Upcoming Hearing on Sex Offender Housing Legislation in Farmingdale

Local legislators find nothing amusing about housing convicted sex offenders in close proximity to amusement parks. Championing this cause is Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory, who represents the 15th District in Amityville.

Gregory has that would prohibit sex offender housing sites within one quarter mile of any amusement park in Suffolk County, like Farmingdale's and .

“I want to make sure these sites are not in proximity to Adventureland. That’s unacceptable, and we have to address this,” he said. Gregory first became concerned about this last year, when Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy proposed transferring homeless sex offenders being housed in trailers in Riverhead and Westhampton to a site in East Farmingdale.  

“Of course, we objected to that and felt we were being targeted,” Gregory said. The proposal last year called for the opening a shelter for homeless sex offenders in a converted warehouse in Farmingdale in the direct vicinity of .

The County ultimately decided to follow Nassau County's model, which provides vouchers for the offenders to choose their residency instead of building a permanent residence, after strong opposition from the Farmingdale community.

Gregory said a bill has since passed to establish a plan that would restrict the number of sex offenders in one area. In addition, no more than one site can be in any legislative district and no more than five people can be housed in one facility. 

There are also current laws in place, Gregory contends, that prohibit sex offenders from residing in proximity to schools and parks, but not amusement parks, in particular. The fact that admission to nearby children’s amusements such as and is free only compounds the problem.

“These are free admission facilities. As a homeless person, you’re likely not going to pay money to enter a park," Gregory said. "That threshold is limited. But here you have an amusement park like Adventureland that attracts thousands of kids and anyone can walk right in."

Protecting those kids is at the heart of Gregory’s proposed bill (#2234). A public hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Feb.1 at the William H. Rogers Legislative Building in Hauppauge. “People will have five minutes to speak at the meeting and voice their opinions on the bill,” Gregory said.   

Legislator Gregory anticipates the bill will move ahead after the public hearing by going to committee, which will then vote on it to get it out of committee and before the general body.

"We meet once a month, so I would say by May we should have voted on it,” he said. “We’ve reached out to let people know about this. We’re going to be issuing press releases and build awareness as the public hearing date comes close so we can get people out and support the bill. People have contacted my office to voice their support."

Officials at Adventureland are also strong proponents. “We’ve been here since 1962, and we all should be on the same page when it comes to protecting our children,” said Steven Gentile, Adventureland manager. “Anything we can do to protect the children of our community, we are all for it.”