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Residents of Wehnwood near Penn State Altoona are upset about regular outdoor partying by college students on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, featuring drunkenness, fighting, cursing, property damage and noise from music and voices that keep them awake until as late as 4 a.m.
With as many as 100 students congregating on the street and in yards on a single block, the situation is worse than they've experienced since moving to the area, said the residents on Thursday at a house not far from the Broadway entrance to the Hawthorn parking lot.
College leadership is trying to solve the problem: "We are aware of the situation and are working internally as well as closely with local police and landlords to help manage it," said Chancellor Ron Darbeau in an emailed statement.
"It's not that occasional party anymore," said resident Cindy Colledge, whose aluminum garage door was damaged when a student repeatedly banged his head on it one night -- as described to her by neighbors. She has filed an insurance claim for a $2,300 replacement but will need to pay her $1,000 deductible.
A few weeks ago, a student repeatedly punched the face of another who was lying on his back in the middle of the street, head against the asphalt, as the first student threatened to kill him -- while a girl reclined on the street nearby, drinking from a red cup and watching, according to Colledge and neighbor Traci Gibboney.
The students have broken mailboxes off their supports, and they leave beer cans, broken glass and cartons behind, according to the neighbors.
The neighbors regularly call Altoona police, whose subsequent appearance in their squad cars, often with a significant delay, generally disperses at least some of the partiers, who nevertheless return when the officers leave, the neighbors said.
"(The students) have no fear," Gibboney said.
When neighbors ask or order the students to quit what they're doing, the students pay little attention -- although they don't seem hostile, according to a resident who didn't want her name to be used.
"They ignore you like you aren't there," the resident said.
"It's really out of control," said a second neighbor who didn't want her name used.
Given that college students are away from home for the first time, some cutting loose is to be expected, said resident Jeanne Yingling.
"But disrespecting the neighborhood is not acceptable," Yingling said.
"I get it: they want to have fun," said the first neighbor. "But this is our home."
The first neighbor doesn't enjoy seeing anyone arrested.
She has no desire to see a 17- or 18-year-old get a police record.
"But they're creating an environment where someone is going to get hurt," Gibboney stated.
In previous years, students' behavior was at worst mildly annoying, Gibboney said. "But this year is totally different."
"This year, it's just horrible," the first resident said. "This is insane."
It was nice during COVID, according to Yingling.
Maybe kids lost their social skills during the shutdowns, Gibboney said.
Regardless, things are always peaceful in that neighborhood during the summer, the first resident said.
Then it's great, but when the opening of school approaches, she gets nervous.
The situation this year has caused her blood pressure to rise and her husband to push for moving out, she said.
Police involved
Altoona, Logan Township and Penn State Altoona police have scheduled meetings to deal with the problem, according to Altoona Police Chief Joe Merrill.
Campus leadership has been cooperative and is in tune with what the community needs, Merrill said.
The college has been doing what it can to help identify students who are causing the problems and to hold them accountable, through internal processes and sanctions, "when the situation warrants," Merrill said.
The cooperation includes helping to get the college police more involved in the community, he said.
That includes helping the APD on calls, he said.
Police make arrests for student misbehavior when appropriate, including some this week for public drunkenness, according to Merrill.
Some of the partying has been connected with a fraternity house in the neighborhood, according to the neighbors.
The city's Department of Codes and Inspections received a complaint about that and sent a letter to the owner and to the house, informing those involved that a fraternity house operation is illegal without approval from the Zoning Hearing Board, said department Director Rebecca Brown.
The owner said he would let his tenants know about that requirement, Brown said.
Brown is unaware of the city Zoning Board ever having given permission for a frat house to operate, she said.
Some years are worse than others for student behavior, Logan Township Supervisors Chairman Jim Patterson said at a meeting Thursday.
Students who come here to college should focus on their educations, he said.
"Some kids leave their brains at home," said Supervisor Joe Metzgar.
"Students can screw up their entire lives by getting arrested," Patterson said. "It hangs with them forever."
Township ordinances include potentially helpful tools to squelch the kind of behavior the neighbors are complaining about.
Township police invoked one of those on Tuesday, filing a notice of violation for a disorderly gathering, one official said.
Owners can lose the right to rent their properties if three disorderly gatherings occur within 90 days, an official said.
"We don't mess around with it," said Supervisor Ed Frontino.
A group of landlords who operate student homes and who cooperate with one another is working with campus leadership to get a handle on the problem, said a representative of the landlord group.
The students who are causing the problems are not coming from Wehnwood Court, said property manager Robin Senitko, who cited a couple of other properties as the problematic ones.
"It's not our kids," Senitko said.
More than half of her tenants are nursing students, who get up early and aren't "partiers," she said.
Sophomore Samuel DuPont from Long Island answered the door at one of the student homes near campus.
Students there hold parties, but only small gatherings for people they know, DuPont said.
Unfortunately, word gets around, and other students latch on, he said.
Some students just assume their house will be having parties, and then show up, he said.
When told to leave, they often don't listen, he said.
He understands how the neighbors would be unhappy with the situation, he said.
When asked to lower the volume of music, the residents of the house comply, he said.
The property doesn't house a fraternity, DuPont said.
The wild parties would bother him too if he lived in that neighborhood, said freshman Xander Shank from Bellwood, who lives at home.
Students need to see things from the neighbors' perspective, according to Shank.
The neighbors' schedules are work-based, and different, the students need to realize, according to Shank.
"I feel for (the neighbors)," said junior Dylan Bauer from Spring City, Chester County. Still, those neighbors need to accept that homes being located next to a campus will mean that there will be nearby housing for students, and that those students will be "finding themselves" -- a process that includes coming of age and exercising their right to drink, he said.
"It comes with the territory," Bauer said.
When he's bothered by noise, he drowns it out with a fan or the TV, Bauer said.
He might have done some partying outdoors last year, but having turned 21, he now goes to the local bars, he said.
At least one City Council member is confident that conditions will improve.
"This chancellor seems to be very on top of things," said Councilman Dave Ellis. "I'm sure he will handle the (situation) in an appropriate manner."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.