Off-Campus Board, Orono Police Team up with Orchard Trails

Since there has been so much damage and complaints at Orchard Trails, the Off Campus Board is going to intervene along with the Orono police to team up with Orchard Trails management. The vandalism that occured last month with resident's vehicles had never happend at the other 78 communites around college towns in the U.S that James Goodson (area manager of Orchard Trails) had seen. A lot of peole were shocked about this incident Goodson said in the Maine Campus November 6th.

Part of the proposed solution is to make an Orchard Trails Representative Board, similar to the hall governing boards in the dorms on campus. According to Goodson in the Maine Campus, at least 525 of the 535 residents are students at the University of Maine.

Also the Orono police, OCB, and Orchard Trails management hope to create forums and meet with residents to talk and discuss concerns and avoid conflict.

I think that it is great the OCB and the Orono police want to team up with Orchard Trails management, however I don't believe it's going to have that much impact on vandalism, underage drinking, etc. I do think that there should be survellience cameras at least in parking lots and maybe hallways of the apartments, although, is that going a little too far? Either way this is a college town, these apartments are geared towards college students, and there is going to be a lot of damage, alcohol and parties involved. There is no way they can prevent this from happening. The residents have learned by now that if you keep it in your apartment theres nothing really the police or OT management can do. The hallways and parking lots are public property and that is mainly where they catch the underage drinking, and vandalism in the hallways and parking lots. The police say that they want to have a relationship with the residents and management, but honestly i do not think the residents would agree that the police treat them in a way to have a "relationship" with them. I do think the forum is a good idea to talk about concerns and problems residents have at the complex. So far there has been one meeting and should be more to come. It will be interesting what else goes on in Orchard Trails for the remainder of the school year. Although lately it has been quiet for the past two weeks.