Leader Photo by Tim Ryan Department of Corrections Field Supervisor Julie Krause and ATTIC Correctional Services CEO Vicki Trebian answer questions from residents and the Plan Commission about a proposed facility for recently released offenders Wednesday at Shawano City Hall.
The Shawano Plan Commission on Wednesday rejected a proposed facility that would have housed recently released felons, leaving the state Department of Corrections with nowhere to send them starting next month.
The DOC had contracted with ATTIC Correctional Services for an eight-bed facility at 227 E. Richmond St. in Shawano, replacing the New Era House at 105 E. Richmond St. The contract called for ATTIC to provide transitional housing services for convicted felons that are under the DOC’s supervision, including recently released sex offenders.
New Era’s contract was set to expire June 30, but was extended until the end of July so the matter could go before the Plan Commission and Common Council.
The commission’s vote, however, means the matter will not go to the council for consideration.
Commissioners voted 7-1 against a special exception to the zoning code that would have allowed the facility.
Public Works Coordinator Eddie Sheppard cast the sole vote in favor. Commission member Dave Passehl was absent.
In calling for the vote, Mayor Lorna Marquardt, who chairs the commission, clearly encouraged rejection of the proposal.
“Think about if you were placing this vote for this facility to be next door in your home, in your neighborhood, next door to you, would you make the same vote?” she said.
Marquardt noted the New Era House would continue to operate, though not as a DOC-contracted facility, and the proposed ATTIC facility would double the number of offenders in the neighborhood.
“This area is going to have an abundance of these people,” she said.
Nearly two dozen residents turned out for a public hearing on the facility before the commission vote.
“I don’t feel safe with it being such a residential area,” Adina Bunke said.
Bunke said she was also concerned about the turnover of residents at the facility, most of whom would be staying there for 60 days.
“That’s a lot of different people in and out of our neighborhood,” she said.
“Our greatest concern is the kids in the church,” said John Meyer, president of nearby Peace United Church of Christ at 208 E. Maurer St. “With our kids’ activities, this is not a good spot.”
Elaine Knope also noted the facility would be within a block of the Skate Park and Memorial Park, and near a major through-way for children on their way to school.
Vicki Trebian, chief executive officer of ATTIC Correctional Services, and Julie Krause, DOC field supervisor in Shawano, sought to allay residents’ concerns, assuring them that clients of the facility would wear either GPS or electronic monitoring devices.
Though no one would be supervising them at the facility, the clients would be checked up on by staff three times a day, in addition to visits by a DOC case manager.
Krause told the Plan Commission that the alternative would mean releasing convicted felons into the community with no structured living arrangement, and no way to monitor them beyond their reporting in to the DOC once a day.
Trebian said after the vote that it was very disappointing for the clients that need the services in the Shawano area.
“People are going to be homeless. They’re going to be without services and it’s going to be hard to monitor these people in your community,” she said.
Trebian said ATTIC had been looking for a facility in the city since January and the location proposed was the only one that would have accommodated the facility’s needs.
Jim Hoffman owns the house at 227 E. Richmond St. and had intended to rent it to ATTIC.
He noted the New Era House is only a block away and closer to Sacred Heart church and school.
He said he didn’t think the commission’s vote would be good for the city.
“You’re not going to know where these people are,” he said.
Rose Thiel, who is on the city’s Sexual Predator Ordinance Committee, also supported the ATTIC facility.
She said there had never been a problem with offenders placed at the New Era House re-offending, and the facility allowed the DOC and law enforcement to keep track of them.
“Who knows now when they get out of jail where they’re going to go?” she said.