The Berlin
Cit itiz ize en Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
Volume 16, Number 36
www.berlincitizen.com
New Britain Museum features historic Berlin manufacturers By Monica Szakacs The Berlin Citizen Berlin was home to the first private American individual, Simeon North, to have gotten a military contract to produce guns. In June 1808, North secured his first contract to produce 1,000 boarding pistols for the Navy, according to the American Society of Arms Collectors. One of North’s earlier Navy pistols is featured at the New Britain Industrial Museum. Karen Hudkins, museum director, said it is hard to find a Simeon North Pistol, but through donations the museum was able to secure one of his pistols on display. “New Britain and Berlin pretty much started off at the same place, so we thought it was important to have North’s pistol here,” she said. Simeon North began life
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Berlin Teacher of the Year turns passion into success By Monica Szakacs The Berlin Citizen
Citizen photo by Monica Szakacs
Simeon North’s early 1800 Navy pistol, manufactured in Berlin, is on display at the New Britain Industrial Museum among other historic industrial inventions from New Britain and Berlin. in Berlin as a farmer following his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, according to ASOAC. On June 10, 1795, North purchased land from Spruce Brook that had an old sawmill and a dam neighboring his farm.
North created a business sawing lumber, and used the basement to produce scythes, which are a steel agricultural hand tool for mowing grass or reaping See Museum, page 6
Berlin High School renovations at a standstill By Monica Szakacs The Berlin Citizen
See Renovations, page 9
See Teacher, page 7
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The Public Building Commission unanimously voted for the Berlin High School renovation project to go back to Town Council during its Aug. 30 meeting. The commission learned from engineer and architectural consultants that Phase I of the $69 million school project is over budget by $782,000. Council will now have to decide whether to fund the project at a higher budget or if it will send it back to Board of Education to review project programs and make changes. The first phase is a proposed construction of a steel high school technology education building. Due to running over budget, Phase I totals 35 percent of the projected cost. Dean Petrucelli, vice president of Silver Petrucelli and Associates architectural firm,
said during the meeting that the firm already replaced expensive elements with cost-effective materials in the design plan, but the project is still over budget. “The team believes they can’t take any more out of the budget without affecting the requirements of Board of Education programs,” said Petrucelli. “They feel they have exhausted all possibilities.” Bill Hardy, president of FIP Construction, suggested for the project to go out for a rebid to attract smaller size firms that “may bid lower because they need the job.” He said the commission may only “find themselves over budget a quarter of a magnitude” then it is now. Commission members agreed that the project should be re-engineered before it goes
When Sharon Roeder, Emma Hart Willard School s p e e c h pathologist, was in high school, one of her closest friend’s sister was injured in a bicycle acci- Roeder dent and suffered head trauma. Roeder would visit her friend’s sister, who had been hit by a car, at the Children’s Hospital Rehabilitation Center and watched a speech pathologist work with the young girl. After a year the injured girl was back to speaking the way she used to. When Roeder attended the University of Connecticut, she enrolled in speech pathology courses and “fell in love with the profession.” Her passion for helping children learn how to communicate their thoughts led to her becoming Berlin’s 2012 Teacher of the Year. “I love working with the kids, I love being in the classrooms, I love working sideby-side with the teachers,
but this honor was a shock to me because I’m not exactly a classroom teacher.” Each school District in Connecticut picks an educator to win the award every year. Berlin’s winner must give a presentation at the educators’ convocation before the start of the school year. Roeder said she was overwhelmed because she is intimidated to speak in public. “I can do classrooms, but all eyes on me like that in front of the Board of Education and the superintendent, but it was well received and I’m glad I don’t have to do it again. I am very honored though.” During the convocation, Willard Principal Salvatore Urso, spoke about Roeder and her years working as a speech pathologist. “Nearly one thousand students and hundreds of adults have benefitted from her expertise,” he said. Roeder has been a speech pathologist since 1979. She has been working at Willard for 19 years. Before she was a speech therapist at Wheeler Clinic North Village School in Plainville, which is a school for special needs chil-