Just before UMass students return, 2nd fence cordons off Townhouse courtyard, site of 2014 Blarney Blowout riot

AMHERST -- In March, the managers of the Townhouse apartments on Meadow Street, after working with police and University of Massachusetts officials, put up a fence in the western quad to help reduce the number of large gatherings there.

But weeks after the fence went up, about 1,500 gathered on the eastern quad -- an area without a fence.

But as students come to campus later this month, they will see that a new fence has been installed this summer on the western quad. Classes begin Sept. 5.

Townhouse management, working with Eric Beal, neighborhood liaison in the University of Massachusetts Office of External Relations, and Bill Laramee, Amherst Police neighborhood liaison office, put in the fence as one change meant to help make the area less problematic for police and students who live there as warm weather returned.

There are 32-unit apartments in each of the two quads.

Police and management wanted to evaluate the success of the first fence before installing one at the second courtyard.

In the fall of 2016, police responded to the complex several times for gatherings approaching 1,500 people.

Beal and Laramee took a class last summer, which UMass Police Deputy Chief Ian Cyr brought to campus, that focused on ways to increase safety and decrease crime through the lens of environmental design.

The class included hands-on work, and a group visited the Townhouse apartments area as one of two areas of focus.

The courtyard was the site of the infamous 2014 Blarney Blowout.