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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One's from Duluth and the other a waterborne city in Sweden that's about the size of Duluth. They're both 20 years old, but one's got more junior hockey experience than the other. They're basically alternating starts in goal for a Minnesota Wilderness team that's close to reaching the holiday break in first place in its North American Hockey League division. They are Isak Posch and Konrad Kausch, and they're goalies leading the Cloquet junior hockey team that's off to a banner start under first-...
After decades of playing in the state’s largest hockey class, the Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey team will likely move to Class A next season. Cloquet High School activities director Paul Riess told Cloquet school board members at their meeting Monday that the change has been a frequent topic with supporters. The Lumberjacks girls team made the move five or six years ago, then played their way to second place in the 2019-20 season’s Class A state tournament. The last couple years, Riess said, he’s faced even more people asking why the boys...
John Luomala, a reader in Thomson Township, recently brought in some physical black-and-white snapshots of a fire at a Cloquet lumberyard. Luomala figured he had taken the pictures in the late 1950s or early 1960s and was sure some readers would remember the huge pulpwood fire. Luomala was a forester for Northwest Paper Co. at the time. His photos show the efforts to douse the fire, including this one with the fedora-wearing president of the company, Harry T. Kendall Jr., looking back at...
The Thomson Township Board of Supervisors is once again accepting applications for an open seat on the board. In an effort to self-correct after the Minnesota Department of Administration ruled this month that the board violated open meeting law during its previous appointment process, a special meeting Thursday, Dec. 8 was used to reset the process. At the suggestion of township attorney Dave Pritchett, newly appointed Thomson Township supervisor David Sunnarborg resigned from his seat during...
A city of Cloquet broadband project was among nearly $100 million in internet connectivity grants announced by Gov. Tim Walz last week. Dubbed “the largest single investment in broadband infrastructure in state history” in a city news release Friday, the grants are spread across 61 projects as part of the Border-to-Border Broadband program administered by the state Department of Employment and Economic Development. Walz said the funding and projects would dramatically improve access for thousands of residents, including 33,000 homes and bus...
In addition to closing schools, the blizzard and severe winter weather also caused a delay in the delivery of the Pine Knot News print issue from the printer to the Post Office. It was nobody’s fault, rather an emphasis on keeping our employees safe. We apologize for any inconvenience....
Lake Country Power line crews responded to a growing number of outages on Wednesday during the winter storm, and they were expecting to add to the more than 1,900 co-op members in the region without power as the snow piled up into Thursday The snowstorm dumped heavy wet snow across the region, causing trees to sag and snap onto power lines. Some lines are down and at least one broken pole has been reported so far. Most outages were being caused by lines slapping together from the wet snow, Lake Country reported. When the weight of the snow...
Quality ice was being observed throughout most lakes around Cloquet, said the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in its weekly conservation officer’s report. Conservation officer Tony Elwell reported “clear, quality ice was observed on most area lakes, with 8 to 12 inches being the average thickness....
The Minnesota Department of Health this week urged parents to get children vaccinated against Covid-19 and to make sure they and the entire family are up to date as the holidays approach. The push comes just after the Food and Drug Administration authorized and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expanded recommendations for children age 6 months through 5 years to receive an updated vaccine dose to help increase protection against currently circulating variants. Vaccine doses are arriving in the state this month. Children younger...
Winter parking is in effect now through March, so don’t leave your cars parked on the streets of Cloquet overnight. According to city code, cars cannot be parked on the streets or in alleys between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. from Nov. 1 through March 31, to allow snowplow drivers and others to clear the streets. The only exception is a vehicle parked at an open business establishment between midnight and 2 a.m....
Registration for the eighth annual Christmas Lighting Challenge is underway. The contest is free to enter. Voting by the community for both homes and businesses runs Dec. 2-21, with results announced Dec. 22. Register your home or business at www.Christmaslightingchallenge.com....
“Do the cuts that you can make right now. The longer we wait the deeper the hole.” — Angela Lind, Wrenshall business manager Superintendent Kim Belcastro announced her resignation during a special meeting of the Wrenshall school board Dec. 8. The meeting also served to announce early rounds of $300,000 worth of budget cuts, including the immediate losses of one full-time paraprofessional and a retiring math teacher. “I made the decision I am leaving,” Belcastro announced after 15 years in the district. “I can leave as early as Jan. 5, or I’m w...
About 20 Carlton County residents came to the Truth in Taxation hearing on Tuesday to voice fears of losing their homes under heavy increases in local property taxes. An Eagle Lake summer resident testified she had a 23 percent increase for taxes payable for fiscal year 2023 although she and her husband lived there only 47 percent of the time. Jim Jankowski lives on a small farm in rural Esko where he had milked cows in the past. The farm has been in his family for more than 100 years. The 80-year-old took the podium. “I have worked hard in m...
During a special Truth in Taxation hearing Monday, Cloquet school board members unanimously approved a 2022-23 budget of nearly $47 million, including a levy increase of 6 percent, payable in 2023 for the 2023-24 school year. The $7.4 million levy makes up 16 percent of the school district revenues; the other $39.6 million in revenues come from state and federal aid and other local sources including fees and grants. The levy is paid through local property taxes, which are increasing significantly for next year due largely to a hot housing marke...
The Northland Foundation announced this month the individuals and projects being awarded Maada’ookiing grants. Maada’ookiing (“the distribution” in Ojibwe) is a foundation program designed to strengthen relationships within the indigenous community, build partnerships with Native nations, and offer support for community members to expand capacity in northeast Minnesota. A grant opportunity is being offered three times per year, awarding up to $2,500 per grant for tribal citizens, descendants, or those having kinship ties or affiliation to indi...
The United States Postal Service appeared to work quickly to address mail delivery issues in Barnum this week after a social media post raised concerns about service in the area. A Facebook post by a Barnum-area letter carrier said the Barnum post office was working with one carrier for all routes, with people out sick and hospitalized. "We are doing the best we can with what we have," the post said. "We have to focus on packages right now because the post office is completely full to the...
A preliminary look at the Carlton school district audit Monday revealed what board members and administrators expected: expenditures are outstripping revenues, enrollment is stagnant at best, and solutions like dipping into the fund balance and Covid-19 relief money won’t last forever. “Those are temporary solutions for the next couple of years,” business and human resources manager Norman Nelis said during the school board’s committee of the whole meeting. “We’re going to have to discuss aligning our revenues and expenditures.” But not all hop...
The state’s advisory opinion this month that Thomson Township supervisors violated the Open Meeting Law should be a reminder to all elected officials that closing meetings should be done sparingly and always with strict attention to the law. In the case of Thomson Township, supervisors closed a September meeting to discuss candidates for the seat vacated by Jason Paulson in August. In private discussion, they whittled the number of candidates from six to three finalists. Several mistakes were made, including the initial assumption that the b...
This year marked the 50th anniversary of my high school graduation, a milestone that has brought back many memories. Good God, Eisenhower was president when we were born and Nixon was president when we graduated. Long live the Class of 1972. And thanks to all classmates who planned all the details for the recent reunion party at the Lost Tavern and the River Inn. Committee members included chair Wendy Wolf Yrjanson, Bill Sobeleski, Howard Simula, and Steve Jankowski. Here is one of my favorite...
After reading the latest articles regarding the process utilized to fill my board seat, I am deeply saddened by the actions of the Thomson Township board. It’s obvious mistakes were made. It appears some of the mistakes were theirs, some the township attorney’s. Regardless, I ask that both parties own these mistakes so the community may move on with them. I served in this seat for six years with the same veracity and passion that characterized my decade of service in the Marine Corps. I believed in openness. Even if they thought a closed ses...
Unlike the popular holiday movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” there are few happy endings in the current housing market. The film, most often remembered for a guardian angel, Clarence, was filmed in 1946. It portrays the life of George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart), who gives up his dreams in order to run his father’s savings and loan – which helped lower-income citizens of the fictional Bedford Falls buy affordable homes. In the movie, George, unhappily tied down at the “building and loan,” is miserable. In anger, he lashes out at his family...
Sandra Kay Franke, 75, of Cloquet passed away on Sunday, Dec. 11, 2022, at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. She was born on Oct. 9, 1947, in St. James, Minnesota to Jacob and Mabel Geiger. She grew up on a farm outside of St. James and graduated from St. James High School in 1965. On April 8, 1967, Sandra married Charles August Franke in St. James. Sandra worked at the Fingerhut Co. in Gaylord, Cat N' Fiddle Supper Club and the 3M Co. in New Ulm, and the Kids Corner latchkey program...
Rachel Eryn (Matuszak) Weizenegger, 56, of Duluth passed away under hospice care on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Duluth. A short contemporary service followed by a Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. Nelson Funeral Care has been entrusted with Rachel’s arrangements. To sign an online registry and read her full obituary, please visit www.nelsonfuneralcare.net....
To say that Cloquet-Esko-Carlton boys hockey coach Shea Walters is excited about this season may be an understatement. Walters thinks this year's version of the Lumberjacks has a chance to be a good team. Very good, in fact. Last week, the 'Jacks showed their potential with a 6-1 thumping of a respected Denfeld team. "We are a physical, fast team, and once we got started in that first period we just took off," Walters said of the Dec. 8 game. Just 1 minute, 28 seconds into the opening period,...
Esko parlayed a strong defensive effort into a 72-55 early season win over Cloquet in Esko on Friday, Dec. 9. "It's always a tough game against Cloquet, but it is fun to play your next-door neighbor," said Esko coach Derek Anderson. The Eskomos slipped out to a nine-point halftime lead, but they had their hands full with the 'Jacks, who boasted the tough inside play of Marco Mayorga. "Marco isn't a big guy height-wise, but he is crafty, has a lot of moves inside and he has a lot of swag," said...
