Volume 18, Number 21
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
www.berlincitizen.com
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Council OK’s road widening, fee waivers By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
Two local business owners spoke during Public Comment in favor of a proposal to widen roads, including Washington, Baker, and Bruce Avenue. Randy Carol, a resident and business owner on Bruce Avenue, said that the narrow road – currently about half as wide as standard residential roads – is difficult for trucks to navigate, and that snow removal is poor due to the narrowness of the road. There is a lot of truck traffic on the road, including gasoline tankers, Carol said. The council approved the proposal. According to Director of Public Works Arthur Simonian, typically, it is not necessary for the council to
approve road repaving, but in this case, it is necessary because the road must be widened. Simonian said that the road has drainage issues that will be improved by the repaving and widening. The road will be broken down and completely replaced, as public works has done numerous patch and pothole filling jobs on the road in the past. “We will widen as far as we can without impacting drainage wells,” Simonian said. The majority of the road will be widened to 24 feet, the standard residential road width. The council also approved fee waivers for Raising Berlin’s movie night and for Girl Scout Troop 66286 to hold a fundraising event – either a pasta supper or pancake
breakfast – at the Senior Center. The troop initially requested fee waivers for multiple events, but the council approved just one waiver, and invited the troop to re-apply for future fee waivers to keep an eye on costs associated with the fundraiser. Town Manager Denise McNair stated that Senior Center Director Tina Doyle wishes to encourage the use of the Senior Center, and that it is hoped that the costs associated with the fundraiser would be minimal. Councilor Charles Paonessa, recalling time spent as a Boy Scout working with seniors, said that he believed it is beneficial to encourage interaction between young people and seniors. The motion passed unanimously.
Class President Jenna DelVecchio addresses the crowd Sunday during the Berlin High School graduation ceremony. | Photo by Matt Leidemer
Graduates advised to Outdoor movie draws a crowd ponder success
By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
The fourth annual movie night, showing The Lego Movie, put on by Raising Berlin, at Sage Park June 21 had the best turnout the group has ever seen, with a crowd arriving well in advance of showtime. “It was an excellent turnout and we hadn’t even started,” Ally Riedel, secretary of Raising Berlin said. This year, Raising Berlin partnered with UpBeat and the town Parks and Recreation Department. Turnout looked like it
may be as many as 300 people, according to Raising Berlin President Jennifer Czerwinski. A lot of things came together for this year’s high turnout, Czerwinski said. Due to highly successful fundraising efforts earlier this year, the group was able to put up signs advertising the event. The group also offered free popcorn to people who connected to the group’s Facebook Event page, which helped to promote the event. “We’re extremely happy with the weather,” Riedel added.
Raising Berlin also scheduled the movie night much closer to the end of the school year, when fewer people would be on vacation, Riedel said. It’s also nice having the event on one of the longest days of the year, she said. Kate Frederick’s first event as next year’s leader of the UpBeat Adventure House was to coordinate free face-painting for the movie night. The group also considered doing balloon animals, but decided against it due to litter issues.
See Movie / Page 8
By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
“06222014,” is how Valedictorian Nicole Grieco began her speech at the Berlin High School graduation held in Welte Auditorium at Central Connecticut State University June 22. Grieco, first among 240 graduates this year, plans to become an engineer. She said her favorite subject was math since elementary. The class of 2014’s top student went on to explain that the numbers referred to the date. “It is just a numerical sequence
that fails to capture our excitement for an event 13 years in the making,” Greico said. She delivered her remarks to the Berlin High School grads using PEMDAS – the order of operations – as a metaphor. Starting with parenthesis, Greico advised the start of the decision-making process be informed by first looking at what is inside, considering “beliefs and feelings.” The next step is to take risks, which, like exponents, can have an enormous effect on outcomes. The last thing to See Graduates / Page 9