"Animal House" gets shut down
Meg Allen
Issue date: 3/2/06 Section: Campus News
(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 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."