Plumsted Township Committee considers law to prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, park, playground or day-care center.
By: Marisa Maldonado
PLUMSTED Convicted sex offenders would not be allowed to live within half a mile of any township school or park if a proposed township ordinance on the issue is adopted by the governing body next month.
The ordinance, which is scheduled for introduction at Monday’s Township Committee meeting, would prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of any school, park, playground or day-care center.
Mayor Ron Dancer, who plans to bring the ordinance before the committee, said it is similar to laws recently passed in Florida in reaction to the rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford by a convicted sex offender who lived near her.
"We need to take every precaution to reduce the risk," the mayor said. "You may not be able to eliminate it, but you certainly can reduce it."
The ordinance specifies that sex offenders already living within 2,500 of municipal schools, parks, playgrounds and day-care centers would not have to move if the ordinance is passed, the mayor said. However, none of the five convicted sex offenders currently registered in the township lives that close to a school zone, he said.
Other area municipalities are considering similar ordinances, including Jackson and Dover townships. Hamilton’s Township Council recently passed an ordinance that mandates the same restrictions that Plumsted is considering.
Plumsted’s ordinance is based partially on state Assembly bill A. 4060, Mayor Dancer said. In addition to banning sex offenders from living less than 2,500 feet from a school, the bill would require sex offenders to wear electronic tracking devices for life and increase the mandatory sentence for higher-risk offenders from five to 20 years, to 25 years to life in prison.
New Jersey has been at the forefront of sex-offender notification. The state passed Megan’s Law in 1994 in honor of 7-year-old Megan Kanka of Hamilton Township, who was raped and murdered by a convicted sex offender living across the street from her house.
"That law, however, is limited in scope to registration and notification," said Mayor Dancer, a Republican assemblyman for the 30th Legislative District and a co-sponsor of the Assembly bill.
Plumsted has four schools one on North Main Street and the rest on Evergreen Road, two parks on Brindletown Road and Brynmore Road, a playground park on Lakeview Drive and a day-care center on Magnolia Avenue.
"These are areas that are frequented by children," Mayor Dancer said. "We want to take every measure we can to reduce the risk of vulnerability to our children."
If the committee introduces the ordinance, the public hearing would take place on July 11. The law would be enacted immediately after the committee passes it, Mayor Dancer said.