FARGO (KFGO) – Mayor Tim Mahoney says there’s little the city can do to prevent a sex offender treatment center from moving into a former bank in south Fargo.
Sex Offender Treatment and Assessment North Dakota (STAND) has purchased an empty building at 27th Avenue and S. University Drive.
Neighbors and others are concerned with the location, not far from the YWCA Women’s and Children’s Shelter and three elementary schools. Mahoney says the city has no zoning authority over what is considered a medical clinic.
“This is a North Dakota group that has been around since 2014,” Mahoney says. “They work with sex offenders and the state to try to have a place where these people can be successfully rehabbed. They’ve treated 495 people since 2014. They take five people a day, maybe 25 a week. And this can be social workers, the client, a variety of different people – young people, old people, women, children.”
Mahoney says people with concerns should try to work with the non-profit organization to look for an alternative-location. He says the current site near the Cass County jail doesn’t have enough room and STAND has run out of options.
“They couldn’t find a place to go,” Mahoney says. “They talked to 50 different rental places and nobody would rent them a place. They found the bank, bought it for $500,000, and it seems like their solution. I think the neighbors, if they have something better for them, let’s find something for them.”
Mahoney says the center is considered a medical clinic and the city has no zoning authority to keep it from moving to the neighborhood.
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