Published: June 16, 2009 11:43 pm      

NIAGARA STREET: Falls council joins fight

The Niagara Falls City Council has become the latest group to join in a fight to stamp out the number of sex offenders living along Niagara Street and less than a mile away from an elementary school.

“Something has to be done about this. I just hope we’re not having this conversation a year from now because something has happened to a child,” Council Chairman Chris Robins said.

City Council members unanimously passed a resolution Monday opposing the placement of convicted sex offenders from one community into another. Specifically, the action requests that state Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. reconsider his recent ruling to place a North Tonawanda sex offender with a “mental abnormality” at the Midtown Inn, located less than 1,500 feet from Niagara Street School.

Copies of the council’s resolution will be sent to Kloch at the state Supreme Court, state elected officials and mental health experts. The council also is calling on the city’s police, fire and inspections departments to see if anything can be done locally to shut down the Midtown Inn, formerly the Zodiac Lounge, at 22nd and Niagara streets.

At least eight Level 2 and 3 sex offenders live inside the Inn now, all convicted of offenses involving children between the ages of 6 and 13. The building houses the largest concentration of sexual predators in Niagara County.

“Allowing them to live that close to the largest and newest elementary school in Niagara Falls is a tragedy waiting to happen,” said Sharon Szwedo, who owns a business across from the school. “I believe the responsibility to correct this situation must fall into the hands of our elected officials.”

Members of the Niagara Street Business Association have been raising concern about the Inn’s proximity to the elementary school for years and have recently begun soliciting support from local and state leaders. Back in April, Szwedo and the association’s Revitalization Coordinator Ron Anderluh met with Niagara Falls Board of Education members to ask for their support in changing state legislation to prohibit sex offenders from living close to schools. The current law prevents convicted offenders from living less than 1,000 feet away from schools and day care centers in Niagara Falls.

Since that meeting, however, the situation has gotten worse, Anderluh said. Late last month, Kloch assigned James A. McKinney to the Midtown inn, even though the majority of McKinney’s sex crimes happened in North Tonawanda, where he and his mother reside. McKinney, 51, is completing a seven-year prison sentence for having sex with four girls younger than 14.

Kloch’s decision to place McKinney in Niagara Falls and not North Tonawanda has attracted strong opposition from both local and state officials.

“We’re tired of being the dumping ground for sex offenders,” Anderluh told the council on Monday. “We all need to work together to get this changed.”

In addition to the council’s resolution, Assemblywoman Francine DelMonte, D-Lewiston, also is calling on Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to rescind McKinney’s placement.

“It is unacceptable to allow this man, who has a ‘mental abnormality’ and could have been civilly confined, to be placed in housing already filled with other offenders,” DelMonte said.

The council has also directed the city’s Inspections Department to make sure the Midtown Inn is within code compliance and has requested the fire department conduct in interior inspection.

According to Szwedo, the building has increased occupancy by remodeling without permits within in the past two years and currently has a stop work order placed on the premises, which is being ignored.

Contact reporter Rick Forgione

at 282-2311, ext. 2257.