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Vol. 87, No. 7 Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunny 83°/51° chance of precipitation: 0%
APPAREL OFF CAMPUS
Hunters Ridge tenants displaced
Shirts violated Va. Tech trademark By RYAN PLATT The Breeze
JAKE THIEWES / THE BREEZE
A Friday night party in 1348 J in Hunters Ridge Apartments results in a floor collapse that sent 27 partygoers to the hospital. By JOHN SUTTER and MATT SUTHERLAND The Breeze
Hunters Ridge residents Kailynn Brokamp and Kim Buckingham are looking for a new place to live after Friday’s apartment collapse that followed reports of an over-crowded thirdfloor party. The juniors, who live in the second floor apartment unit directly beneath J — the location of the party — weren’t home Friday during the floor collapse that sent dozens to the hospital but returned home that night to find their apartment destroyed. They were just two of all the tenants in the building to be displaced from the collapse. On Tuesday, an engineer will assess the property to determine the structural integrity and safety for the unaffected units, according to Troy Gerber, Coldwell Banker Homeowners Association Community Management assistant manager. Gerber said after that review, tenants in unaffected apartments will hopefully be able to return in one or two weeks. “It’s mostly the electrical systems they are concerned about for the unaffected units,” Gerber said. “Structurally, they are optimistic that the units aren’t affected.” Brokamp, a communication studies major, and Buckingham, a biology major, said they are trying to figure out where to live now. They just moved into their apartment in mid-August. “It’s going to be hard getting our life put back together,” Buckingham said. “Classes still start on Monday.” Since Brokamp’s room is in the corner of the building, the collapsed living room floor completely cut off access to her room. “I don’t have my toothbrush, I don’t have clothes,” Brokamp said. “I have [a shirt and shorts] and what I wore out last night.” The apartments in Hunters Ridge are individually owned, with some owners choose to use a property manager, like Coldwell Banker. Gerber said the owners are responsible to go through their insurance, which should cover hotel costs or other additional costs. “For most of them, either the owners have made arrangements or they are staying with friends,” Gerber said of the displaced tenants. “The Coldwell Banker leasing agent is looking
ROBERT BOAG / THE BREEZE
Tenants in 1348 of Hunters Ridge are responsible to go through their insurance or landlord for hotel rooms and additional costs. Tuesday, an engineer is scheduled to assess the structural integrity and safety for the unaffected units.
into short-term leases or long-term depending on how long it is going to be.” Brokamp’s father, Tom, owns the nowdestroyed apartment unit. “What about the people who were displaced through no cause of their own?” he said. Tom Brokamp said he was disappointed that more hasn’t been done to help those displaced. He paid for his daughter and her roommate in the Residence Inn by Marriott for two weeks as a temporary solution. “These newly homeless girls had only the clothes on their backs and what they carried in their pockets, wallet, keys and a cell phone,” Tom said. Gerber said an insurance adjuster, who surveyed the property Sunday, will determine responsibility for the damages.
Eyewitness accounts
Larry Shifflett, fire chief for the Harrisonburg Fire Department, said a witness of the collapse thought the apartment “was packed too tight to dance.” Neither the fire department nor residents have a credible estimate for how many
people were on the third floor. “This is the first incidence that I have seen where there has been a total structure collapse,” Shifflett said. “This has been our fear for a very long time, that this would happen as a result of these parties.” Two Bridgewater College students who attended the party described what they experienced Friday. Christa McCloud was in the living room dancing when the floor collapsed. “They turned the music up and all of a sudden the floor started to shake and fell straight through,” McCloud said. Dominic Jeter said the apartment was packed, especially in the living room where everyone was dancing. After the floor collapsed, he was hanging on to a pipe from the second floor. “Everybody, the whole dance floor, was either hanging on to something or they fell all the way down to the first floor,” Jeter said. When Brokamp and Buckingham came home, they said they both started crying and see COLLAPSE, page 5
Two creators of JMU vs. Virginia Tech commemorative T-shirts have changed their design after threats of legal consequences over trademark violations by Va. Tech. After the historic win in Blacksburg, junior Rick Metzger approached junior Ben Rellick with a design for a T-shirt, figuring JMU students would want a shirt to commemorate the win. The original shirt was purple with the image of a turkey and had the Va. Tech logo on it with the words “Thanksgiving Came Early” printed across the front. The back displayed the JMU logo and the final score. The new shirt removes the Va. Tech logo from the turkey and includes a Duke Dog food bowl with turkey legs in it. The two graphic design majors used Facebook to market the shirts to students, as did several other groups that formed in the days following JMU’s win of - over Va. Tech. “I told Ben, ‘If people are interested, then I’ll print,’ ” Metzger said. “Overnight it went from people, and I woke up the next morning and it was at . In a period of hours, we went from me conceptualizing it to almost , people in the group now, with close to $, in orders.” The group, however, attracted not just JMU students to the T-shirt sales, but also gained the attention of administration from both JMU and Va. Tech. Soon after going online with a website connected to Metzger’s own T-shirt company, creameryshop.com, they were contacted by the JMU Foundation. The JMU Foundation is the university’s private company that covers licensing and logo use. Metzger explained the situation as confusing at first, because Va. Tech had contacted the JMU Foundation to discuss possibly taking legal action if the shirt production continued. Rellick said he was told Va. Tech would either send people or have people confiscate the shirts if they carried through with production. Metzger and Rellick were unaware of the proper channels needed to create and sell T-shirts. “I had spoken to an organization in Taylor [Hall], who said as long as I went through an approved printer then it shouldn’t be an issue. I am working through a JMU licensed vendor,” said Metzger, who thought he was safe in producing the shirts. Metzger and Rellick used their printer as a conduit to get the approval of the Collegiate Licensing Company to resolve the issue. “We wanted to remove those trademarks and just try to make it work,” Rellick said. “We didn’t expect to be dealing with this many people and this much money. We just don’t want to piss anybody off.” Once they got approval from the CLC and JMU, students who have already placed orders received a message on Facebook, notifying them of the design change and allowing them to decide whether or not they wanted to retain their order. JMU Foundation is receiving royalties from the shirt orders because the shirts have the “James Madison University” name and Duke Dog on the new shirt design. “We’re just JMU students,” Metzger said. “The print shop is run by JMU alumni. We’re passionate about JMU. We just want to go about it the right way.” A second group of students who printed and sold T-shirts on campus are see T-SHIRTS, page 5
EVENTS
Bike race in memory of JMU parent a success By KALEIGH SOMERS The Breeze
Sophomore Nic Mirenda biked kilometers on Saturday morning to complete the task his father never finished. Dr. Joe Mirenda, Nic’s father, was fatally struck by a car on Aug. , while cycling from Wintergreen Resort to JMU for a surprise visit to see Nic. The DR Metric Century and HalfCentury Charity Ride and k was held to honor Joe, a cardiac anesthesiologist at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, and raise money to repave roads and add bike lanes in Harrisonburg and the surrounding area. DR represents Joe’s occupation as a doctor, as well as the kilometer distance he traveled. The race proceeds totaled more than $, excluding race day registration,
with participants pre-registering and approximately more people who signed up on Saturday. The event started out just as a K race, but members of the core committee who helped organize the race wanted to offer people more options, so a K race and a K run/walk were added to encourage more participants. The K bike race started at the Shenandoah Lake Campground and ended at Festival. The K race was a loop, starting and ending at Festival. Many participants were avid cyclists from the Valley who had heard about the event and wanted to help fund roadwork projects. As participants finished the K run/ walk and K bike route, they congregated on the Festival lawn, refueling with bottled water. Frauke Mirenda, Nic’s mother, spoke
with cyclists as they finished the K race, asking what they thought of the course. The overall consensus? They loved the course and it was a good day to ride. One local cyclist, Steve Tomasi, approached Nic just weeks after the tragedy with the idea for the DR race. “Through some introspection and prayer, I said, ‘You know, the community ought to give something back to [the Mirenda family] for this because they’re not from the Shenandoah Valley,’ “ Tomasi said. Both Nic and his sister, Elli, a senior at Cape Henry Collegiate School in Virginia Beach, were surprised that Tomasi had the idea. “I was like, ‘These people don’t even know us. That’s really cool.’ I thought it see BIKING, page 5
9/20 INSIDE
ROBERT BOAG / THE BREEZE
Sophomore Nic Mirenda bikes Saturday in the DR100 Metric Century and HalfCentury Charity Ride for his father, Joe.
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NEWS A fiery passion
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OPINION Afghan conflict
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LIFE Prison pens
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SPORTS Dukes shut out Spiders
Hose Company No. relies on volunteers.
A deadline for retreat causes confusion and discord.
Guest speaker discusses the benefits of writing and reading for inmates.
Field hockey breaks losing streak after defeating the Richmond Spiders.