Narragansett Patrolman Robert Storme finishes attaching a public nuisance sticker yesterday to a house at 130 Central St. after a disturbance that resulted in two URI students being fined. Providence Journal photo / John Freidah

NARRAGANSETT — In past years, Gerry McCarthy would hear what he describes as a “low roar.” It would start around 11 p.m. and grow, he says, “like a light rising over the horizon.”

The blare of music and voices would last until 2 a.m., maybe 3, and then came the aftermath: loud talking, laughter, occasional four-letter words, maybe the sound of a bottle or beer can being thrown as the college students, presumably, headed home.

Narragansett has struggled for years with students and their Thursday, Friday and Saturday night parties, but this year, in some ways, has been different.

Thanks to a police effort to charge underage drinkers who are found wandering about, as well as a tougher “nuisance” ordinance that puts orange stickers on houses for an entire school year if the occupants have hosted a loud party, some people are saying the noise level is down.

Year-round residents such as McCarthy, who lives in Scarborough Hills, say the changes are long overdue. But University of Rhode Island students who rent for nine months a year have a far different take and they say they will come out “en masse” Monday night to tell the Town Council.

The students list several concerns with the new ordinance. First, they did not get a chance to comment on it because it was adopted before the school year started. Second, they say it is overly severe, threatening renters with fines for repeat offenses even when the problem might be caused by students outside the house. They also say the policy gives the police too much leeway in deciding when to issue the stickers, known locally as “scarlet letters.”

“When a cop shows up at your house, it’s at his discretion whether or not you deserve a sticker,” said Tom Ahrens, a URI Student Senate member who rents in Narragansett and plans to attend Monday’s meeting. “We’re here to push for an ordinance that will no longer have any discretion.”

On URI’s Kingston campus, the student complaints have drawn the attention of the URI Student Senate, which last week adopted a resolution stating that it was discriminatory of the Narragansett Town Council to change the nuisance ordinance without student input.

In Narragansett, the complaints are falling mostly on deaf ears.

“I don’t think anybody has a problem with people having company over or having a couple of beers and watching a basketball game,” said Town Councilman George F. Lenihan Jr. “It’s just when they’ve got 30 or 40 or 50 people showing up at a house and disturbing the neighbors.

“It’s about being able to live in a house in town instead of a dorm, and they just have to abide by the rules. Basically, you’ve got to respect the neighborhood.”

LONGTIME RESIDENTS say the tension between students and homeowners has gotten worse over the years as people have sold their homes to escape the weekend disturbances, leaving more houses in the hands of seasonal residents and landlords. According to U.S. Census figures, more than 38 percent of the homes in town were rentals in 2000, the fourth-highest figure among Rhode Island communities.

Things got worse in 1995, longtime residents say, when URI banned alcohol on campus, sending more partying Narragansett’s way.

One of the most tragic and high-profile incidents involving URI students in Narragansett occurred last year, when three students got into a rowboat and headed out onto Narragansett Bay, where they drowned. Witnesses told the police the students had been drinking, though the police said it was unclear what role alcohol might have played.

The Narragansett/URI Coalition, a body of community leaders, URI administrators and students, started meeting in 2000 to address the alcohol/partying issue, but two of the most tangible responses came in 2005, when URI expanded its disciplinary reach to include off-campus behavior and the Narragansett council adopted the first version of the nuisance ordinance.

Under the original ordinance, stickers were posted for 60 days if the police found a large or loud gathering with behaviors such as public drunkenness, underage drinking, illegal parking, fighting, public urination and littering. A subsequent offense during the 60-day period resulted in a minimum fine of $250 for the owner and the tenants or the people “in control” when the gathering took place. A second incident after a sticker had been posted called for a minimum fine of $350 and a third called for a minimum fine of $500.

The revised ordinance breaks the year into two parts. Stickers issued from Sept. 1 to May 31 remain posted until May 31 — essentially covering the entire school year — and stickers posted from June 1 to Aug. 31 remain posted until Aug. 31. Offenses after a sticker is posted now bring minimum fines of $300, $400 and $500, as well as mandatory community service.

Town officials say the stickers are used to warn the tenants and owners, as well as visitors, that the there have already been complaints about bad behavior.

URI students say they agree that the town has a right to take action, but not the way that it was done. The Town Council passed a first reading of the ordinance in August and adopted it Sept. 4, the day after Labor Day.

Students say that’s the day they generally move back to town.

“We want a community that has standards,” said Neil Leston, president of the URI Student Senate. “We just want those standards to be set by both of us.”

AHRENS, WHO SPONSORED the Senate bill opposing the new ordinance, said students object to houses being stickered because there might be people causing a ruckus outside. The ordinance states that residents or owners are not to be held responsible for people who are present without consent, but Ahrens and other students said they believe houses are being targeted in such cases.

He also said the ordinance should require a second visit before the police can decide that a sticker is warranted.

“I agree students need to be more responsible off campus,” he said. “You know I agree if a house is being unruly and does not cooperate at first they should be punished.

“We’re really not looking for our right to party harder or party longer, we’re looking for a more sensible solution.”

Police Chief Joseph T. Little Jr. said the town’s two community policing officers review the weekend reports each Monday and decide then whether to issue stickers. In this way, the decision is not made in the heat of the moment, he said.

Little acknowledged that there is subjectivity in deciding whether the noise, underage drinking and other behaviors warrant a sticker, but he said the department is trying to be reasonable.

“What we could do is just say apply it in every case and then every house is going to get a sticker,” he said.

ABOUT 30 HOUSES have been stickered since the start of the school year, said Patrolman Robert Storme, one of the community policing officers. The number is on par with this time last year, while the figure for students charged with underage drinking — a charge based on state law — is up from last year, Storme said. The tally as of this week was about 60.

Thomas R. Dougan, URI’s vice president of student affairs, said the university backs the town’s efforts and has seen its own measures to ban alcohol on campus improve the quality of life.

“I have no doubt that enforcing the underage drinking laws in Narragansett will have the same result,” he said.

Just how much impact the latest changes are having depends on whom you ask.

While McCarthy said things have improved, Carol Stuart, who lives in Eastward Look, said the results vary by neighborhood, depending on “how many students are living on a particular street.”

Stuart applauded the recent changes but said students and landlords should be fined for first offenses.

MCCARTHY, 71, OFFERS one of the more unusual perspectives. He is a URI alumnus, having graduated with a civil engineering degree in 1957. He also rents a house, across the street from his own, and he rents it to college students.

“We talk to the students that rent our house and we tell them that they’re living in a real neighborhood and they have to respect the neighbors,” he said.

He said was surprised to hear that students are objecting to the new policy.

“The irony of the Student Senate position is that they are really defending the bad students,” he said. “It goes without saying that the majority of the students are good.”

Students, meanwhile, said both sides need to be reasonable.

“There will always be URI students that don’t respect the town, and there’s always going to be a few year-round residents that want absolutely nothing to do with the college students no matter how quiet they are,” said Sara Addis, a Student Senate member.

Douglas Wardwell, a co-chairman of the Narragansett/URI Coalition, which will discuss the issue on Tuesday night, agreed that the two sides need to get along. But he said the onus is on the students.

“They’re here, we’ve got to live with it,” he said. “But on the other hand, they’ve got to live with us.”

redgar@projo.com