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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Cross Country Carlton/Wrenshall Thursday, Sept. 5 vs Superior at Pattison Park, 4 Tuesday, Sept. 17 vs Northwestern at Norwood, 4:30 Thursday, Sept. 26 at Hibbing, 4 Thursday, Oct. 3 at Ely, 4 Thursday, Oct. 10 vs Cook County at Pincushion, 1 Tuesday, Oct. 15 at Proctor, 4 Thursday, Oct. 24, sectional tournament,TBD Saturday, Nov. 2 state tournament, TBD Cloquet Tuesday, Sept. 10 at Mora, 4:15 Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Grand Rapids, 4 Tuesday, Sept. 24 at Hermantown, 4 Thursday, Sept. 26 at Hibbing, 4 Thursday, Oct. 3 at Ely, 4 Tuesday, Oct. 8 at... Full story
Ian Erickson addressed the Carlton school board during Monday's regular meeting, informing the board he was taking two of his children out of the Carlton school district. Erickson emphasized that he liked the school district, teachers, and principals, "but we feel like the four-day week has forced our hand," he said. Child care was not an issue. Instead, Erickson thought his two younger children should be in school more than four days in a week to provide the kind of educational continuity they...
A summer’s worth of cooling off between sides in the proposed consolidation between the Carlton and Wrenshall school districts is coming to a close without any sense of how the districts expect to proceed. Both sides say they’re waiting to hear from the other. Neither side appears prepared to nudge talks forward. A clearer picture of the division began to appear following recent Pine Knot interviews, data requests and school board meetings. In short, Carlton wants consolidation to run through superintendents and Wrenshall does not, pre...
Friday, Aug. 23 Volleyball Esko vs Hibbing, 7 p.m. Boys Soccer CEC vs Two Rivers, 2 p.m. Girls Soccer Cloquet vs Two Rivers, 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 24 Girls Soccer Esko vs Proctor 2 p.m. Boys Soccer CEC vs Columbia Heights, 12 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26 Tennis CEC at Longview, Duluth East quad Tuesday, Aug. 27 Girls Soccer Esko at Cloquet, 7 p.m. Tennis CEC at Hibbing, 4 p.m. Swimming CEC vs Grand Rapids, 5 p.m. Volleyball Esko at Hermantown, 7 p.m. Barnum at Ogilvie, 7 p.m. Carlton-Wrenshall at Deer River, 7 p.m. Cromwell-Wright at Crosby-Ironton, 7...
The Esko school district updated its student handbooks to tighten rules on student cell phone use, including no phone on students while they sit at their desks. At Monday's school board meeting, superintendent Aaron Fischer introduced the revisions which are intended to standardize the rules for all the classrooms. The Minnesota legislature in the last session directed schools to set cell phone use policies by March 15, 2025. The legislation did not directly prescribe how the policies should be...
The upcoming back-to-school issue of a popular Wrenshall publication will be its final print edition. Images, the monthly Wrenshall school newsletter that's distributed community wide, is moving to an online-only format. Beginning in October, Images will appear only on the school's website, isd100.net. The school board approved the move at its business meeting Monday. The move will save the district roughly $6,500 a year. Images publishes 10 times a year, with printing, delivery and postage...
This was a big week in local politics, although it passed quietly enough. During Tuesday’s primary, voters in District 5 whittled down the number of county commissioner candidates to two — Dan Reed and Alex French — who will advance to the General Election in November. Countywide, we also voted for judicial candidates in a rare local race with no incumbent. Shawn Reed (an Esko grad) and Gunnar Johnson advanced to the general election in that race. But Tuesday was also the final day to file as a candidate in seven local school board races with 2... Full story
A person can’t work for the FBI or CIA with felony convictions and yet they can be the president of the United States and have 34 felonies on their record. Some things must change regarding this policy, as it opens the door for felons to be commander in chief of our military. Many religious leaders and people who call themselves Christians will vote for the candidate who appointed justices to the Supreme Court who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, taking away the woman’s right to choose, and yet will vote for a womanizer, liar, convicted fel... Full story
Filings for local school boards as well as municipal and township races closed at the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13. Those candidates will appear on the General Election ballot, along with the top two candidates from any primary races detailed on Pages 1-19. Find the listing of local filings below, according to the Secretary of State website: School Board filings Barnum (elect 4): Louis Bonneville, Beth Dinger, Stephanie Ferrin, Mike Orn, Patrick S. Poirier Carlton (elect 3): Julianne Emerson, Ryan M. Leonzal, Ben Nilsen, Dan Solarz, Eryn... Full story
In the only Carlton County board primary to be decided during Tuesday's primary election, six candidates will vie for two spots in the Nov. 5 general election for District 5 commissioner. The position was left open earlier this year after Gary Peterson announced the end of his three-term run in the seat. Peterson is seeking to keep involved by running unopposed to become a soil and water supervisor. District 5 spans the western half of Carlton County, including Cromwell, Wright, Kettle River and... Full story
At Monday night’s Carlton school board retreat, board members had a freewheeling discussion about the major challenges to be faced in the coming school year. A large amount of discussion centered around the four-day school week which starts this September. Board members were supportive, but expressed doubts. Board member Ryan Leonzal was direct. “I’ve had anywhere from 10 to 15 families tell me that they’re leaving, and they’re not particularly ones that I would have assumed [would] go,” he said, and went on to warn the board about the gamble...
For the first time in anyone's memory, Wrenshall school will head into the new school year with multiple sections of multiple elementary grades as enrollment continues to rise during the summer offseason. A kindergarten split was approved in July as the class hit 25 prospective students. Last week, the board agreed to split fourth grade, as it approached 30 students. The board will vote at its Aug. 12 business meeting to post a job opening for a second fourth-grade teacher at the school. "This...
Anyone interested in running for local school board, township office or most municipal mayor and city council seats has until the end of the day Tuesday, Aug. 13, to file an affidavit of candidacy and pay the minimal filing fee at the respective city, town or school office. Nate Sandman says it’s the best $2 you’ll ever spend. The Cloquet school board chair is wrapping up his eighth year on the board. He doesn’t plan to run again, but said anyone who cares about kids and is passionate about education should consider running. There were zero... Full story
The annual Brickyard Days parade in Wrenshall took its time making its way down the main drag from the convenience store to the firehall, starting with all kinds of firetrucks and ending with three women on horseback, who stopped frequently to say hello to friends or visit children who wanted a closer look. There was no shortage of candy, nor of children to gather it into bags, pockets and even an upside down umbrella. The crowd migrated to the firehall for ice cream following the parade, which... Full story
It's peak community festival season right now, with three Carlton County communities throwing hometown celebrations over the next nine days. On Saturday, Brickyard Days will bring the small town of Wrenshall together for a parade and fun in the park and at Bricks Pub and Grub. Esko Fun Days runs Tuesday through Saturday next week, and Ma and Pa Kettle Days returns next weekend in Kettle River. While all three events include food and community gatherings, Kettle River is the only community to...
Carlton social studies teacher Ryan Schmidt always dreamed of opening a hometown bookstore after retiring. Instead, he opened last week, just in time for Carlton Daze. The new N.P. Junction Books is located at 110 Third St., at the four-way stop, kittycorner from Third Base Bar. “It’s been an idea for six or seven years, then I started talking a little more seriously in about 2022,” Schmidt said. “Then I had the opportunity to do it a little sooner.” Schmidt did more than just open a bookstore... Full story
Wrenshall will celebrate Brickyard Days (aka Brickyard Day) on Saturday, Aug. 3, with a range of family-friendly activities and even a nod to the Olympics. The day kicks off with a pancake breakfast at the town hall 7-10 a.m., followed by the parade at 11 a.m. Activities in the park after the parade include kids’ games, face painting, crazy hair, bingo and vendors, and 3-point shooting at 1 p.m. and “crazy Olympic partner” games at 2 p.m. Sign up for the shooting and Olympic games at the park....
The sixth annual Northland Baseball Classic drew 59 teams ages 9-14 to Cloquet last weekend. The teams played at four different locations in the Cloquet and Carlton area over the weekend. Champions were crowned in five different age groups. "We had games being played at Pinehurst Park, Mettner Field and Braun Park in Cloquet as well as at Chub Lake Park in Carlton, said tournament director Nate Knutson. "We had teams from all over the state of Minnesota as well as Canada." It was a group...
An upbeat Carlton schools superintendent Donita Stepan believes the school district's switch to a four-day school week in September will trigger an uptick in enrollments. Nothing definite in terms of filed paperwork, "But we've done several tours," she said in an interview Tuesday. "We've probably got at least eight or nine new kids interested in coming so far." Regarding families possibly leaving over the same issue, Stepan indicated she had not seen any paperwork for kids leaving the...
The challenge has vexed Jason Amundsen for a few years. He’s brought in engineering students from the University of Minnesota Duluth and St. Thomas University in St. Paul. He’s hired one of them full-time to tackle the problem. At Farm LoLa in Wrenshall, the mission is capturing water from the air — in a sense, making the concept of the indoor humidifier work outside. Amundsen said the world is starving, and he wants to find a way to better water crops. He cites endangered citrus crops in Texas...
The Wrenshall school board converged Monday on Holyoke, where board members watched a sudden downpour and a whistling train outside, and were met by Wrenshall mayor Gary Butala. Butala agreed with the board that the city and school district ought to examine how to share snowplowing duties in the winter as well as fuel costs and access, already located on school district property. “We would like to share if we could with the school,” Butala said, inviting board member Eric Ankrum, head of the school’s building and grounds committee, to the J... Full story
A 55-year-old Wrenshall man remained in Carlton County Jail this week following his arrest June 26 on multiple felony charges of criminal sexual conduct. Kevin Lee Young was charged in Sixth District Court in Carlton on June 28 with first-degree criminal sexual conduct — penetration or contact with a person under 14, and felony solicitation of a child to engage in sexual conduct. Aggravating circumstances, including being more than 36 months older than the victim, mean Young faces 30 years in prison and up to a $40,000 fine for the first o... Full story
The berries provided the red and blue, while clouds were the white on the Fourth of July at the berry fields at Farm LoLa in rural Wrenshall. Farm manager Brett Amundson works the busy stand in the middle of the honeyberry fields. Lucie Amundsen helped a curious young customer. The farm is among many in Carlton County bursting with berries this month, with blueberries next. By the afternoon on July 4, the strawberries had been picked out. Call ahead if you want to go out to area farms, because... Full story
In the years that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and subsequent calls for law enforcement reforms, choosing a career as a cop got more complicated and less popular. In 2019, 48 students graduated from the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College law enforcement program. In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, there were 27. In 2022, only 15. Last year there were 24. There were 22 graduates at this year's Enhanced Skills Professional Peace Officers Education Program ceremo... Full story
Fewer than 5 percent of the U.S. population make their livelihood in agriculture. When an urban family gets into their car to go out to the country and meet a family that makes a living farming, it can be unforgettable. Youngsters marvel at the animals and large-sized equipment and adults deepen their understanding of the food economy. Duane and Doreen Laveau hosted Breakfast on the Farm Saturday, June 29, at their 65-cow Laveau Grandview Dairy in Wrenshall and treated more than 750 people to a...
