Monday night’s celebrations may have put a damper on Arbor Day celebrations at the end of the month.

The trees that line Marshall Street were about the only property casualties the area suffered after an estimated 18,000 fans converged after Syracuse won the national championship. But for the Syracuse Police department and area businesses, the damaged trees and a broken parking meter were acceptable losses.

Jerry Dellas, co-owner of Faegan’s Cafe and Pub and Varsity Pizza, said business was good during the games and students seemed to behave themselves. He was upset, however, with students destroying the trees, as they were a part of the project to revitalize Marshall Street. Police officials agreed with Dellas, who is also president of the Crouse-Marshall Business Association, that students stayed in control during their street celebrations.

“Considering the size of the crowd, we think things went very, very well,” Syracuse police spokesman Sgt. Tom Connellan said.

Officers arrested only 11 people during the celebration, Connellan said. Those people arrested were charged with crimes from disorderly conduct to petty larceny to resisting arrest and harassment.

Officers charged Syracuse University students Rajesh Valluri, Steven Wood and Thomas Evans with disorderly conduct. Officers charged David Greer with disorderly conduct. They charged SU student Jeremy Johnson with disorderly conduct, obstructing a government agency and resisting arrest.

Officers charged Justin Silverman, publisher of greek newspaper Hermes, with harassment in the second degree. They charged SU students Michael Schwartz and Erik Manke with criminal mischief and petty larceny. Schwartz and Manke are suspects in the destruction of the parking meter.

Officers charged Keith Robinson with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and harassment in the second degree. They charged Charles Chlanda with disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

Police were faced with the challenge of a crowd that did not assemble over time but massed together all at once. This action, however, did not turn into a major problem and officers made six fewer arrests than they did after Saturday’s game.

“At one point, with five seconds to go in the game, the only people in the streets were officers, and then, when the game was over, it was thousands of people rushing down there,” Connellan said. “The fact that there were so few arrests is a credit both to the students who acted responsibly and the police who had a plan and executed it.”

One of the new measures in the plan was the use of wooden barriers to section off the sidewalks on Marshall Street. These were put in place to keep students away from glass and reduce the property damage to businesses. When fans took to the streets in 1987 and again in 1996, this particular safety procedure was not in place and there was considerable damage to store fronts. With this precaution, there was no damage to the stores, Connellan said.

“We are very happy that Syracuse will be remembered for what it did on the court and not what students did on campus or in the streets,” he said.

Nicholas Raslan, owner of the Student Choice Market, remembers what M-Street was like in 1987, “600 times worse” than Monday night. The store owner knew he didn’t want to add to any problems a rowdy — and drunk — crowd could cause. So, as soon as the game started, he stopped selling beer.

“You sell them beer and it becomes a weapon in their hands,” he said.

Not only did students on Marshall Street maintain their control, but there were no major problems reported on the SU campus. Students only started some small fires on outlaying streets and there were a few altercations, said SU spokesman Kevin Morrow. Morrow gave a lot of credit to planning earlier in the week by the city and Public Safety in making sure fans were able to celebrate without getting out of hand.

“There is nothing wrong with being excited,” Morrow said.”There was a good reason and given what happened at other college communities, we feel things went well. We didn’t see anything like what happened at Michigan State or Maryland or Arizona. People were excited, but with very few exceptions, maintained control, which shows we have outstanding fans.”

Managing Editor Ashleigh Graf contributed to this report.

Published on April 8, 2003 at 12:00 pm