ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 29, 1997 TAG: 9703310045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: A CUPPA JOE
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY
When Bill Rippe was with Comfort Inn in Blacksburg, he never had a problem with young people renting rooms on weekends for illegal purposes.
But since becoming general manager of the new Country Inn and Suites on Plantation Road in North Roanoke County in November, he's run into mobile, moneyed teen-agers who have used his accommodations for more than just sleeping.
A couple of Friday nights ago, two teens paid $90 each for suites.
One group of three kept quiet and caused no trouble. The second group started small and grew to six or eight people. They got loud, but, after a warning, calmed down.
The surprise came in the morning. "We went in the rooms ... and on a table was what appeared to be marijuana residue," Rippe says, "and the room did smell of it."
The suites were nasty with ashes and cigarette butts, and in one, a smoke detector hung down from the ceiling. Trash was everywhere.
By then, the occupants were gone.
And in the girl's room|
The next night, a young woman pulled up in a Mercedes and rented a suite.
"We told her the room was for her and for her only," Rippe said.
"She could have two or three guests and no more, and if the noise got loud or there were more than that number of people, we were going to throw her out."
Staffers kept their eyes on the room, which had an inside entrance reachable by those without keys only through the hotel's front door. But Rippe took a closer look and saw the girl letting people in at the far end of the hall.
Around back, he saw a male in the room using a towel to wave smoke away from the smoke detector. Then his pager went off, indicating a fire alarm.
In he charged. Out went the kids. Up pulled a fire engine. Back to the station it went. And yes, Rippe again smelled marijuana.
Later, the girl who rented the room called and asked if she was in trouble. She wasn't, but Rippe now says, "I should have called the police."
No more kids' room at the inn|
When he did talk to the police, he discovered that kids, alcohol, drugs and hotel rooms are a common combination on weekends in the Roanoke Valley. The only unusual thing about his experience was the price the kids paid for the "upper economy" suites.
Usually, they prefer low-end accommodations - $30 rather than $90 - because most don't drive Mercedeses.
The kids who tried out Rippe's place were local. Local kids can't rent rooms there now. Under a new policy, anyone younger than 20 and from less than 30 miles away is ineligible.
That should cut down on the parties, says Tom Kincaid, crime prevention officer for Roanoke County police. He urges innkeepers to call the police even when the only apparent problem is noise, and certainly when laws are being broken.
When called, officers often find beer, booze, drugs and property damage.
What can parents do?
Kincaid recommends setting reasonable curfews, getting to know your children's friends, and greeting your kids with a hug when they come home - to show affection, but also to sniff for booze or pot.
Hotels and motels that don't rent to young locals usually avoid these problems, he says.
Some might say this penalizes the good kids with the bad, but I'm not sure good kids need to rent motel rooms on weekend nights. Are you?
What's your story? Call me at 981-3256, send e-mail to joek@roanoke.com or write to P.O. Box 2491, Roanoke 24010.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB