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Typically, 250 to 300 public safety personnel are on duty each of the three nights.
One longstanding question about UConn’s annual Spring Weekend and all that goes with it has been – how much is this costing local taxpayers? Or how much money is this perennial problem siphoning away from other services?
A report on Spring Weekend 2008 released on Oct. 27 estimates that overtime costs for fire, police and EMS personnel alone total $23,681.
This is for 274.5 hours of overtime for local and state police, and 307.5 hours of overtime for fire and EMS personnel.
The report was developed by John Jackman, who serves as the town’s Fire Marshal and Director of Emergency Management, with input from Mansfield Fire Chief Dagon and Mansfield’s Resident State Trooper Sgt. Brian Kennedy.
The report also points out that these are just the direct costs.
Approximately 600 additional unpaid hours are contributed by volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel from Mansfield and surrounding mutual-aid towns. The value of these volunteer hours, based on an hourly rate of $19.33, totals another $28,125.
The figures do not include UConn’s overtime costs for fire and police coverage, or the regular hours devoted to planning and training for fire, police and town staff.
All of this effort is poured into dealing with “unsanctioned” Spring Weekend events – mainly the parties that begin on Thursday night and end in the early hours of Sunday – at Carriage House Apartments, Celeron Square Apartments and UConn’s X-Lot.
These parties attract thousands of students and non-students each night, and are considered a public safety problem because of “public intoxication, underage drinking, assaults and other violence, and property destruction,” the report states.
Typically, 250 to 300 public safety personnel are on duty each of the three nights.
The drain on manpower and dollars presents “a dilemma,” Jackman said Monday. On the one hand, it “enables” the parties. On the other hand, because of the threat to public safety – both for students and the town residents living in these neighborhoods, “we do have an obligation,” he said.
Despite the combined efforts of police, town and UConn staff, people still manage to injure themselves during Spring Weekend.
In 2008, between the evening of April 24 and 8 a.m. on Sunday April 27, 66 patients were treated, of which 43 had to be transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
State Police and UConn Police also made a total of 126 arrests.
Other state agencies get involved. The State Department of Health gives the Mansfield Fire Department use of the DPH Medical Mobile Command Post for central operations.
The concern isn’t all on the town’s side – students also have objected to the unsavory image of UConn that the off-campus parties project, and they have become concerned about their own safety.
In 2007, as part of a “take back Spring Weekend” campaign, students issued wrist bracelets so that the party crashers can be sifted out from students and invited guests.
The report notes that “outsiders” contribute “disproportionately” to the number of traumatic injuries and other medical emergencies (such as alcohol poisoning), and illegal behavior. One recommendation, therefore, is to restrict parking by “outsiders” by closing or restricting access to UConn parking lots.
Mayor Betsy Paterson also recognizes that UConn students are trying to do what they can to tame the Spring Weekend mayhem. “Students say that when they do something positive, they don’t get any credit for it,” Paterson said, and noted that student organizations have been working hard to create events – such as the popular OOzeball – that will keep students on campus.
She also warned that those who say that UConn should just pull the plug on Spring Weekend aren’t being realistic. The parties would continue and it would take strong-arm tactics to shut them down. The way things are now, at least the crowds of thousands are “contained” where they can be monitored and emergency help can reach them.
For More Information
http://mansfield.htnp.com/news/putting_a_price_tag_on_spring_weekend.html
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