Contract agreement reached for North Shore Hospital and Care Center staff
By a 4-0 vote, the Cook County North Shore Hospital board voted to accept the 2014-2015 Hospital and Care Center Association labor agreement at its April 7 meeting. Under terms of the agreement employees will get wage increases ranging from .75 percent to 2 percent. Last year employeesreceiveda1percentraiseaspart of their contract they signed two years ago. Registered nurses aren’t covered […]
County gets update on gypsy moth quarantine
Howard Hedstrom, president of Hedstrom Lumber Company, came before the Cook County commissioners on April 8, 2014 to give them an update on the coming gypsy moth quarantine to be imposed by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) on Cook and Lake counties beginning May 1, and he had some good news. “The forest service industry has negotiated a new […]
Union grievance over lifeguard lay off going to mediation
After being laid off from his position as head lifeguard at the Grand Marais Municipal Pool when the pool closed on January 31, 2014, Charles Christiansen invoked his union right to continue employment with the city of Grand Marais in another position. At press time, Christiansen was still not working and a mediation session had been scheduled to determine his […]
Open school campus for lunch vote to take place April 17
For the second time in three meetings, the ISD 166 school board meeting was held on an evening prior to a snowstorm. The announcement was made at the meeting that there will be school on the pre-scheduled makeup day of Friday, April 25 if school is closed the next day. Again, as expected, school was closed the following day and […]
Calm in an emergency
I have covered my share of catastrophes—real and pretend— in my 14 years of working for our community newspaper. I’ve learned a lot about fire behavior, prevention and safety. So you wouldn’t think I would be freaked out when a fickle electrical device started smoldering recently. You would think, with a number of volunteer firefighters in the family—sons, brother, brother-inlaw […]
Be accountable for the public’s money
When our April 5 copy of the Cook County paper arrived I decided to skip the letters to the editor which tend to get me riled up and get right into the news. Well, looking back that wasn’t the best idea. As I read the article Lutsen supervisors agree to pay bill for cemetery questions, my blood pressure rose and […]
Modern technology should not be used for spear fishing
I read with great concern the article about the Fond du Lac Band’s plan to spear walleye in some small lakes in our area and the follow-up letter to the editor by a former local game warden. I am even more concerned after seeing the list of lakes where spearing will take place and the number of walleyes that can […]
Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards nominees announced
The UMD Center for Economic Development (CED) will soon be presenting the 22nd Annual Joel Labovitz Entrepreneurial Success Awards Program recognizing entrepreneurs and business owners from throughout the Twin Ports and northeastern Minnesota. Several local businesses have been identified as successful entrepreneurs. In the “Micro Entrepreneur” category, Fika Coffee and Joshua Lindstrom were nominated. Fika Coffee is a small company […]