The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en Volume 13, Number 53
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Year in Review
A welcome surprise Christmas gift
Berlin faced with critical decisions in otherwise quiet year By Olivia L. Lawrence Associate Editor
Berlin native Brian Malloy surprised his family as they sat down to Christmas eve dinner by returning from serving as a Marine in Iraq. “I told my mother (Carol Malloy, pictured above) and my girlfriend but that was it.” Ryan Malloy said. “It’s all tentative so you never know exactly when you’re going to come back. My girlfriend walked in and I waited until everybody sat down to dinner and then walked in and yelled ‘Merry Christmas.’ My sister Katie choked on her food, my sister Kelly started crying and I thought my grandparents were going to have a heart attack.” Malloy, a 2005 Berlin High School grad, became a reservist in 2006. He had been in Iraq since May of this year working as a diesel mechanic. His full-time job here is as a computer technician at Pratt & Whitney. “I’m so excited to be home,” he added. “The homecoming reaction was everything I hoped for and then some. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
The year gone by — 2009 — was quiet in many respects. Longtime town employee Denise McNair, (hired in November 2008) settled into her position as town manager and a revolving door era for that office ended. Election season came and went with hardly a hiccup and only one bad caricature of Adam Salina — courtesy of the Berlin Republican Town Committee. The Board of Education ramped up its public awareness campaign about the condition of the schools and its push for a new high school. The Police Commission also moved forward with its state-
ment of need for a new facility. And a major communications “umbrella” was built over the town as a way to improve police, fire and other safety communications. But for the most part, large projects were kept on hold as officials moved cautiously through a tough economic time. But there was one dominant down and dirty controversary that affected virtually everyone in town — an uproar that could be dubbed The Great Trash War. The switch from manual to automatic collection caused a major flap as Berlin headed into summer. Anti-automatic protesters contended that the
See 2009, next page
Town has seen major changes in decade By Olivia L. Lawrence Associate Editor
A look back
The first decade of the new millennium is past — so say farewell to all of 2000 through 2009. Those 10 years cover a lot of Berlin ground. There was plenty of progress, a smattering of scandals and a few national trends experienced at the community level. Some activities spanned the decade making headlines along the way like the overhaul of the Worthington Meeting House that at one point was in danger of being added to the town’s blight
list. Over time, and with the help of grants and the unwavering dedication of the Worthington Meeting House committee, the old building gained new life and emerged as a centerpiece of the historical district. Other projects, like a skate park approved in August 2000, sputtered to life and then died before ever making it to fruition. Here are a few highlights beginning in January 2000. The year began with an architect hired for the expan-
sion of Timberlin golf course. A blight ordinance is approved. (Later, the council declines to have town properties placed on the blight list.) In February, the council authorizes a strategic study of what Berlin will look like in 15 years and over the next year encourages input from the public. Berlin appears to temporarily lose its identity as, during an address search, a zip code glitch on the “World Wide Web” only brings up the Kensington Post Office. In March, the Community Center located
Citizen photo by Olivia L. Lawrence
Trash-Away delivered trash cans to residents before the referendum vote angering many who felt their vote See Decade, page 4 didn’t count.