Monday night at Tyrone Borough Council, the body voted to send a cease and decease letter to the Citizens Volunteer Fire Company on its Friday night youth dances.
\nThis morning, two members of the fire company came to the offices of The Daily Herald to \u201cset the record straight.\u201d
\nAccording to Greg Adams, the kid mentioned at the council meeting with the broken arm had nothing to do with the dances.
\n\u201cHe came down the alley behind the fire hall and threw a rock at a car and then got beat up. He wasn\u2019t even in the dance.\u201d
\nThere have been problems since the dances started, but that happens with every youth dance.
\n\u201cWe had six chaperones for about 200 kids and recently boosted that number to 12,\u201d said Chris Hammond one of the disc jockeys for the dances. \u201cThese kids aren\u2019t drinking at the dances; they come in drunk. Why can\u2019t the police catch these kids when they are walking to the dances?\u201d
\nThe letter from Borough Council has not been received by the fire company as of press time. The plans are for a dance to take place this Friday night.
\n\u201cWe haven\u2019t heard from the council or the president of the fire company to stop the dances,\u201d said Hammond. \u201cWe are weeding out the bad kids. We are enforcing stricter punishment if they break the rules. Instead of getting one night out, the rule breakers are banned from attending the dances.\u201d
\nHammond said that he spoke with Tyrone Mayor Pat Stoner about the dances nearly a month ago.
\n\u201cShe (Mayor Stoner) gave us instructions about how to clean up the dances,\u201d said Hammond. \u201cIt just hasn\u2019t been going as fast as they would like. I have even invited the mayor personally to the dances to see what goes on, but she has not come yet.\u201d
\nHammond said the same type of things have happened in Altoona with dances there.
\n\u201cThese things are why the Casino and other places in Altoona have stopped doing youth dances,\u201d said Hammond. \u201cThis just takes something to do away for a lot of kids.\u201d
\nWhen asked about the amount of kids causing trouble, Hammond said the number was small.
\n\u201cOf the 200 kids who come every week, there is probably 15 kids who are there to cause trouble,\u201d said Hammond. \u201cWe just kicked about seven of them out and the number of trouble makers is dwindling.\u201d
\nOne of the members of the fire company, Rod Zimmerman used to chaperone the dances but stopped after six weeks.
\n\u201cI just stopped because the kids wouldn\u2019t listen,\u201d said Zimmerman. \u201cThere were problems and fights. It is tough to keep track of 200 kids inside, let alone when you let them out and come back in.\u201d
\nAccording to Zimmerman, there has been damage inside the social hall because of the dances.
\n\u201cThe women\u2019s bathroom stalls have been knocked off the wall,\u201d said Zimmerman. \u201cThere have been tables busted, holes punched in the drywall and footprints on the wall.\u201d
\nOn the \u2018Chewdog and Hammy\u2019 (Chris Hammond and Matt DeArmitt) website, this message was placed for the kids who attend the dances to read:
\n\u201cWe need your help!
\nThe Tyrone Borough Council has voted to stop the dances every Friday night. Their address is 1100 Logan Avenue, Tyrone, Pa. 16686.
\nYes, there are problems, but when we see them, we call the police, not anyone else. They must not want that. Reading the paper, that is what it looks like.
\nThe kid with the broken arm from the fight wasn\u2019t even from the dance. They fought in the alley beside the fire hall.
\nThe drunk kid was standing outside when the doorman saw him drunk, brought him in and again called police. He got taken to the hospital.
\nWe need all the support we can get on this. Please tell everyone you know to help, for the youth, the people of tomorrow and for the Citizens Fire Company.\u201d
\nSome of the kids who attend the dances are already taking action.
\nOne teenager said that, \u201cI have personally seen several instances where Matt (DeArmitt) and Chris (Hammond) have called people\u2019s parents because they have shown up drunk at the dances. They cannot baby-sit the kids and check everyone when they come in, or we wouldn\u2019t be able to have the dances.\u201d
\nShe later said, \u201cYes, kids smoke out behind the building, but not once have I seen anyone doing drugs or drinking at the dances. It\u2019s a place for us to get out for a little bit and have fun on the weekend. Some of us get to see friends from other towns while we are there and we have a lot of fun. Shutting down the dances would do more harm than good.\u201d
\nThe Daily Herald contacted Tyrone Police Chief Joe Beachem about this matter.
\n\u201cWe have responded to seven calls in the Citizens area in the month of May,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cOn May 3, a juvenile who just left the dance, was drunk and broke into seven vehicles. On May 16, we responded to a suspicious person hanging behind the fire hall, and also on the May 16, three juveniles jumped in front of a mini-van on 10th Street and threw rocks at the vehicle. May 23, we responded to a male juvenile under the influence and the fight in which the kid suffered the broken arm. On May 30, two adult females got into a pushing match. Both will be cited for disorderly conduct. We have also responded to several noise calls.\u201d
\nBeachem also said that patrols around the Citizens are boosted on dance nights.
\n\u201cWe try to keep a car in that area,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cIt is a drain if you have to concentrate on one area. We get calls that take that car out of the area and that is when things tend to happen.\u201d
\nBeachem also said it is a few people who are causing the problems.
\n\u201cI hate to see the good kids lose something to do,\u201d said Beachem. \u201cThe problem has gotten so out of hand that we have little choice but to ask for the dances to stop.\u201d
\nTyrone Borough has the option to stop funding the Citizens Fire Company if the order isn\u2019t followed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday night at Tyrone Borough Council, the body voted to send a cease and decease letter to the Citizens Volunteer Fire Company on its Friday night youth dances. This morning, two members of the fire company came to the offices of The Daily Herald to \u201cset the record straight.\u201d According to Greg Adams, the kid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}