"Animal House" gets shut down

By: Meg Allen

Posted: 3/2/06

(Editor's Note: Some names have been omitted to protect confidentiality.)

The house at 9 Burrill Ave has been dubbed "Animal House" by The Brockton Enterprise. The residents of the house claim that this is an exaggeration. However, despite their protests, the group of students is still in the process of being evicted by their landlord.

Earlier this month, Bridgewater Selectmen held a meeting to discuss the status of what The Enterprise has called the "town's most notorious lodging house." At this February 14 meeting, it was decided, based on a record of complaints and police visits to the home, to revoke the lodging house license for 9 Burrill Ave, according to David Moore, Bridgewater Town Building Inspector.

"A lodging house has to have a special permit from the board of appeals, and a lodging house license," Moore said. "It is a one year license that gets renewed every year."

According to Moore, there are several differences between an apartment house, a private house that is rented out, and a lodging house. A lodging house, in addition to the license and permit, must "have life safety devices," Moore said. "A hard wired alarm system and a residential sprinkler system" are classified in this category of devices. Apartment houses do not have to install these. Also, according to The Enterprise and Moore, in an apartment house each unit has its own bath and cooking areas. In a lodging house these facilities are in a common area.

The meeting, called by Moore, was, according to him, in response to the complaints by residents near the Burrill Ave property, as well as the pile up of police reports. At the meeting, Moore told the selectmen that the so-called "animal house" was the only house on Burrill Ave that he has fielded complaints about. "We don't normally have hearings," Moore said in an interview with The Comment. "The owners make an application for renewal and this is done at a public meeting. There is only a hearing because there was a problem."

The problem to which Moore is referring was the police reports that he says have piled up, as well as the complaints from neighbors. "The house first came to my attention last spring," he said. "It was brought to my attention through Bridgewater Police sending over reports of incidents that have happened. As reports piled up, I recommended a meeting." Moore also states that complaints from near-by residents were specific to 9 Burrill Ave. This house is the only lodging house on that road, according to Moore. The other lodging house is technically located on Plymouth Street. According to a representative from the Selectmen's Office, Renee Rushton, Melissa Arrighi, a resident of Plymouth Street near Burrill Ave, voiced concerns about the house. She also explained ongoing issues at the initial February 14 hearing, according to the Selectmen's office.

However, current residents of 9 Burrill Ave claim that this statement is grossly exaggerated. "Our house is the same as other houses," Travers Peterson, a resident of the house said in an interview with The Comment. "Other houses get police called to them as well. We just bear the brunt of what other houses do."

He went on to explain some of the situations during which police have arrived at their house. "For example," Peterson stated, "police showed up at another house. Their party was broken up. The police then went to our house and another house and busted up those parties."

Police records, which have been summarized in The Enterprise, state that Bridgewater Police have been called to the house 31 times in the past three and a half years. Bridgewater State College Police Chief David Tillinghast noted that on several occasions his police officers have responded to aid BPD officers already at the scene.

"BSCPD has responded to 9 Burrill Ave, or the immediate vicinity of 9 Burrill Ave, on several occasions within the past year," Tillinghast said. "These responses were to assist the town police in regard to such incidents as disturbances and noise complaints." However, Tillinghast said that "as a matter of department policy, we do not comment on the responses of other agencies." This would include other responses where just BPD officers were at the scene. The records cited in The Enterprise go on to state the nature of those visits. These include liquor law violations, house parties, fireworks, and fights involving 20 to 50 people. They also reported a health and welfare check on a reportedly "very drunk girl."

"Fights involving 20 to 50 people and drunken girls getting taken away in ambulances," Peterson said. "Police being called 31 times to the house; these things never happened. Events have been blown out of proportion."

The current residents have only lived in the house for approximately nine months. Previously, the lodging house has been rented to a group affiliated with the current residents, as well allegedly rented to members of the women's lacrosse team, according to the current residents interviewed. The group in the house is currently connected to previous residents through a fraternity organization. However, the residents interviewed were unable to comment on the "party house" status of the residence prior to their occupancy.

"Bridgewater Police have only shown up to our house maybe 10 times in the last nine months," Peterson said. "There are houses that are a whole lot worse than ours. Because we are close to campus, we are getting in trouble."

While Moore has been receiving police reports and has fielded complaints from neighbors since the lodging house opened about 3 years ago, he says that recently the incidence of reports has increased. "When the lodging house opened there was a problem occasionally," Moore said. "Last spring (owner Brian Koplovsky) seemed like he had more problems with out-of-control residents."

According to Peterson, the house is typically a quiet residence. "On a regular night, we hang out, watch television and do our homework," he said. "Thursday and Friday nights, maybe Saturday, are the only nights we have people over." Even then, the group makes every effort to make the gatherings safe and low-key. "A party is 'invite only.' To get in you have to know someone who lives there," another resident, who wished to remain anomymous, noted. "We can say yes or no to friends that others bring."

"We try to create a safe, comfortable environment," Peterson continued. "We try to keep out people who look like they will cause trouble."

A typical party to which police have responded is one that has gone past the control of the residents of the house. "There are obnoxious noises outside, people being disrespectful," Peterson said. "The house has some responsibility because we allowed the people causing trouble into the house. But we do try to keep it under control."

In a letter dated February 7, that Moore read at the selectmen's meeting, he held that he had spoken to the lodging house owner, Brian Koplovsky of Duxbury, about the issue. Koplovsky's attorney, Kristopher Stefani, told the selectmen that the house owner grasps the seriousness of the issue, and that the "problem bunch of kids" is currently under the process of being evicted.

Peterson felt that little action was being taken by Koplovsky. "He doesn't contact us," he said. "He just waits for other people to handle it." At the time we went to press, Koplovsky had been contacted, but was unable to be reached for comment.

Some who live in the house believe that their eviction is mainly due to trouble related to BSC students, but not to their specific home. "We're not bad people," said Peterson. "The town just needs a scapegoat for all the incidents related to Bridgewater State College this year."

Selectman Chair Dennis C. Gallagher voiced the feeling that tragedies, like those related to BSC this school year, need to be prevented in the future. "We have to take action," he told The Enterprise. "I am worried based on the way things have gone on this year and that if we don't take action, something might happen." Previous incidents related to the college this year have included the fatal stabbing outside a local bar and the first semester motor vehicle fatality.

The group of young men will have to leave, as they put it, "their little slice of heaven." However, according to The Enterprise, this process could be continued well into the spring of this year, due to Massachusetts laws regarding evictions.