This Week's Program: Cloquet's City Engineer, Caleb Peterson

Jim Prusak introduced his guest, Cloquet's City Engineer, Caleb Peterson. Caleb now holds the city position that Jim held for the last 40 years. So, according to Jim, Caleb has nothing to do now that Jim resolved all the problems before he left. Then, according to Caleb, he loves his new job since he gets to help people with their problems and get things fixed that Jim left behind. 

 

Caleb passed around a handout of city projects for the next few years, highlighting some of his department's ongoing and upcoming activities. He started with the Pine Valley Park improvements. They will improve the ski chalet since it gets lots of use and rentals, plus they will build a new single track bike trail in the park. Then Pine Tree Plaza will get a new frontage road to take the burden off Big Lake Road. One huge project is the Cloquet Avenue streetscape, which is the first project other than a park that sales tax monies will fund. It includes better traffic signals, bump outs between 8th and 13th streets to slow traffic, and new streetlights. The city has received an extra million dollars from the state for this project. In June, they will start a new water filter plant to meet water quality standards, especially for manganese, which could create neurological issues with infants. Also, carrying over from last year, the Dunlap Island improvements are underway. The ice skating trail, not a rink, and playground are already installed. Also, the Broadway Avenue corridor in the west end business district with a new sidewalk, decorative lighting, bike and ATV lanes is underway. The city is also working with the county on the Washington Ave. and 14th Street traffic control and sidewalks. Then, there's the Roundabout planned next year at I-35 and Hwy 33. They would like to tie in access to 14th Street at this roundabout, so people can get to FDLTCC and other places more easily. All these projects and more are planned with a budget of $15 to $16 million dollars. Whew! Jim can relax and enjoy his fishing trips now that Caleb is at the helm.