Brown and White Vol. 115 No. 15

              the brown and white lehigh university's student newspaper founded in 1894 vol 115 no 15 tuesday october 30 2007 all the lehigh news first man charged in summer shooting by liz wysocki bethlehem police charged a man with attempted homicide for firing a gun at a lehigh student on birkel avenue this summer a criminal complaint was filed against alberto r melendez jr for firing a handgun at michael ritter 08 on 486 birkel aye on july 29 melendez was ar raigned thursday in district court by district justice nancy matos-gonzalez a preliminary hearing is scheduled for nov 5 according to an article published in the brown and white on sept 4 ritter said at about 12:20 a.m on july 29 he was sitting on his porch on birkel avenue when he heard three men down the street making noise he told the men to be quiet because police were in the area then according to ritter one man jumped on his porch put a gun to his head shot it and ran away the bullet grazed the back of his head ritter said ritter was not available for comment on the re cent charges according to the affidavit melendez said on july 29 he did go up on the porch and argued with a man who was being very aggressive melendez said he pulled out a handgun from his waist area and racked the slide back he said he went to hit the male in the side of the head with the gun and the gun went off melendez said he didn't think there was a round in the chamber and he never had his finger on the trigger he said he never intended to shoot ritter melendez said when he hit ritter and the gun went off ritter fell down and melendez ran the affidavit said melendez threw the gun on a roof of a house on carlton avenue melendez said he had the gun for less than a week prior to the events on birkel avenue he said the gun was an automatic 9 mm pistol according to the notice of preliminary hearing melendez is charged with attempted homicide two counts of aggravated assault simple assault reck lessly endangering another person and possession of firearms prohibited and not to be carried without a license melendez is currently in northampton county prison for previous theft charges and failure to ap pear in court he has been sent back to prison under 250,000 bail south side views vary amongst profs staff by desiree annunziato â–  some faculty say they would rather commute others live in the south side depending on where they live professors and staff opin ions about the south side of bethlehem vary heibatollah sami profes sor of accounting commutes a long distance to lehigh from an area outside of philadelphia he said he thinks a lot of professors live relatively close to campus sami used to work at temple university in phil adelphia when he decided to come to lehigh two-and-a-half years ago he chose to com mute because he did not want to move if he could not deal with the commute he would have to live closer to lehigh so far sami has been hap py with the situation and he feels no need to change it he said the commute gives him time to think about work in the winter i will stay in a hotel right off campus if the drive back is bad but i have only had to do this one time in two years sami said sami said temple's sur rounding community has a high crime rate but he has never had a problem at le high late at night crime can happen any where sami said adding that he thinks it would be hard to find faculty members that live right near campus george nation professor of law has lived on the north side of bethlehem since 1985 he said he never looked at the south side as an option for a place to live the south side is pretty rough except for the campus nation said he said big improvements were made over the years the new luxury condos built near riverport steel fitness is a good thing for the communi ty as is the promenade shops at saucon valley he said many employees at rathbone dining hall who work for sodexho live near campus mary zenz lives in foun tain hill which is ten minutes away from campus and is con sidered by many as part of the south side zenz said she is very pleased with her commu nity she rents her house and said the price is reasonable for her she has lived there for 10 years zenz said her neighbor hood is quiet because it is located in an area away from any busy main roads and has fewer houses she said there is little crime if any at all but said there are parts of south bethlehem that are bad i like being part this com munity zenz said zenz said her residential twist and treat b&w photo by kara chalanick spooktacular the community service office's annual halloween program took place sunday afternoon it typically draws more than 200 south bethlehem children to campus building temperatures uncomfortable some say by emily smith lehigh's heating ventilation and cooling department will begin heating academic build ings and dormitories in less than four weeks but many students are not comfortable at current temperatures hvac sets flexible dates for heating and cooling periods cooling perimeters are between april 15 and thanksgiving but plans often change because of the weather said dave hendel hvac assistant director the perimeter system helps control lehigh's energy budget and increase energy efficiency hendel said we certainly won't wait until nov 22 to turn the heat on hendel said setting perimeters maximizes efficiency hendel said but it can create conflict do we go for energy effi ciency or do we satisfy custom ers hendel said the comfort of the student is primary we do everything we can if someone is uncomfortable we jump on complaints nearly immediately many students believe lehigh is not doing enough nick kruse 08 a gryphon and member of the green action club is disappointed with the inefficiency surrounding the heat ing and cooling system the main problem is hvac often won't shut off the heat in order to cool your room so you have to open a window kruse said many students hesi tate to call maintenance because it's a hassle for workmen to come into your room when you're not expecting them see south side page 4 see heating page 4 bethlehem's w^mw^rr oot')(l team en^s nurse speaks haunted history ni^s^imnl os n strea'c or " n'c eec page 5 page 12 thebrownandwhite.com