Orrington Residents Vote to Limit Where Sex Offenders Can Live
Around 120 people in Orrington voted strongly in favor of a new rule that says people on the sex offender list can’t live within 750 feet of schools and parks.
This new rule, made official on Monday, came after Orrington residents spent months talking and getting signatures from people. They found out that their town didn’t have any rules about this before.
In Maine, there isn’t a rule for the whole state about where sex offenders can live. But towns can choose to make their own rules. According to Maine law, these rules only apply to someone on the list because of a crime against a child under 14.
In Orrington, voters had three questions to decide on. All three questions said that people on the sex offender list can’t live within 750 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds, and other places where kids usually go.
The first two questions, suggested by residents and voted against, had stricter rules. But the third question, written by the town and its lawyer, was the one that got approved. The town leaders supported this one.
One important difference between the residents’ suggestions and the town’s rule is about what happens to sex offenders already living within the 750 feet area. The residents’ rules said that if a sex offender in Orrington moved away, they couldn’t come back to the same house. But the town’s rule, the one with the 91-23 vote, doesn’t have that part.
