Politics & Government

Commissioners Discuss Sex Offender Ordinance

This new proposed ordinance is similar to the one brought to the board years ago.

In light of the for Megan’s Law offender Daniel Reynolds-Demchur, some Haverford Township commissioners are proposing an ordinance to prevent sex offenders from living within a certain distance from schools and parks.

The Haverford-Havertown Patch first heard about the proposed ordinance from 2nd Ward Commissioner Mario Oliva who attended Reynolds-Demchur’s , where Judge Robert Burke ordered him to appear in an arraignment hearing on May 26.

Authorities are accusing Reynolds-Demchur of .

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Essentially, the proposed ordinance would make it illegal for a registered sex offender to live a certain distance from a school or park within Haverford Township. The 21-year-old Reynolds-Demchur, who is currently in the Delaware County Prison, resides on the 200 block of Stanley Avenue in Havertown, across the street from the .

The commissioners, except for 6th ward Commissioner Larry Holmes who could not attend the May 2 work session meeting and township Vice President Steve D'Emilio arrived once the meeting ended, discussed the proposed ordinance. 

Find out what's happening in Haverford-Havertownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Township solicitor Jim Byrne told the board that while other townships have similar ordinances, the commonwealth has not challenged them on their legality.

The proposed ordinance mirrors one that was presented to the board of commissioners in 2005.

“I was contacted by Commissioner Oliva and told him that I had in fact drafted an ordinance several years back to impose residence restrictions on convicted sex offenders. It had been presented to the board of commissioners. I couldn't recall if there was a first reading, but I know it did not pass a second reading. So the matter was dropped before it was enacted,” Assistant Township Manager Lori Hanlon-Widdop told the current board.

She emailed Patch the 2005 proposed ordinance, which is available to view in PDF form right under the pictures accompanying this article.

Oliva said that he reached out to Hanlon-Widdop and Bryne about creating a new ordinance once he discovered that there was not one for the township.

The commissioners decided that they would discuss the new proposed ordinance further at their Monday, June 6, work session.

Philip Lozano, who attended the meeting, said that he was upset that the previous commissioners did not pass the ordinance in 2005, but said that the most important thing is that the current board is addressing it now.

Both Lozano, a lawyer, and Burke are running for the judge’s position at district court 32-1-25.

Carolyn Wren, who lives near the Manoa Elementary School and the mother of two girls, one is 10 years old and the other is 13, said that she wants to see this new ordinance passed.

“We can have an ordinance put in place to prevent sex offenders from living at close proximity of any school in the township,” Wren told Patch the last week of April during a phone interview.


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