AURORA (IL)
The Beacon-News
July 3, 2019
By Megan Jones
The pastor of Warehouse Church in Aurora sees himself in a unique position – his church sits directly between Wayside Cross Ministries and McCarty Park.
As a lifelong Aurora resident, the Rev. Randy Schoof said he is deeply committed to the safety of its citizens. But the 19 convicted child sex offenders who live at Wayside Cross near the park are not a risk to safety, and if anything, it is more of a risk to let these men scatter throughout the city unsupervised, Schoof said.
Eight clergy members gathered in the chapel of Wayside Cross Wednesday to speak out and show their support for the men who were told they have to move out of the mission in downtown Aurora because they live too close to McCarty Park. Under state law, registered child sex offenders are prohibited from living within 500 feet of a school, playground or daycare facility.
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin repeated his stance Tuesday, saying that state laws concerning child sex offenders are clear.
“Wherever they go, it can’t be within 500 feet of where children play,” Irvin said.
After the city created addresses for all of its parks in late 2018, city staff realized the mapping tool used by Aurora police was incorrectly tracking the distance from one property to another, city officials have said, including the distance from McCarty Park to Wayside. Instead of mapping from property line to property line as the law states, the tool was measuring from the middle of one property to the other, they said.
Irvin said the eviction notices sent to Wayside were not in retaliation for the mission housing infamous “Ripper Crew” member Thomas Kokoraleis beginning in the spring.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.