SPEARFISH, S.D. – Creative solutions, some "outside the box" thinking and extra skills by a McNenny State Fish Hatchery technician will be saving the hatchery some future expenses.

"Thanks to some innovative thinking and excellent welding skills, Eric Krebs saved the Department of Game, Fish and Parks a little money now and a lot of time and money later," said McNenny Hatchery Manager Rick Cordes. Eric works as a technician at McNenny State Fish Hatchery outside of Spearfish and has a knack for finding creative solutions to problems.

Cordes explained that at the hatchery, trout and salmon rearing often occurs in long, rectangular concrete raceways. Wooden boards are traditionally placed in the end of the raceways to make a dam, so that the raceways can hold water. These boards eventually rot and must be replaced every ten years or so. Eric came up with the idea of reconditioning some old aluminum structures stored at the hatchery that hadn’t been used in over fifteen years. Using his welding and metal fabrication skills, he converted the structures into aluminum dam "boards" at minimal cost.

The new aluminum dams saved about $1,500 that would have been spent to purchase the redwood lumber used previously. In addition, the aluminum dams will not need to be replaced every ten years, reducing the replacement costs and saving considerable amounts of labor in the future.

When asked about the project, Eric just smiled and said, "It’s a great feeling to be able to make something useful and save the hatchery money at the same time. All of us here at McNenny are always looking for ways to do things better and more efficiently."

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