Residents want sex offenders banned from town

It is quite clear this town needs someone who understands law, banishment -after sentencing- is unconstitutional. Further, there isn't a lick of proof that residency laws protect anyone. I do believe thats what the judge said in the Colonie decision. PS: I don't like laws or ordinances that are not based on evidence, can we ban folks who make such laws?

11-30-2009 New York:

LAKE LUZERNE -- Residents on Davern Drive want sex offenders out of their neighborhood and away from the town.

This is what they told town officials when they stood up at the last Town Board meeting and a recent Town Board workshop.

Residents Thomas Condon, Joseph Catoggio and Clinton Freeman spoke at the last Town Board meeting, according to unofficial minutes, and said they learned of a Level 3 sex offender living at the Bayview Motel on Davern Drive.

Level 3 is assigned to offenders with the highest risk of repeat offense and who are deemed a threat to public safety.

The sex offender was paying for the accommodations with funds received from the Department of Social Services, residents said.

A petition signed by some 15 neighbors was also presented to officials, urging them to pass legislation limiting sex offenders from moving into town.

But Town Supervisor Eugene Merlino said he’s not sure the town can do that.

"There’s not much the town can legally do," he said, adding that the district attorney’s office told him if sex offenders they have served their time, they can live anywhere.

The minutes from the Nov. 9 Town Board meeting point to discussion of a local law in Colonie that was thrown out by the courts after it was challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union.

But Catoggio told the board that Colonie had recently adopted a new law that requires businesses to get a license from the town before they can house sex offenders. That way, they are regulating businesses rather than the offenders themselves.

Catoggio asked the town’s attorney to look into a similar law for Lake Luzerne.

Merlino said he would work with Department of Social Services to ensure that neighbors don’t find out about sex offenders after they have moved into a neighborhood.

"We don’t want to find out after the fact," he said.

In the case of Davern Drive, the Level 3 sex offender is the first resident at the Bayview Motel since it was purchased and renovated in 2006.

The 1950 motel on the Hudson River had been empty for years before that, Merlino said.

"As a hotel owner, I would never take them in my house," he said. But for business owners struggling to survive, he continued, providing lodging for a sex offender can pay the bills.

"This is income for them," he said. "But it hurts the surrounding neighborhood." ..Source.. Post Star.com