By Sheila McLaughlin and Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

MIDDLETOWN - Plans to base a halfway house for about 30 male sex offenders in Butler County quickly triggered opposition from commissioners Thursday.

Officials in neighboring Warren County said the center isn't welcome there, either.

A trustee for the newly formed nonprofit organization called EASA (Educating Against Sexual Assault) House said she has scrapped a plan to open the facility in Middletown's South Main Street historic district. But she is looking to place it elsewhere.

"I don't know where it's going to be," said Kimberlyn Burks, a 1987 graduate and basketball standout at Middletown High School. "I don't know if it will work in Middletown or Hamilton. I would like it to be somewhere out there on Ohio 63."

The latter site, in Warren County's Turtlecreek Township, is near two state prisons, a community-based correctional facility and a halfway house for general offenders run by Talbert House.

Burks said she's more inclined to look outside residential areas and possibly outside city limits because of the size of the proposed facility.

Butler County commissioners expressed alarm Thursday when Burks approached them for funding, saying the halfway house would fill a community need and could bring in sex offenders from Warren, Hamilton and Montgomery counties. They told her there was no money to spare.

"Of all the things I want to import, that's not one of them," Commissioner Mike Fox said. "I don't want Butler County to be a repository for everyone else's problems."

Warren County Commissioner Pat South echoed that opinion.

"They are not going to get any different response from Warren County either," she said.

Burks initially intended to open the halfway house at 124 S. Main St. in the Repper & Powers Building, and was ready to sign a five-year lease through a real estate agent. Those plans fell apart last week after it was discovered that the commercial zoning would not support a halfway house there, she said.

Marty Kohler, Middletown planning director, said he recently heard from residents concerned that a halfway house was headed their way. The only contact the city has had about the South Main Street property was from a real estate agent asking about the zoning, he said.

"There's going to be a zoning battle no matter where it is in Middletown. It is not a specifically permitted use," Kohler said.

He said only group homes for the mentally retarded and physically impaired are permitted in residential areas, but are limited to six occupants, including any live-in caregivers.

Burks, who said she has worked at a Volunteers of America halfway house in Dayton as coordinator for chemical dependency programs, has been making rounds in Warren, Butler and Montgomery counties to drum up funding for her program.

Each time she has been turned down, although judges and probation officials acknowledge there is a need for the services.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction currently funds only two halfway houses for sex offenders - Volunteers of America in Mansfield and Cincinnati. The facilities usually are filled with inmates who are paroled from state prisons.

Judge James Flannery, of Warren County Common Pleas Court, said he supports the idea of a halfway house for some sex offenders who have committed less serious sexual crimes, such as collecting child pornography or trying to lure children over the Internet for sex.

"We're always looking for these types of programs. There's not a lot of programs to put sex offenders into because (treatment) takes so long. It's a hard addiction to crack," he said.

Burks said residents at the halfway house would be banned from leaving the premises for six to eight months, but then would have work privileges while they return for counseling.

She identified EASA House's executive director as Dr. Purcell Taylor, an associate professor at the University of Cincinnati who worked with sex offenders at Volunteers of America's halfway house in Cincinnati. He could not be reached Thursday.

Despite the local resistance, Burks said she will pursue funding from other sources. She and Taylor are meeting with state corrections officials on Monday and are applying to organizations such as United Way.

"If the state turns us down, it will definitely put a damper on things," she said.

State officials said they knew of Taylor and agreed to meet with EASA House officials to find out what the program is about.

However, a top-ranking official indicated that the state's funding and licensing requirements might be too tough for a new organization like EASA House.

"People go into this business thinking they can walk into a place and get funding," said Linda Janes, who heads the state's Bureau of Community Sanctions.

"You have to be in operation for a year before we will license and fund you. It's very unlikely new businesses could meet 150 standards that the facility has to abide by. We wouldn't be contracting with an agency like this."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com or skemme@enquirer.com