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No Action On Sex Offender Restrictions In Three Lakes

The Three Lakes town board has decided not to take any action for now on a proposed ordinance regulating where state officials house sex offenders.

The board heard testimony from Department of Corrections representative Sue Klemann. She says there are 23,140 registered offenders in Wisconsin with two living in Three Lakes. She says there are a long list of restrictions on offenders and they are tightly monitored...

"....and they're going to take into consideration how close they are to a school, if there's a daycare in the neighborhood, A lot of time they talk to law enforcement about the neighborhood and stuff like that...

Town of Crescent Supervisor Joel Knutson attended the meeting to argue against the proposed ordinance, saying studies have proven they don't work...

".....no public safety benefits have been determined on any federal or state study I've come across demonstrating public benefit from child safety zones...."

Knutson told the board he had a background working with programs for offenders and did police studies in communities in Illinois and Michigan.

Town Board member and attorney Steve Garbowicz worked with the Vilas county town of Cloverland when they worked on an ordinance there....

".....I'm not at liberty to talk about that as they are a client. A lot of things here I can't talk about, so I'm not saying anything. Do I think we need an ordinance like this? I wouldn't be opposed to it...."

Chairperson Stella Westfall asked the board whether they should take action. When no motion was offered, the issue died and the meeting adjourned.

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