BALL BRINGS CHILD SAFETY ZONE BILL TO YORKTOWN

Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson) was joined by Yorktown Councilmen Nick Bianco and Terrence Murphy at the Yorktown Town Hall today to announce a new bill to enact Child Safety Zones legislation. 

“I applaud the Town of Yorktown for doing the tough work that the County Legislature refuses to do.  There are children being protected in Putnam County, yet one mile away, children who are just as precious are not being protected.  Let Yorktown’s motivation serve as an example to the gang in the Westchester County Legislature” said Ball, who, as a member of the Assembly Minority Sex Offender Watch Task Force, recently brought the task force to the Yorktown Town Hall to vet the proposed legislation. 

“Rockland and Putnam Counties have Child Safety Zones in place, but Westchester doesn’t,” Yorktown Councilman Terrence Murphy said. “ Westchester seems to have stalled the process.  Yorktown would like to take a step in the right direction, to implement Child Safety Zones and to start the ball rolling.” 

“People may say, ‘Why do you need a Child Safety Zone in Yorktown?’  We don’t have a predator problem on our streets or in our town?  But, imagine if we do in the future and we don’t have this law in place.  I see this as a preventative rather than a progressive law, and it is time to start moving ahead,” Bianco said. 

The Child Safety Zones legislation would prohibit convicted sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of any school property, playground, school bus stop or other areas where children congregate. 

Ball has successfully worked with the Putnam County Legislature and Sheriff’s Office to develop countywide Child Safety Zones.  His work with the George Oros and the Westchester County Board of Legislators was stalled by bipartisan politics, in what Terrence Murphy called “a political show.” 

Ball hopes Yorktown will set the standard for a coalition of Northern Westchester towns to protect their children. 

“A Child Safety Zone is the least this county can do for our kids, and we should be leading the way and doing much more.  Activists say that even child molestors deserve protections, yet the average predator preying on young boys has over 100 victims.  There is no hole dark enough or deep enough for these predators.  We are here to protect our kids.  Let the ACLU preach from their ivory tower; in my educated opinion there is no rehabilitation of these child predators to be had.  I have been working with Terrence Murphy and Nick Bianco for over a year now to bring the Child Safety Zone law to Yorktown, and all of Northern Westchester,” Ball said. “ Now it’s time for other towns in Northern Westchester to follow suit by enacting Child Safety Zones as well.” 

Ball has also introduced statewide Child Safety Zone legislation, Assembly Bill 7948.  This bill is sponsored by Craig Johnson in the State Senate, who, as a county legislator, drafted Nassau County’s child safety zone law. 

Ball is also the sponsor of four other statewide bills to safeguard children from sex offenders: A.2187 creates the crime of endangering the welfare of a child in a sexual manner as a class E felony; A.7047 would ensure residents are notified of a sex offender’s relocation into their community immediately; A.6796 calls for level 2 and 3 sex offenders to wear monitoring devices; and A.6792 establishes guidelines for the location of sex offenders, authorizing municipalities to reject the placement of a sex offender or community residence for sex offenders. 

The Child Safety Zone bill will be introduced to the Yorktown Town Board’s Workshop session on Tuesday night. 

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About Greg Ball

Assemblyman Greg Ball (R, C, I – Patterson) is the Senator for New York State's 40th district.  A former Vice President of Exceed International Development Corporation, Ball holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the United States Air Force Academy, is currently completing his Masters Thesis of Liberal Studies in International Affairs at Georgetown University, and received an honorable discharge in 2005 at the rank of Captain after service as an active duty officer in the United States Air Force. 
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