On March 12, 2010 at 3:23 a.m. the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office received a call reporting an injured party at the Minnesota Power Taconite Harbor Energy Center in Schroeder. The call was relayed to Cook County in a convoluted manner. The information was given to Cook County Law Enforcement from Lake County dispatch, which had received a call from […]

Jeffrey Harris Forsberg, 50, of Grand Marais was found dead at his rental cabin next to TheBlue Moose in Grand Marais at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, May 31, 2010. His body was discovered by a friend who was worried when he could not reach Forsberg. Forsberg had told his friend the night before that he had been ill with the […]

Sue Ahrendt of Tuscarora Lodge on the Gunflint Trail called Cook County Law Enforcement at 3:48 p.m. on May 30 reporting that a guest, 70-year-old James Hawkins of Minneapolis, had not returned from a hike. Hawkins had set off on the Centennial Trail alone early that morning. Although a number of other hikers had traversed the trail and returned, they […]

It’s been five years since City Council last took up the issue of dilapidated and hazardous buildings in Grand Marais, but that doesn’t mean the problem has gone away. On May 26, City Administrator Mike Roth and City Attorney Chris Hood laid out the options for the latest effort to allay the problem. Hood was asked by council last month […]

In response to a question that arose at a recent county board meeting regarding the health hazards failing septic systems could cause, outgoing Environmental Health Specialist Leroy Halberg gave a little educational presentation to commissioners Tuesday, May 25, 2010. In 1900, the average life expectancy for an American was 49 years. Eighty years later, that had risen to 74 years. […]

County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja recently received a call from a constituent regarding a local youth who had lost out on a job at a local restaurant because it had been filled by a foreign worker. Sobanja wondered why a local businessperson would hire a foreign worker over a local kid whose parents would probably be eating at his or her […]

David Betts has accepted the position of county engineer/ agricultural inspector and will start work by the end of June. According to Cook County Personnel Director Janet Simonen, Betts has 17 years of “significant” municipal experience. Simonen said he would be given $3,000-4,000 for moving expenses as is typically offered to department heads when they are hired from out of […]

The Cook County Board of Commissioners lent its support Tuesday, May 25, 2010 for a grant that would fund a thorough study on the feasibility of using local biomass as a community wide, renewable source of energy. The Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) has been working with Dovetail Partners, the consulting firm that applied for the grant. Dovetail Partners […]