'm a little shocked," said Barry Bergquist, who owns three buildings on the site,... Full story
Science fair offers time to shine, after months of hard work The rewards of scientific pursuit are many. There's the satisfaction of learning and contributing to a greater body of knowledge, the excitement of experiments, recognition for a job well done. And, in the case of the Northeastern Minnesota Regional Science Fair, sometimes there's swag, travel or cold hard cash. Students from five schools came together Saturday at the University of Minnesota Duluth to tell a small army of judges about... Full story
Firefighters arrived to find a pole barn engulfed in flames just after 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 21. According to a news release, Carlton County Sheriff’s Office deputies learned from the property owner that a tractor and recreational vehicle were also inside the pole building, along with hay for animals. No injuries were reported from the fire, and the homeowner removed the animals and none were injured. The barn was located on the 4100 block of Kari Road in rural Carlton County between Sawyer and Cromwell. Volunteer fire departments from C...
The annual medallion hunt is over. Tammy and Isaiah Ronkainen located the Groundhog medallion on Feb. 13 at Athletic Park near the old warming shack, and won $500 in local gift certificates. The hunt is sponsored by Cloquet Community Ed, WKLK radio and the Northland Foundation AGE to age program....
Considering raising poultry for the first time? Carlton County Extension educator Mercedes Moffett will give a presentation on the basic requirements for poultry production 6-7:30 p.m. March 6 at the Carlton County Transportation Building. Topics to include a brief introduction to different breeds, nutrition, housing, light considerations, disease and biosecurity. This class will be focused on layer production, but will briefly touch on broilers and ornamental species, an Extension news release said. The presentation is free. Each participant...
The Cloquet Community Band is seeking new members. If you have played an instrument, please check out the band. Practice is Monday evenings 7-8:30 p.m. at the Cloquet Presbyterian Church, 47 Fourth St., Cloquet. The band provides sheet music, and you bring your instrument. The band performs at a variety of community events (spring and winter concert, parades, nursing homes and other events as requested). If you have any questions, contact Becky at 218-206-4441.... Full story
March brings Spring Career Fair 2023 to Black Bear Casino’s Otter Creek Event Center. Taking place 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. March 14, the career fair will be focused on jobs attainable with general education that also provide thriving wages, benefits, and advancement opportunities, a promotional release said. The career fair is sponsored by the Cloquet-based Northeast Minnesota Office of Job Training, or JET. The event is open and free to the public. “We are showcasing and highlighting employers who hire workforce without a college degree,” said...
The Minnesota Department of Health announced that free at-home rapid Covid-19 tests are available to all Minnesota households through the state’s online ordering program. This will be the last chance for Minnesotans to get free tests before the program ends. Minnesotans will be able to order four tests per household. Order your free at-home rapid tests on mn.gov/covid19. Minnesotans can also place orders through the Minnesota Department of Health Covid-19 Public Hotline at 833-431-2053 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; a...
After tentatively scheduling a date for a follow-up public hearing on the proposed private road and private shared driveway ordinances at their first February meeting, the Thomson Township board of supervisors decided to take the date off the calendar and select a later date. On Feb. 2, township attorney David Pritchett urged the board to select a date to push the project along due to the large public engagement. At the time, the board selected March 9 for the follow-up hearing. However, at the township board meeting Thursday, Feb. 16, the...
Iris Keller, the newly appointed Ward 3 Cloquet city councilor, peppered city officials with questions Tuesday as she played catchup on the complicated issue of project labor agreements in the city of Cloquet. "You've been busy with the ins and outs of this for six years," Keller said to the other councilors. Largely informational and fairly short, there was no vote at the meeting Tuesday. Instead, there was a first reading of a proposal to eliminate the requirement for private businesses to...
Now seven weeks into the Minnesota legislative session, here are some highlights taken from weekly email updates provided by District 11A State Rep. Jeff Dotseth, R-Silver Township. Local issues Dotseth was chief author on bills advocating for legislation to appropriate funding to improve Highway 73 south of Cromwell, as well as a Cloquet Area Fire District request for $10 million in state funding toward a new ambulance and fire district facility. He also signed onto a bill to help farmers... Full story
Carlton school board members are facing the double whammy of both student numbers and state dollars dropping even more quickly than anticipated. At Tuesday’s Carlton school board meeting, district business manager Norm Nelis warned of a revised budget that increased the estimated deficit due mostly to declining enrollment. “We had budgeted for a reduction of 25 kids … the deficit for the revised budget we're putting out is more than what we have in the adopted [budget] primarily because the number of kids were down,” Nelis said. In fact, C...
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 opportuni...
A Barnum man faces charges of allegedly raping a young girl who had previously looked up to him as a father figure. Chad Arnold Connor, 47, was arraigned in Sixth District Court-Carlton County on Feb. 9 on two charges of felony first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person under 13. According to the criminal complaint, Connor is 33 years older than his alleged victim. Now a teenager, the girl told her mother and police in December that Connor had raped her starting when she was about 6 years old and would spend time at his trailer house...
A 48-year-old Cloquet man will appear in District Court in Carlton on March 8, facing a felony assault charge after allegedly striking and harming his girlfriend with a shovel in January. Daniel Ray Lundquist was arguing with his 45-year-old girlfriend outside 31 18th St. on Jan. 19, when the alleged assault took place. Lundquist was observed by a witness, who told police she saw him “really try to hurt” the woman. The witness described Lundquist in the criminal complaint as having two hands on the shovel and jabbing twice at the woman, str...
A Minnesota boy makes a new friend in an online game. He thinks it’s a cute girl around his age. After chatting for a while, she sends him a nude photo of herself and asks for one in return. He sends a photo and suddenly his new friend stops being friendly. She is actually an overseas criminal who demands money or says that the photo will be shared with his parents and friends on social media. Panicked and ashamed, the boy has no idea what to do next. This and similar scenarios play out every day in homes around Minnesota. Financial s...
As a youngster growing up in Superior and flying aircraft with my dad, I remember him saying, "If you want to wreck your airplane, put it on skis!" He should know. I watched him and his World War II Army Air Corps buddies plan wolf hunts by skiplane like they were planning a mission to bomb the ball bearing plants in Schweinfurt, Germany. Safety was always a concern, since they were shooting shotguns out of the open door of the craft as they swooped down low on the wolves. (Bounty hunting of... Full story
"Drill, baby, drill” is a fun slogan for those of us who can’t imagine a world without gasoline, and the protests over the Line 3 project cutting through Carlton County show that plenty of people would like to do away with petroleum altogether, as soon as possible. Both extreme positions are wrong, but they each have a point. Our reliance on oil won’t disappear any time soon, but if we don’t start planning for a world without petroleum, we’ll suffer at the unpredictable whims of future oi...
The Lumberjacks boys hockey team had more shots but fewer goals Tuesday as they fell to Coon Rapids, 6-3, in the quarterfinal round of the Section 7AA boys hockey playoffs. Cloquet-Esko-Carlton, the No. 4 seed, took on the No. 5 seeded Cardinals at Northwoods Credit Union Arena. The loss eliminated the 'Jacks from the playoffs. CEC got onto the board first when Lucas Rauner scored on a shot from the left point just 7 seconds into a power play. Patrick Dunaiski won the draw that led to the... Full story
The Moose Lake Area boys hockey team had the tall task of opening the Section 7A hockey tournament on the road at International Falls Saturday. The No. 7 seeded Broncos wasted little time scoring three first-period goals on their way to an 11-1 win over the No. 10 seeded Rebels. “It is a tough place to play,” said Rebels coach Chris Gamst. “We originally thought we’d be playing North Shore, and then at the last minute we had to travel to International Falls.” Earlier in the season, the Rebel... Full story
Having already sunk five 3-pointers on the night, Cromwell-Wright's Dylan Nyberg was probably the last player Carlton wanted to toss up a potential game-tying triple as the buzzer sounded Friday. Fortunately for the Bulldogs and their frenzied faithful, Nyberg's 25-footer from the right wing bounced off the backboard, the rim and finally fell to the floor before the blue-and-white heaved a collective sigh of relief in Carlton's 53-50 comeback victory. Following a missed free-throw from the... Full story
Wrenshall's Janae Sjodin passed her 1,000th point on Feb. 15, hitting a jump shot in a home game against Silver Bay in front of her ecstatic team and fans. Sjodin needed only one point Wednesday to hit the 1,000, but went far beyond that, finishing with 24 points and 12 rebounds. "Janae has played a significant role on this team and led in scoring last year and this year," said head coach Emma Grover. Sjodin wasn't the only Wrenshall player with a double-double - Laura Rubesh scored 10 points... Full story
Barnum's Rayna Klejeski and Allison Marine combined for 51 points Thursday night as the dynamic duo helped to lead the Bombers to their 21st win of the season, defeating Moose Lake/Willow River 65-31 in girls basketball. "It's a tough matchup for just about every team, and we had the same problem," said Rebels coach Zak Mathson of Barnum's two tall post players. "We tried to double them when they got down low, but if the double team got there late then they had an easy layup, or Rayna would hit... Full story
