Minutes

Present: B. Clouette, A. Hawkins, E. Paterson, A. Whitham Blair

Staff: M. Berliner, M. Hart

Visitors: R. Cook, H. Koehn, Reverend. A Fallon

1. Call to Order/Roll Call

Chairman Bruce Clouette called the meeting to order at 6:35 p.m.

2. Opportunity for Public to Address the Committee

a. Reverend Amy Fallon addressed the committee, and stated that she would be willing to serve as a resource. She is currently in her 4^th year working as the university vicar at St. Mark’s Episcopal Chapel. She sees quality of life and off-campus housing concerns as compelling issues for the community and thinks that she has some experience to bring to the table.

b. Helen Koehn stated that she thought the recent Northeast magazine article was excellent, and was interested to read about what strategies other communities around the nation are attempting to employ.

c. Bob Cook commented that he thought that law enforcement and other personnel could do more to control and to disperse crowds at various party locations before these crowds build to unmanageable numbers.

3. August 9, 2004 and September 27, Meeting Minutes

By consensus, the committee approved the minutes as presented.

4. Comments to Staff Proposal

Alan Hawkins commented that he thought the draft proposal represents an extraordinary step on the part of the town. Also, it would be useful to review law enforcement activities with SGT Cox to gain his perspective.

Alison Whitham-Blair stated that she had no comments at this point.

Bruce Clouette had a couple of comments:

· We should add the establishment of a dialogue with package store owners as a recommendation. The owners have a significant stake in this issue, and perhaps we could enlist their support to discourage/control bulk sales.

· We need to work with the landlords to make sure they are doing all they can do.

· Once the substance abuse task force begins work, we will want to coordinate with their efforts.

Helen Koehn suggested we check to see if Mansfield can receive additional state assistance to implement the recommended proposals. She does not see how the town can afford to manage this issue on its own. Bruce responded that this was a good idea, but we need to identify what we want first. Alan added that, from a public safety perspective, Mansfield’s remoteness exacerbates the problem. This is a real problem for the region, and resources are spread too thin.

Matt Hart suggested that we add a recommendation to support the establishment of off-campus amenities such as those envisioned by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership. Helen added that she has some concerns about off-campus amenities, particularly a concern that restaurants, pubs, etc. would be dominated by students as has happened in certain neighborhoods in Fort Collins, Colorado.

5. Recent Public Safety Activity

Martin Berliner reviewed the recent activity from the past weekend. A number of state police from Troop C responded to an incident at Carriage House, and partygoers there threw projectiles at the officers.

6. Next Steps

The committee agreed to invite Sean Cox, Resident Trooper Supervisor, to the next meeting to review law enforcement and public safety activity.

7. Other

None

8. Next Meeting

The committee scheduled its next meeting for 6:30 p.m. on October 25, 2004.

9. Adjournment

The committee adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Matthew Hart