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Mayor Dave Bing accepts a "key to the Belle Isle Aquarium" during a ribbon cutting ceremony at the newly re-opened Belle Isle Aquarium on Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 in Detroit. The Belle Isle Conservancy raised money to help the aquarium's rebirth and is working with volunteers to operate the attraction. The aquarium features fish native to the Detroit area and the Great Lakes. It opened in 1904 and was designed by famous architect Albert Kahn. (AP Photo/Detroit News, John T. Greilick) (September 16, 2012) |
DETROIT (AP) — Thousands of people have turned out for the opening of Detroit's Belle Isle Aquarium, closed in a budge tightening move seven years ago.
The aquarium now is a volunteer project, open each Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
The Detroit Free Press (http://on.freep.com/SRjhml ) says people from around the region lined up for the 108-year-old aquarium's first day of public operations since 2005.
Then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick shuttered the aquarium, which once cost $500,000 a year to operate. Mayor Dave Bing rededicated it Friday.
The Belle Isle Conservancy raised money to help the aquarium's rebirth and is working with volunteers to operate the attraction.
Reama Khaireddine (REE'-mah kair-eh-DEEN') of Dearborn says the aquarium brings back childhood memories. She visited with her aunt and children Saturday.
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