By Peggy Lee
April 16, 2009

A day of fun for Bloomsburg University students comes with a warning. Saturday is the annual off-campus Block Party. Police in town hit the streets Thursday afternoon, trying to head off trouble.

With flyers in hand, officers went door-to-door, handing out memos to Bloomsburg University students who live off campus. Their mission was to make sure everyone knew what they should and shouldn't be doing this Saturday, at the annual off-campus Block Party.

"Advise them of some of the local ordinances that they have to be aware of," said Sergeant Roger Van Loan with the Bloomsburg Police Department. "In regards to noise, open container [violations], penalties for underage drinking."

During the 2007 Block Party, Bloomsburg Police used riot gear to break up hundreds of party-goers along Fetterman Avenue after beer bottles were thrown into the crowd. In the end, 100 people were given citations.

After what happened then, Bloomsburg senior Elizabeth Rogers said she's glad police are making this effort now.

"Two years ago people got hurt, bottles were thrown and people got in trouble so they're just doing their job, making sure everyone's safe," said Rogers.

Many students said they planned on looking out for underage drinkers trying to get into the Block Party.

"We just don't want to get underage drinking citations or public drunkeness," said junior Joe Scharf, "or urinating in the streets, that's bad also."

Students allowed to drink can only drink in the designated areas, said Sgt. Van Loan, or they will be cited for an open container violation.

Police said party-goers are also responsible for cleaning up any trash left behind. Students said they had clean-up crews in place for Sunday morning.

"There's like 10 people in every organization that's helping with permits that are going to come up on Sunday to make sure it's all cleaned up after the fact," said junior Jacki Kurnz.

Police said it's this type of community response from students that makes them confident there won't be any problems come this Saturday. "We try to encourage them to police themselves and we've gotten a lot of cooperation from the greek association as far as that's concerned," said Sgt. Van Loan.