Judge Smails
08-20-2007, 08:18 PM
Trailer Park Has Almost 90 Sex Offenders (http://www.tbo.com/news/metro/MGB9XOCQL5F.html)
From the outside it looks like any other mobile home park, with people ambling along narrow streets lined with trailers.
Yet Palace Mobile Home Park, in an industrial and commercial area off busy 54th Avenue North near Interstate 275, is different from any other in Pinellas County, the state's mobile home capital.
Nearly 90 registered sexual offenders released from state prison reside at the park, making up the majority
of its population, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
That's good and bad, said Sgt. Judy Vovan, who heads the sheriff's office Sex Offender Tracking Unit.
"No community wants that large a concentration of sex offenders in one area," Vovan said. "However, it's perfectly legal for them to be there."
From the outside it looks like any other mobile home park, with people ambling along narrow streets lined with trailers.
Yet Palace Mobile Home Park, in an industrial and commercial area off busy 54th Avenue North near Interstate 275, is different from any other in Pinellas County, the state's mobile home capital.
Nearly 90 registered sexual offenders released from state prison reside at the park, making up the majority
of its population, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
That's good and bad, said Sgt. Judy Vovan, who heads the sheriff's office Sex Offender Tracking Unit.
"No community wants that large a concentration of sex offenders in one area," Vovan said. "However, it's perfectly legal for them to be there."