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Penn State Altoona police have begun to patrol the Altoona Transportation Center garage downtown, after a student who recently graduated from the college outlined security concerns that have discouraged students from using the facility.
College police first obtained confirmation from Altoona police that they had jurisdiction for the garage, a jurisdiction based on the garage's proximity to the college's downtown campus and its use by students, according to authority Chairwoman Sherri McGregor at a meeting Friday.
Some students have been reluctant to use the garage because they've seen homeless people nearby, because they suspected there may have been vehicle break-ins and because some students have gotten tickets for parking there, according to McGregor, who works for the college.
Actually, homeless people are not a problem at the garage, there haven't been any vehicle break-ins she's aware of in the many years she's worked at the authority and the tickets were given only during the early days of the school year, before the college could issue window stickers that show students are entitled to park in the garage, said authority office manager Vickie Chilcote.
Still, campus police have been driving in and out of the garage a couple times a day, "so when class starts, it will be part of their routine," Chilcote said.
Authority workers also check the garage each morning, during the day and in the evening, McGregor said.
And a security firm hired by the authority patrols the garage for five hours two nights a week -- with the nights varying, so that anyone who intends to cause problems can't schedule mischief around the company's appearance, Chilcote said.
The authority hired the firm to keep youths with skateboards and bikes from using the garage, and the employees of the firm occasionally evict kids they find, Chilcote said.
The only issue with homeless people in the garage was someone sleeping in the stairwell, twice during the last year or two, Chilcote said.
The person complied when asked to leave, Chilcote said.
Homeless people sometimes leave trash on one of the surface parking lots for which the authority is responsible, however, Chilcote said.
Authority workers clean it up, she said.
The authority's enforcement officer has ticketed student vehicles without stickers, thinking they are vehicles left in the garage by Amtrak customers, some of whom go days or even weeks, Chilcote said.
Penn State leases spaces in the garage for students to park, McGregor said.
The letter from the student was in response to an attempt by the college to learn why more students don't use the garage, McGregor said.