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Residents press council on noise, parties and litter in Mile Square; council and staff promise further review
Summary
Residents described prolonged noise, late-night parties, furniture-throwing and confetti litter in the Mile Square following recent graduation events. Councilors, police and city staff discussed enforcement limitations, property-owner responsibility and plans to include enforcement options in upcoming budget-priority talks.
Several residents urged Oxford City Council on May 20 to take stronger and more consistent enforcement action against loud parties, litter and property damage in the Mile Square student neighborhood, particularly around graduation weekend.
A resident who lives in the Northwest part of the Mile Square described repeated late-night parties that continued until 4 a.m., furniture being thrown onto balconies and widespread litter, including plastic confetti. She said police were dispatched once after her call but the disturbance continued for hours. "I called the non urgent dispatch line. Someone came pretty quickly ... They said, you know, keep it down. Police left," she told council, adding that subsequent incidents continued and that the condition was making it hard to live in the neighborhood.
Councilors acknowledged the scale of the problem and said they would pursue multiple approaches. City Manager DeJeliet and Police Chief JJ explained enforcement constraints, including staffing levels, competing priorities such as DUI crashes, and that many code enforcement actions are complaint-driven. The chief said the department issues litter and noise tickets but that rapid, ephemeral acts (confetti poppers, brief vandalism) are hard to catch because officers are often assigned to higher-priority calls.
Councilors discussed making property owners more responsible for tenant behavior and noted the need to consider enforcement tools and resource needs as part of upcoming budget-priority conversations scheduled for a June 17 work session. "We have some ideas. It's not gonna solve all of our problems because the students greatly outnumber the full-time residents," DeJeliet said. Staff and council agreed to bring enforcement options and staffing proposals to the budget-priority work session.
Residents and councilors also asked for clearer expectations about event clean-up timing after large gatherings; councilors said city staff would consider measures to ensure timely litter removal and explore options to hold organizers or property owners accountable.
