Colonie approves sex offender limits

Some people who live near the Skylane Motel on Central Avenue  fear the worst from about twenty five registered sex offenders who live there and a similar number who live within the same quarter mile.  Those on the registry have their rent paid, by law, through county government at a rate of as much as $45.00 a day.

"They're walking around when kids are going to school, they're walking around at night and that's a lot of them in one area to be walking around in my neighborhood," Charles Lawlor told the Colonie Town Board Thursday.

Lawlor and several other speakers support the law passed that is aimed at reducing the concentration of sex offenders in one place. Unlike a residency restriction, which tells offenders where they cannot live, this law requires hotels and motels who accept them to get a license which limits the number that can be accepted. Generally no more than six to nine level one offenders, no more than two or three level threes.

"We can't even go to Price Chopper, our local store, without feeling 'who's watching us?', said Joyce Bard.

Lonnie Clar spoke but does not live near the Skylane.

"It has to do with the way we live, the way our kids live, whether we can play in our yards, whether we even dare walk down the street," Clar said.

Only one speaker opposed it - Melanie Trimble, the director of the Capital Region chapter of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Trimble told the board, "You are misinformed about the level of danger of where these people are designated and you are misinformed about how rehabilitatable they are."

Local and county lawmakers have an eye toward redeveloping the section of Central Avenue where Skylane owner Alex Patel does business. He rents only to registered sex offenders. Town officials say word of Patel's acceptance had spread and prompted social service agencies from outside the county to send sex offenders who never lived in Colonie and never committed a crime in Colonie.

The law is expected to take effect later this year. Before it does, the town must work out a plan so that dozens of sex offenders will not be immediately homeless. The police department has to look into exactly how it will enforce the law.