The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
Volume 13, Number 15
Budget up for debate
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Movie night at Willard
By Olivia L. Lawrence Associate Editor The annual public hearing on the town’s $66.5 million 2009-2010 budget was held April 7, at McGee Middle School. Speaking in advance of the meeting, officials said they plan to hold the line at a zero mill rate increase. In order to do this, a couple of town hall positions were cut, town department heads said they’d forgo raises and townside unions agreed to concessions. “Our aim is to not do anything detrimental to our security. We tried to take a scalpel to the budget, not an ax, and
Students and parents at Willard Elementary School enjoyed popcorn, snacks and the company of friends during a Movie Night held recently at the school.
See Budget, page 21
Hubbard student hits the big-time By Robert Mayer Managing Editor The classic commercials after the Super Bowl show the game’s most valuable player telling the camera, “I’m going to Disney World.” Bernard “Sonny” VanBuskirk III, 11, gets to say that to his fifth grade classmates at Hubbard Elementary School after an extraordinary, whirlwind trip to the NASCAR race in Texas this past weekend. He packed up in Berlin March 30, went on his first airplane trip, arrived in Texas and was the honorary flag person for a charity go cart race between Denny Hamlin and Dallas Cowboys’ tight end Jason Whitten. But that’s not all. He was presented the prototype helmet he designed for Hamlin, received suite tickets to the race, won by Jeff Gordon, met football and racing legends Joe Gibbs and J.D. Gibbs, and Whitten, as well. He is, by the way, a Cowboys fan.
And after this week of school, “I’m going to Disney World,” Sonny said. “We planned to take him to Disney World a while ago before we knew any of this would happen,” Maria VanBuskirk said. “I keep kidding him that he’s like one of the football players after the Super Bowl.” Sonny was picked as the winner of a contest sponsored by FedEx, where his dad works, to design a helmet for FedEx NASCAR driver Hamlin to honor the work of March of Dimes. Sonny was six weeks premature at birth and was born before his mom and dad could enjoy his baby shower. He stayed in St. Francis Hospital for five weeks. His mother was discharged after three days. “His lungs still needed to develop, so he was in an incubator,” Maria said. “Luckily, his heart was fully developed, but it was awful going back and forth to the hospital every See Sonny, page 10
Denny Hamlin and Sonny VanBuskirk of Berlin.