Owners and managers of some of the major apartment buildings downtown talked to the State College Borough Council last night to collaborate ideas on how to prevent riots during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts each July and other weekend incidents.

"We don't want these riots to become a continuous phenomenon and tonight we are looking at input and other suggestions," said Borough Manager Peter Marshall.

Representatives from Associated Realty, A.W. & Sons, G.N. Associates, and The Apartment Store were present at the meeting. They discussed measures they are taking and those they plan to take in the future to combat riots and rowdy behavior.

"We deal with a lot of students and 98 percent are great kids," said Mark Bigatel of Associated Realty.

Associated Realty has already banned kegs and put a clause into leases limiting access of balconies to rowdy tenants, Bigatel said.

"It puts us in a tough situation," he said. "Our customers are the students and it puts us in an enforcement position."

Some apartment realtors have already closed off balconies to disorderly tenants.

"We can eliminate balcony access and have done so already in one case," said Leo DeLorenzo of A.W. & Sons. "We screwed one (balcony) door shut eight inches from close."

DeLorenzo said A.W. & Sons has not banned kegs because cans and bottles can just cause more problems.

Bigatel also discussed the possibility of giving the State College Police Department access to the lock box which contains a master key to all apartments in a building, but is unsure about the legalities surrounding that issue.

Riots can break out anywhere, balconies or not, and the main problem relates to alcohol and congestion, Bigatel said.

"If there wasn't congestion down below there wouldn't be a problem up above," he said.

It may be beneficial to add signs prohibiting loitering around the complexes, Bigatel said.

The possibility of a stronger police presence was suggested to the council.

"Police need to move through the crowds encouraging them (students) to disperse," DeLorenzo said.

It could be harmful for police to walk along the streets underneath the balconies, council member James Meyer said.

"They're like ducks in a shooting gallery," Meyer said.

Borough Council President Janet Knauer suggested the idea of limiting the number of guests in an apartment at a given time.

"Maybe we could enforce the number of people in an apartment at a given time," Knauer said.

DeLorenzo suggested making the heavily-populated eateries in the 200 block of Beaver Avenue residential properties and council is already looking into some of the congestion due to these businesses.

Council has also suggested the idea of cameras on top of adjacent buildings to watch the balconies.

However, realtors are leery of the legal implications surrounding that idea even though there may be some balconies worth watching.

"There are certain balconies I would love to have a camera on all the time," Bigatel said.

Many realtors have numbered their balconies so tenants are no longer anonymous, he said.

"When they know they're not anonymous, things change," Bigatel said.

Bill Berry also contributed to this article.