College Bar Crowd Bothers Locals

Author: Daniel Phillips

Several nights a week, Main Street of Middlebury becomes a social space as College students spill out of the bars after they close at 2 a.m., generating a group ruckus that has been a recurring nuisance to town residents.

"What we see is people coming from other places off the proverbial drunk bus, which is disruptive for the neighbors," said Police Chief Tom Hanley in reference to the free Midd Ride shuttle that ferries students between town and campus. Police officers stationed outside Angela's Pub and Two Brother's Tavern, the two most popular drinking destinations, describe the group as a "living organism, fracturing off in smaller groups, hooting and hollering."

They are usually engaged with a variety of social contacts, and it becomes especially difficult for police to respond to individual reports such as inebriated students venting their frustration in a stream of explicatives at neighboring residents or through disorderly conduct against the stationed officers and even their police cars.

"All we want to do is keep the peace and order in the neighborhood," added Hanley, "but when alcohol is thrown in the mix, discretion goes out the window." The Middlebury Police Department frequently responds to such a crowd forming by dispatching officers to move people on their way. Hanley complained in response: "We could do other things with our resources than encumber them there."

Hanley isolates the problem to the very small downtown area of Middlebury. All of the town's resources are clumped together in close proximity, whereas a larger metropolitan district would not have bars adjacent to residences. The town's miniature dynamic makes it easy for the College or Middlebury's residents to cast stereotypes. "One blight on a Thursday night will throw a blanket over everybody. The truth is," explained Hanley, "most students are absolute assets to the community."

The noise complaints received from town residents living predominantly along the uphill ascent to campus are consequently having effects on liquor licenses at bars, and for the owners of those bars. "This is their livelihood," remarked Hanley. The select board of the town is ready to implement long-term solutions, possibly taking away certain bars' liquor licenses altogether, which could potentially endanger many jobs and businesses.

With Angela's liquor license review approaching soon, Hanley hopes that the bar's new owner, Scott Sperry, will continue in his collaboration with the College to promote more Midd Ride runs into town late at night.

Holmes Jacobs, one of the owners of Two Brothers' Tavern, estimates that 20 percent of their business is from students. Jacobs commented that the bar has "always appreciated a good rapport with the College." The owner of Two Brothers enjoys being a place where college kids hang out, but agreed with Hanley about the serious issue being how to control their behavior when they leave.

Jacobs hopes to work together with the town so as not to jeopardize the other restaurants on account of receiving similar complaints and cited Sperry's transportation initiative as promising possibility.

According to Jacobs, he will also be taking out ads in this newspaper to inform students about respecting the lives of the community and town. Two Brothers boasts a strong relationship with the College faculty and staff as well. "It is great - we would not be here without any of them."

Robin, who has been a bartender at Angela's for four years now, agreed that students "don't have a place to go after the bar closes." Nine times out of 10, Robin, who declined to give her last name, notices people just hanging out, sobering up a little bit in the street, and she proposed an alternate detour of strolling across the Marbleworks bridge for a breath of fresh air, away from the raucous sidewalk scene.

"They are going to drink no matter where they go," Robin added. The bartenders know people prefer a lively pub scene for a place to play pool and socialize while drinking, and Angela's remains dependent upon the influx of college students just as much as the student body relies on the bars to provide that option of an off-campus outlet. "It's a college town for crying out loud," exclaimed Robin.

"They're not going to go to The Grille every night," said Hanley, who sees the value in having viable outlets for the social needs of the students.

Nevertheless, Hanley encouraged students to appreciate their surroundings and respect the community of which they are a part. Students cannot be throwing up in backyard bushes while kindergarten students try to sleep next-door in serenity.

"We've got to find a happy medium here." Once the bars close, Hanley instructed students to "take off, go back to campus and nobody will bother you, especially us."

The only other location that causes difficulty for the Middlebury Police department is off-campus house parties, "which is becoming a blooming problem for us," noted Hanley. Very disruptive noise complaints often generate along the journey to KDR or up South Main Street. The Police department is working together with Campus Public Safety to screen the noise.

"To be anything other than mutually supportive would be a disservice to everybody," Hanley said.