ORONO, Maine — A large gathering that went out of control Wednesday at a student apartment complex near the University of Maine could prove to be expensive for the facility’s management.
Police from multiple agencies were called to break up the gathering at The Grove that drew between 200 and 400 people and resulted in one man being arrested. On Thursday, police were tallying up their costs for responding to the incident, including their salaries at their hourly rate, in order to present a bill to the apartment complex’s management.
A town ordinance enables the recovery of such costs. The first step in getting paid is to file the paperwork, Orono Police Chief Josh Ewing said Thursday.
“We issued [The Grove management] paperwork yesterday that address the recovery of costs for police services at large events on private property,” Ewing said. “We will utilize that ordinance for mutual aid responses.”
The number of people at The Grove on Wednesday had been increasing throughout the day when matters got out of control shortly after 4 p.m., according to police. The situation prompted Orono police and apartment complex security guards to call for reinforcements.
Police officers from Orono, the University of Maine, Old Town, Veazie, the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office, Maine State Police and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency went to the complex, which houses up to 620 tenants.
The total amount that will be billed for Wednesday is still being determined, Ewing said.
According to the ordinance, the town can charge “the salaries of the responding officers, at their hourly rate, for the amount of time actually spent in responding to or remaining at the large event; appropriate overhead; the actual cost of any medical treatment to injured officers; and the cost of repairing any damaged town equipment or property.”
No injuries were reported on Wednesday, Ewing said.
A man who answered the phone at The Grove office in Orono said he could not answer questions about the new police service fees, and a message left Thursday with North Carolina-based Campus Crest Communities Inc., owner of the property, was not immediately returned.
Orono police Sgt. David Silk estimated that the gathering involved between 200 and 400 people, including Tyler Nicoletti, 20, of Orono, who was arrested by Orono police after he reportedly fell or jumped on a vehicle, damaging the windshield.
A resident from The Grove sent a video to the Bangor Daily News that shows a man on top of a vehicle, surrounded by a large crowd, just before smashing the windshield and then running away. The residents who shot the video can be heard expressing concern for their own vehicles.
Police and town officials are also working on tweaking the disorderly property ordinance to add stiffer penalties, Ewing said.
While the proposed rules would apply to all rental units, from single-family dwellings to developments of 50-plus units, The Grove — the town’s largest student housing complex — is the only apartment complex where large parties and code violations continue to be a problem, according to town officials.
On Sept. 6, the first Saturday night of the fall semester, police from as far as Hampden were called to The Grove to help Orono police disperse a loud party with about 300 to 400 people in attendance, many of them University of Maine students.
Three people were arrested, and an Old Town police officer suffered a broken leg as a result of the melee. A similar party took place at the complex when it opened in 2012.
The continued disturbances at The Grove need to be addressed by the housing development’s managers, University of Maine Dean of Student Services Robert Dana said Thursday.
Wednesday’s gathering “speaks volumes about The Grove,” he said.
“They have got to engage students there and have clearly articulated and well understood expectations and hold students accountable,” Dana said. “When our police officers went there to assist Orono, there was a couple hundred students. It’s a fragment of the [university] population that can cause a big ruckus.”
The disturbance occurred on Maine Day at the university, which Dana described as a day for students to have a little fun, do community work and also blow off a little steam before finals. Oozeball, which is played in the mud, is a popular May Day event, as is the riverside picnic and live music.
Dana said the campus event should not be judged by the incident at The Grove.
“We had 1,336 volunteers working three hours each” picking up trash and cleaning the campus, Dana said.
“It’s a day to de-stress and get prepared for next week, which is finals, and a chance to beautify the campus,” the dean of students said. “You’ll always find some people at the end of the pendulum, that are not able to control themselves. But that is not the story.”
Meanwhile, local police are already preparing for this weekend.
“We will likely have additional patrols in The Grove this weekend, bringing in officers from area agencies to assist,” Ewing said.