The Onamia city council had
already determined the relocation site and worked out most of the plan
details before neighborhood citizens had a clue that 94 convicted sex
offenders were moving in next door. Property owners were blind-sided by the
city. Shortly before Bradbury residents discovered the city's surprise, the
Mille Lacs Messenger had published an article
(March 15, 2006) which stated that the new sex offender
facility would possibly be built on land owned by the Crosiers , which
turned out not to be the case at all.
"[Councilman Bill] Hill showed the
council a number of prospective building sites, which could be made
available to Nexus, the most promising of which is a parcel currently owned
by the Crosiers, located east and across Hwy 169 from the Academy’s current
home in the Crosier building."
In a Messenger article
(March 7, 2007) it was reported:
"Nexus has expressed an interest on nearly 40
acres of land owned by Leonard and Helen Vanderpoel near the Onamia
schools."
and
"It is a nice piece of property," Milton said
of the Vanderpoel location. "But there are other properties that already
have sewer and water with less work required on the roads."
When a surprise new location
was announced a month later, Bradbury residents were shocked to find that
the sex offender facility would be build in Bradbury Township. The 38.81
acres did not already have sewer and water, was farther away, and also
required work on the roads. Residents felt as if they had been betrayed and
deceived.
For the next two years, a
small group of citizens (those most affected by having sex offenders
next to their homes) fought the Onamia city council. This new section of the
Mille Lacs News is dedicated to bringing you the story.
It will take time to
reorganize our web site and bring you details, but we intend to expose the
malfeasance and incompetence of the mayor, the city council, the zoning
administrator, and the city attorney as they conspired to aggressively
insert sex offenders into an opposing residential neighborhood of
"outsiders", changing laws along the way to strip away the rights of
property owners. What happened to us was unconscionable abuse of power. And
it could happen to anyone.