Blair looks to add sex offender ordinance

The Blair city council voted to take a measure to help keep registered sex offenders away from areas that children are likely to visit.

The council voted at last week Monday’s regular meeting to have city attorney Mark Radcliffe draft an ordinance that would restrict where sex offenders can live. Radcliffe told the council it would have to identify certain locations to deem as protected zones. Those locations could include bus stops, playgrounds, schools or any other places in which children gather.

“I’m surprised you don’t have this, honestly,” Radcliffe said. “We just dealt with this issue three times in the village of Taylor because people wanted to live in a protected zone. I think it’s important that you have one.”

While offenders who have committed a “serious sex offense” must live in Wisconsin Department of Corrections-approved housing, the DOC website states “local governments impose most of the existing residency restrictions on sex offenders.” 

In addition to determining protected zones, the council can determine how wide they want the restricted area to be. Though, the DOC website states “Local ordinances that are too restrictive may be subject to legal challenges.” 

Police chief Kent Johnson said the DOC notifies his department when an offender is being placed in the city. He said he would work with the DOC to make sure offenders are not placed within the protected zones. 

“What an ordinance would do is probation and parole would most likely reach out and say ‘We’re thinking this person, this address, will that work,’” Johnson said. 

Radcliffe said a city committee will have to conduct a comprehensive review of the city map and determine where they would like the zones to be.

Registered sex offenders who are already living within the city, cannot be forced out of their residences, Radcliffe said. The DOC Sex Offender Registry shows eight registered sex offenders already living in the city limits, including four on Broadway St., one on Main, Taft and Oak Streets, and one on Greenbriar Lane.

That conversation was part of a longer discussion regarding updating city ordinances. The council approved several updates, most were changes in wording or to comply with state law.

Council members asked if the city could bill the owners of mobile home parks instead of the tenants for individual water use. Radcliffe informed them that the billing has to be done individually. 

City officials have said they have issues collecting utility payments from the mobile home parks because the tenants often move without notice. Radcliffe said that the owner of the mobile home parks is required to provide a list of people occupying each trailer. If that isn’t done, he said the owner of the park can be ticketed. 

The council also instructed Radcliffe to draft an ordinance regulating feral cats.

“We have a major feral cat problem,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said, in the past, the city hasn’t wanted to put money toward getting rid of the cats and there is no program for doing so. One issue, he said, is that people have been feeding the cats. Another is there are a lot of domestic cats that people allow to run loose.

“When we catch a cat, is it a feral cat or a domestic cat,” Johnson said.

Radcliffe said the city could create an ordinance that would ban feeding stray cats. He added that he has prosecuted those cases before. 

Johnson told the council he would like to create a part-time position for animal control. 

Another ordinance the council requested be added would allow the city to limit water use. 

In another matter, the council voted to replace yield signs with stop signs at the Tenney and Urberg and First and Pearl intersections. Council member Andy Stevens said there are a lot of families who have kids in those areas and cars are “whipping around” the yield signs.