Volume 19, Number 5
Berlin’s Only Hometown Newspaper
www.berlincitizen.com
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Kensington fish hatchery on the chopping block
A ROARING GOOD TIME
By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
Gov. Dannel Malloy’s proposed budget includes cuts that would close the Kensington State Fish Hatchery, a move that would save the state more than $195,000 per year, but may also result in the state no longer being able to stock lakes and rivers with Atlantic salmon, a specialty species raised only at the Kensington hatchery. “We want to stock as many fish in our waters as we can for anglers, but we know this is tough budgetary times,” said Department of Energy
and Environmental Protection Communications Director Dennis Shane. Staff at the hatchery deferred comment to DEEP. Shane said Kensington’s hatchery is the smallest of three state fish hatcheries, and the facilities are dated in comparison. Kensington produces only 7 percent of the state’s brown trout, and with it closed, the state would still be able to stock “700,000 brown trout for anglers, which is a really good number,” Shane said. However, Shane said the See Hatchery / Page 2
McGee Madness nets big bucks for charity By Charles Kreutzkamp The Berlin Citizen
The McGee Middle School Drama Club brought Peter Pan Jr. to the stage last weekend. Pictured: Smee, played by Zoe Bassett, leaps into the arms of Captain Hook, played by Nathaniel Hansen, during Friday night’s presentation. | Photo by Lee Roski
Students at Catherine McGee Middle School nearly doubled donations compared to last year at their annual March Madness penny drive and read-a-thon. This year students raked in more than $17,000, compared to last year’s $9,906, in addition to preparing care packages for soldiers. Over the past 18 years, the program has raised some $110,000 for charity. The event also features students versus staff basketball games. Students have a say in where the money goes, writ-
ing persuasive essays to convince the March Madness Committee. This year’s three grand prize winners, Gina Scalaro, Tanner Soybel and Luke Wininger, earned $500 each for the Joseph Manzi Foundation, Camp Hope and the Salvation Army, respectively. “Joey Manzi was my cousin. Unfortunately, I never got to meet Joey because he died a month after I was born,” Gina wrote. The middle-schooler shares the late Manzi’s love of music, and feels that through pictures, stories and Joseph See Madness / Page 6