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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In addition to local newspapers, political junkies in Cloquet frequently sought another avenue for the latest candidate comments in advance of last fall's election: CAT-7 TV. The local community access television channel - which broadcasts on Channel 7 for Mediacom subscribers and YouTube for those who don't use cable TV - had a starring role in election coverage, from broadcasts of Cloquet City Council meetings, to candidate forums, to the local political talk show "Harry's Gang," which hosted...
Florence Frances (Butkiewicz) Meger passed away shortly after midnight on January 17, 2019. She was 96 when she died. Dear Mom, Thank you for everything. You were an incredible woman - strong, patient and loving. You were devout in your faith and never had a bad word to say about anyone. You loved to connect with people. You sent weekly handwritten letters to each of your children. You could talk to anyone. There wasn't a trip for groceries or a stop at the bank or any errand at all that didn't... Full story
STORY UPDATED FROM PRINT VERSION: The primary election for the Minnesota District 11 Senate seat is Tuesday, and many in Carlton County didn't get their mail-in ballots until Friday or Saturday. That's a problem, because there's no mail service Monday because of the MLK holiday. Carlton County Auditor Paul Gassert recommends people who didn't already mail their ballots bring them directly to the auditor's office at the Carlton County Courthouse today by 5 p.m. Monday (yes, they're open for... Full story
Our water is back! We were out for six days, but thanks to my husband and son, it was restored and is working better than ever. It seems that there was a crack in the water pump for years, and now with the new pump we have water, and the water pressure is really great too! The pump must have frozen when the power was off for several hours last week and caused the problem. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a public holiday. It is a day off for most of us, and schools and most businesses are closed....
Kids in snow pants and race suits were flying off the ski jumps at the Joe Nowak Ski Area all weekend long, as the Cloquet Ski Club hosted back-to-back competitions on Saturday and Sunday at the city's Pine Valley Park. Skiers, jumpers and their coaches traveled to Cloquet from three different states - Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois - representing seven different teams in the Central Division for ski jumping and Nordic combined. Of course, there were even more homegrown Cloquet competitors,... Full story
Leslie Brower “Les” Paul, 74, formerly of Cloquet, Minn., passed away Jan. 1, 2019 in Tyler, Texas. He was born Feb. 28, 1944 in Baltimore, Md. to Richard Charles Paul and Elmer Pritchett Brower Paul. Les was a longtime resident of Cloquet. He retired from the U.S. Air Force and worked with Mercy Ship for seven years, then served with Calvary Commission in Lindale, Texas, where he and his wife Sylvia resided. He was preceded in death by his parents; a brother, John Paul; granddaughter Ashley Williams; and his father- and mother-in-law, Eino and... Full story
At last, the first baby born in 2019 at Community Memorial Hospital has graced the new year with her presence. Harper Grace Frank arrived at 11:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 10, weighing in at 5 pounds and 12 ounces, and 18.5 inches long. Her parents are Allie and T.J. Frank, and she joins siblings Addison, age 31/2, and Lilian, 18 months, in the family's Cloquet home. Harper's maternal grandparents are Leslie Solseth of Cloquet and the late Andy Doble. Her paternal grandmother is Michelle Norton of...
"My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style." ~ Maya Angelou For many of us, life sometimes becomes mere survival. We feel that each day is like the one before ... going to work to make the money to pay the bills that enable us to live and be able to go to work to make the money to pay the bills. Over and over, ad infinitum. However, there are also many people who have found their passion, something... Full story
Sometimes you just have to do it yourself. Longtime Cloquet Senior High School theater director Kevin Hamre was so frustrated with the selection of one-act plays - which he called "ridiculous junk ... with no meaning, purpose or expression" - that he decided to take matters into his own hands, and simply wrote his own, naming it "The Beat Goes On." According to Hamre, three different families with different backgrounds and professions come together in this story - and they have one thing in...
Marking the end of another year, the Carlton County Board of Commissioners reorganized and elected new chairs and vice-chairs for the board and the Committee of the Whole, and made committee assignments. Following the tradition of rotating the chair position among the five commissioners, Cloquet’s District 1 Commissioner Dick Brenner was unanimously elected chair for 2019. Brenner was elected 26 years ago and is the longest-serving board commissioner. He spent most of his working career first at Northwest Paper and then later at Potlatch. He c...
Rhonda Reneé Jacobson, 55, of Wrenshall, Minn. died Jan. 10, 2019 in Solvay Hospice house, Duluth, Minn. Visitation: 5-7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17, and continuing at 9 a.m. until the 10 a.m. memorial service Friday, Jan. 18, all at the Cremation Society of Minnesota Chapel, Duluth. _________________________ Donald Joe Criley, 82, Sturgeon Lake, Minn. died Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. Visitation: 9 a.m. until the 11 a.m. funeral service Friday, Jan. 18, at the Barnum Community Church. Military honors accorded, Pastors Kendall Carlson and Jerry Gill...
Cloquet City Councilors got mixed news about money Tuesday night - and in some cases the bad news came on the flip side of the coin. Take the Cloquet Public Library, for example, and the happy news that it was offered a $784,000 library expansion grant from State of Minnesota, not quite the $1 million the city asked for. On the flip side is the fact that the grant is a matching one, so the city or some other agency must fund the other part of the estimated $2 million project. The previous...
While the Republican Party settled on one candidate for the Minnesota Senate District 11 race within a week of Gov. Dayton announcing the special election, the DFL party had to abide by its constitution and give 10 days notice before holding its endorsement convention. There are currently two candidates running for the DFL ticket, Michelle Lee of Carlton County and Stu Lourey of Pine County. The DFL endorsement convention is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 at Barnum High School. There will be a candidate meet-and-greet 9-10 a.m. Because the...
Carlton County is participating in a nationwide count of people experiencing homelessness next week, to try to document the number of people living in homeless conditions on a particular date. It’s called a Point-In-Time count, or PIT count. Nationally, that date is Wednesday, Jan. 23. In frozen Carlton County, PIT count organizers are conducting interviews the entire week of January 20 and also hoping people will attend the 2019 Operation Community Connect (OCC) event on Wednesday, Jan. 23. (See next news brief for more on that.) A c...
The 2019 Operation Community Connect (OCC) event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23 at the Journey Church, 1400 Washington Ave., Cloquet. Operation Community Connect does exactly what its name says: connects people with each other and with resources in the community. It is free and open to all. The one-day event — previously held at the Cloquet National Guard Armory — offers a hot lunch and help with all the resources people might need to get back on their feet, from fuel assistance to veterans services to financial cou...
The city of Wrenshall is taking letters of interest from residents interested in filling vacancies on the Wrenshall City Council, according to City Clerk Alieca Johnson. “When councilor Donna Mae Weiderman was elected mayor, her seat became vacant and we need it filled,” Johnson said. Interested applicants must submit their letters to City Hall, 400 Alcohol Road, Wrenshall or mailed to PO Box 157, Wrenshall, MN 55797. Letters must be received by 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 23. At 6 p.m. that evening, the council will choose the new councilor at a p...
The Pine Knot News is soliciting proposals from visual artists who live or work in the northern half of Carlton County for future exhibits in its office space at 122 Avenue C in Cloquet. The next, following Ken Hanson’s current show, is scheduled for March and will hang for two months. We host an artist reception at the beginning of each show. We plan bi-monthly exhibits and will choose for the May, July, September and November exhibits from these submissions. We are accepting applications now through Feb. 1. All forms of artwork — ceramics, sc... Full story
Minnesota’s “Take a Kid Ice Fishing Weekend” is this Saturday, Jan. 19, through Monday, Jan. 21. During the weekend, Minnesota residents age 16 or older can fish or dark-house spear without an angling or spearing license if they take a child younger than 16 fishing or spearing. “This weekend is a way to encourage anglers to take a kid fishing,” said Jeff Ledermann, education and skills team supervisor with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. “Ice fishing is a great way to get outdoors in winter.” Before heading out, anglers or sp...
Every week, we remind you that the Pine Knot News community newspaper welcomes your input. Send your thoughts, letters, or news to [email protected]. And with a special election on Feb. 5 to replace State Sen. Tony Lourey, we expect many letters of support from voters. We plan to publish them all. There are some restrictions, of course. We prefer topics of local interest, so we’re looking forward to letters on the upcoming election. Letters must include a name and contact number so we can verify the letter (we won’t publish your pho...
I had the good fortune to interview Dr. Michael Cary, Ed.D., the new superintendent of the Cloquet schools, on “Harry’s Gang” this week. Cary has been on the job since last summer, and is now just halfway through his first school year in Cloquet. He has quite an interesting story. His undergraduate degree is in biology and chemistry at UMD, and he went into education afterward, teaching at a couple of schools before becoming a principal of a high school in Bismarck, N.D. He eventually becam...
Volunteer mediator wanted To the editor: The new Carlton School Board has been seated. While there may not be the votes yet for consolidation, the energy feels more positive. Time will tell if logic, vision and reason will prevail over emotion and tribalism. The Wrenshall board is ready to consolidate now under a two-site option, and they have indicated so with a formal letter. The last Carlton board indicated that they were ready to talk about consolidation via a formal letter. The current board chair is trying to carefully lay down the...
The new Carlton School Board elected officers with little tension during its first meeting Jan. 10, but ended up deadlocked on proposed wages for the board itself, voting three times on different proposals and ending each time 3-3. In the end, they passed a temporary measure to keep the wages where they were - $37.50 per meeting plus $1,000 per year - and moved the discussion to Monday's Committee of the Whole (COW) meeting. In addition to board wages, discussion about several more-contentious...
The new Cloquet School Board met for the first time Monday, Jan. 14 and welcomed "new" board member Gary "Hawk" Huard back to the board after a couple years' hiatus. It was a mostly uneventful meeting that included election of board officers along with other routine items expected at the first meeting of the year. Ted Lammi was elected chair for the second year in a row. Dave Battaglia was elected treasurer and Nate Sandman will be the new clerk. The board voted 5-1 (Huard dissenting) to set...
Spencer Rousseau's midcourt three-pointer at the buzzer gave the Carlton Bulldogs a two-point win in a packed Wrenshall gymnasium Tuesday night and the Brown Jug after a one-year hiatus in the rivalry. Carlton defeated Wrenshall 52-50, the same tallies when the two teams met in Carlton earlier this season. Carlton gets the Brown Jug based on the long-held tradition that the team without it has to win it back on the opposing team's floor. The win for the Bulldogs snapped a five-game losing...
The Battle for the Little Brown Jug is a huge game for the schools of Carlton and Wrenshall. Each year both the girls and boys teams battle for the jug as well as the prestige of holding onto the trophy for another season. This year's version of the girls' "battle" took place Monday night in Carlton with the Bulldogs handling the Wrens by the score of 57-42. "It was a good game with a nice crowd, which helped out the atmosphere," said Carlton coach Lucas Beireis. "It is fun to see the gym fill...
