LEWISTON — A neighborhood meeting in response to complaints about Bates College off-campus housing will be held Thursday by Lewiston police.
The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. in the Pettengill Hall basement at 2 Andrews Road. Representatives from Bates College security and Lewiston code enforcement will also be in attendance.
Police have been asked by residents to step up efforts to address disruptive parties in off-campus housing within the neighborhoods surrounding the college, while city officials have also been grappling with how to respond. On Tuesday, the City Council extended a moratorium on establishing lodging houses until February 2018.
The City Council and Planning Board held a joint workshop in June to discuss multiple options for addressing the issue of loud party activity, and while no decisions were made, the majority agreed that greater enforcement is needed.
According to the meeting notice, topics Thursday will include the Lewiston Police Department’s current disorderly property policy, reporting activity to the police, and the response from police and Bates campus security.
The notice says there will also be a question-and-answer session.
During the June workshop, Police Chief Brian O’Malley said landlords have been helpful and cooperative with police, but that he’d like to hold neighborhood meetings to get all stakeholders together for a discussion.
The department’s disorderly property policy is based on receiving five calls or more regarding a sole residence within 30 days, or 15 calls within a year. In June, O’Malley said no address in the surrounding neighborhood met that criteria, which was strongly disputed by neighbors.
He urged residents to call police first instead of Bates security. By law, he said, police must first give a warning when responsing to a noise complaint, but police will return and take action if the disruption continues.
For Bates officials, the issue is boiling over as the college gears up for another semester. The school only allows a set number of seniors to live off campus, and has a discipline process in place for behavior.
Paul Menice, interim director of Security and Campus Safety at Bates College, said in June that even if Bates takes the aggressive measure of revoking a student’s right to live off campus, there’s no real way to enforce it. If the student is still paying rent, he said, there’s no real way to control it.
