The small town of Bellefonte will host a flood of people Tuesday as the media, child advocate groups and others flock in for the sentencing of Jerry Sandusky.
Frank Halderman, president of the Bellefonte borough council, said the chief of police met with a group that represents media outlets and provided them with rules and regulations the media outlets have to follow on Tuesday.
Halderman said there would be few changes from the trial in June and pretrial hearing in December and said the town will still be able to accommodate everyone once they arrived.
He said officials were overstaffed at the December pretrial, as they had additional manpower from the local police departments as well as the state police.
“We haven’t heard any feedback from the community members right now,” Halderman said. “I think everyone was impressed with how the borough handled the pretrial and the trial. We haven’t heard any complaints.”
Nancy Noll, the owner and innkeeper of The Queen, 176 E. Linn Street., said during the trial that they were hosting child abuse organizations, but said they were not expecting to hear from any of the big news networks.
Noll said during the trial, they hosted some of the smaller news networks and non-profit organizations, but said not as many people would be staying at hotels during the sentencing because it will only last for a few hours.
She said the hotel’s proximity to the courthouse allowed people to walk to the courthouse and people did not have to worry about parking.
“We would expect to be busy, but for us, it’s not an unusual event,” Noll said.
Constance Hines, a resident of Bellefonte, said she will be avoiding town on Tuesday due to the influx of people, like she did during the trial.
However, despite not going into town in June, Hines said she still heard about the trial.
“It was interesting and depressing at the same time,” she said. “Everywhere you went, people were talking about it.”
Hines said it’s time to have the sentencing done so people can begin to deal with the situation and put the event behind them.
“I think the town is going to be very busy,” Hines said. “For me, it will be just another Tuesday.”
Sandusky, Penn State’s former assistant football coach, was convicted of 45 charges of child sex abuse in June. He will be sentenced Tuesday at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte at 9 a.m.
