Town tables child safety action
Toolbox
By SANDI SWITZER HERALD CORRESPONDENT - Published: August 19, 2009
WALLINGFORD – The town's child safety ordinance has been temporarily shelved until litigation involving similar regulations in another Vermont community has been resolved.
The Wallingford Select Board unanimously voted on Monday to suspend the effective date of the local child safety ordinance that would have prevented registered sex offenders from residing within 1,000 feet of schools, recreational facilities and licensed day care centers in town.
Law enforcement officials, probation and parole officers and Vermont League of Cities and Town representatives advised the town to take the action as a result of pending litigation in Barre, according to Selectman Charles Angel.
The American Civil Liberties Union is representing a man who claims he cannot live with his family in Barre as a result of that town's ordinance banning convicted sex offenders from residing in exclusion zones.
Angel told fellow board members the Wallingford ordinance ought to be suspended until the Barre case was resolved. He further noted Wallingford had not established its own exclusion zones making the town's ordinance difficult to enforce.
"If we suspend it, it's still on the books," Angel said. "If the court rules it's OK, then we can draw up a grid and enact it without any waiting periods."
Angel said the town's attorney or VLCT officials ought to review the local ordinance if municipal officials decide to enforce it at a later date.
Other town officials briefly mentioned the ordinance, should it become effective, ought to clarify whether unlicensed day cares and properties where children are home schooled be listed in exclusion zones.
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