Mirror - Vol. 31, No. 28 - May 04, 2006

              WEEK OF MAY 4,2006
Vol. 31, Iss. 28 - 20 pages
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Damage control: Jogues to be charged most in year-end fees
BY MAURA ROUSSEAU
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ladies and gentle-men,
we have a winner.
With a total of $6,000 in damages, Jogues
holds the title of dorm with the highest dam-ages
bill as of late April.
The Jogues total is a little over a fourth
of the total $24,000 damage bill, according
to Gary Stephenson, the director of housing
operations.
The bill mainly reflects damages to com-mon
areas such as common rooms, bathrooms
and hallways. This includes everything from
broken windows to the $100 charge every
time someone vomits in one of these areas,
according to Stephenson.
"The Great Rood of Jogues", caused by a
sprinkler that was broken by residents playing
sports in the halls, totaled about $4,000. The
individuals responsible for the incident are
paying the bill, Stephenson said.
Residents of Jogues already seem to be
aware of the building's standings.
Jenny Mezzapelle '09 was not surprised
by the news and said, "I feel like everyone
always says that it is a given every year that
Jogues is number one."
Stephenson attributes this to the setup
of the building.
"I wouldn 't design a building like Jogues
... It's the only dorm where you open your
door and do not face a neighbor."
Stephenson added, "I think, in certain
parts, a person might feel out of the eyes
of the community and might feel like they
could get away with something they might
not otherwise try."
The fact that Jogues is an all-freshmen
building might be another factor.
"Freshmen come in sometimes with man-agement
issues and express them sometimes
through vandalism," said Stephenson.
Upon hearing that Jogues had the high-est
damage costs, Jogues R.A. Kevin Saville
said, "In the scheme of things, I think fresh-men
buildings tend to have more damage.
Jogues is highly populated. I think when you
have many people using things they tend to
get broken."
Ashlee Downing '08, another Jogues
R.A., recounted the damages she has seen
this year.
Downing also thinks that students forget
who has to pay building damages at the end
of the year.
SEE "BROKEN" ON P. 6
A JOB WELL DONE
Elyse Raby/The Mirror
Man of many words: Jim Scholl '07 was named RA of the Year at the Stag Awards on
Sunday night. For more photos from the event, go to www.fairfieldmirror.com.
Beach-dwellers beware
Threat of eviction looms
BY JESS MITCHELL
Living at the beach next year? Do you
have one too many people living in your
house? Planning on throwing crazy parties?
If you answered yes, then it's time to
think about protecting you and your house-mates
from being evicted.
Beach evictions can happen for a number
of reasons. Mike Chaconas '06, a resident
of the Sea Ranch, faced an eviction threat
due to house damages. "Basi-cally,
our landlord's brother came into our
house unannounced the night after we had a
party. He started taking pictures and told our
landlord," said Chaconas. "[Our landlord] told
us we could let his person fix the house or get
evicted."
After the Sea Ranch's landlord over-charged
the tenants for the damages, they
hired a lawyer and saved $2,500 by hir-ing
someone else to fix the damages, said
Chaconas.
"We would have been served with
eviction papers, but we fixed the damages
ourselves," said Chaconas.
During the Off-Campus Housing meet-ing,
Off-Campus Coordinator Duane Melzer
said that students can be evicted if they have
too many people living in their house.
He said that because the even numbered
houses of Fairfield Beach Rd. are only allowed
to have four people on the lease, residents can
be evicted for having more than four people
living in a house.
Beach resident Dicky Faro '06 also faced
a potential eviction.
"Our house was only supposed to have
four people in it and we had more people,"
Faro said. "One of my housemates gave all
of our names to the cops. When we got back
from Thanksgiving break, there was a note
saying three people had to move out."
Faro said he was nervous that the
town would just "show up and do a random
check."
"Luckily, nothing preceded forward with
the eviction process and we are moving out
after graduation," said Faro.
SEE "STUDENTS" ON P. 6
The party's over at Al's: 20 students attested, 17 fake IDs confiscated
BY ANDREW CHAPIN
For freshman Brittany Bates, last
Wednesday night was not the average ka-raoke
night at Al's Place.
"I was dancing on the dance floor
holding a drink and a cop came up to me
with a badge around his neck. He told
me to have a seat on the stage," she said.
Bates, who received a ticket for under-age
drinking, was initially surprised.
"I thought the badge was fake," she
said.
The badge, however, was not fake.
Police arrested 20 underage people and con-fiscated
17 false identifications, according
to Fairfield Police Captain Robert Comers.
"We've received several complaints
about underage drinking at Al's," he said.
Comers also said that a liquor compli-ance
check, commonly done when com-plaints
are received, was administered.
According to him, there were a total of
50 underage people in the bar.
Timo Wilson '09 thought that there
was something different about the bar at-mosphere
that night.
"I noticed two shady guys chilling in
the corner just watching everyone."
Then the situation escalated, accord-ing
to Wilson, and he noticed cops in vests
enter the bar.
Another student, who wished to remain
anonymous, confirmed Wilson's story.
"The undercover, police officers had
been there pretty much the entire night; they
had watched everything that happened," he
said.
But this student felt that the blame
should fall on Al's, not the students who
were there. "The bouncer didn't even card
us. We didn't get carded at the bar either,"
he said. "That should've been a sign."
Before he knew it, his wrists were
behind his back and he was brought to the
stage, the student said. He accepted full re-sponsibility
for his predicament, however.
"I gave him my fake ID when he asked
for it. I got a summons for consuming al-cohol
as a minor."
He was allowed to leave after the sum-mons
was issued, he said.
The manager of Al's, Mike Horvheh,
said he was not at the bar on Wednesday and
was unsure of the details of the night.
When called, Al's refused to comment
on the situation.
Mirror file photo
Another one bites the dust: Al's Place,
located on the Post Road in Fairfield, was
.raided last Wednesday night .