Political Scene: Meet the unsung workers who keep the state running on Christmas Day

NORTH KINGSTOWN — The fish at the Lafayette Trout Hatchery don’t know it’s Christmas. And if the young fry get hungry, they’ll start to eat each other. So at 7:30 a.m., Kenneth “KC” Fernstrom, a senior biologist with the Department of Environmental Management, will report to work. For the next four hours, he’ll clean tanks and remove debris from the chilly outdoor raceways while pausing every 30 to 45 minutes to hand-feed 80,000 tiny hatchlings. When he’s convinced that their bellies are full, he’ll head home to his family – but not before he’s turned out the lights so that the juvenile fish can’t see each other in the dark. Fernstrom is one of the government employees who keep things…