Joe Bowen

Share Cloquet Area Fire District leaders want to enact a sales tax to offset some or all of their planned increase to area property taxes.

Jana Peterson Plenty of progress has been made since September on the construction of the Cloquet Area Fire District's new fire station and district headquarters. The project is a main driver in the significant rise in its 2026 special tax bill, 26 percent over last year.

Cloquet Area Fire District officials finalized a budget and property tax levy for 2026 that are 17 percent and 27 percent higher, respectively.

Jana Peterson 1/2 The fire truck bays are framed at the site of the new Cloquet Area Fire District station off Highway 45 in east Cloquet

Jana Peterson The Cloquet school district will contract with a different company for buses to transport kids to and from school next year, but the buses and many of the drivers will be the same. Palmer Bus Service plans to buy Cloquet Transit's buses and will offer jobs to all of its drivers at the same pay rate. They will even keep the buses at the same property on Industrial Avenue. The district will contract with Cloquet Transit for coach bus services.

Contributed 1/2 School board members on April 13 formalized a response to a 12-point list of reforms put forth in February by the American Indian Parent Advisory Committee, a group of about eight parents and staff members tasked with ensuring that American Indian students at the district receive culturally relevant and equitable educational opportunities.

Share Cloquet Area Fire District officials are slowing their planned fee increase for high-level ambulance service.

Share Cloquet school district leaders made a series of staff cuts Monday in an effort to trim $1.1 million for the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1. There was a bright side to the dire cuts, two teaching positions that were on the block were spared.

Share ed its budget for the 2026-2027 school year, finalizing a plan to close a projected $1.3 million deficit.

Share Cloquet Area Fire District leaders won’t see any revenue from a hoped-for sales tax until early 2029, assuming it’s approved at all.