Just off the Albany County Rail Trail and deep into the woods is where Bethlehem police say one of three large underage parties happened in town this past weekend.

“Some of them resulted in several calls because when the calls come in, it’s just people gathering or being loud on a street or causing damage on a street,” said Commander Adam Hornick a spokesman for the Bethlehem Police Department.

He says this is something that’s been on the rise since the last weekend in May. The other parties from this weekend happened off of Forsten Drive and a town park. Hornick says this month alone they’ve already received about 30 complaints, which is as many as they had all of last summer.

“Some of it comes down to the issue of there’s not a lot of activities for people to do,” Hornick said. “There’s not places to go. There’s not events that people can participate in.”

But at the same time, Hornick says there are concerns these large gatherings could lead to a COVID-19 outbreak. He says it didn’t appear masks were worn by these high school and college aged students congregating in small areas. According to Hornick, one of this weekend’s parties had more than 100 people.

“It’s only going to take one person that has COVID to show up at a party with 100 people and our cases in the county will more than double,” Hornick said.

No arrests have been made. Hornick says these parties are far into the woods, and by the time officers arrive, the crowd is gone. But he says police are working with property owners to try and keep people out of these areas, and urges residents to continue reaching out.

“Have them be our eyes and ears and call us when they start to see youths gathering, people congregating, dropping off carloads of people or something. Call us then,” Hornick said. “Don’t wait until the noise gets loud, and don’t wait until those things are happening.”