Tilton residents will be asked at town meeting next week to vote on where registered sex offenders can live in their town.

An article on the warrant would forbid sex offenders who have been convicted of crimes against children from moving within 2,500 feet of a school, daycare or other "child-oriented organizations," including recreational areas. Sex offenders who already live within those bounds would be allowed to stay in their homes.

Selectman Tom Cavanaugh said he decided to do something after visiting a website, familywatchdog.us, which maps where sex offenders live.

"I noticed that there were several sexual predators, convicted sexual predators, living not far away from schools," he said. "It was disturbing, and I brought it up at a meeting."

Cavanaugh said police officers researched what the town could do and suggested a beefed-up version of a proposed state law. That bill, currently under consideration in the Legislature, would ban sex offenders who assaulted minors from moving within 1,000 feet of schools, parks and other "child-oriented organizations."

Eight child sex offenders live in Tilton now, according to a registry maintained by the state police. Seven live in the nearby town of Northfield and 29 in Franklin.

No one has mapped exactly where sex offenders could live under Tilton's proposed restrictions, said Town Administrator Bob Veloski.

There are three schools and at least two daycares in Tilton, as well as a handful of parks. Most of these "off-limits" areas are concentrated in downtown and West Tilton.

Tilton's proposed ordinance is closely based on a year-old city ordinance in Dover, which has a 2,500-foot requirement. But Dover's law is more tightly defined, restricting only schools and day cares and not other "child-oriented organizations."

"This far, at least for the city of Dover, it seems to be effective," Interim Police Chief Tony Colarusso said.

In the past year, six convicted sex offenders have tried to register addresses within Dover's restricted zones, Colarusso said. Five of them have relocated without incident, and the sixth one has moved to challenge the law in Dover District Court in a case that's still pending.

Colarusso said that before the ordinance was enacted, the police department had researched similar laws in other states and found that there had been no successful legal challenges. The city's attorney had also reviewed it, he said.

The ordinance may have a toll on neighboring towns: The five offenders who moved chose to leave Dover altogether, Colarusso said.

"Because of the number of schools and day cares we have in Dover, it's pretty limited where they can live in Dover . . . to the point where the five people have moved out of town," Colarusso said.

Critics of "buffer zones" for sex offenders argue that they cause more problems than they prevent. In December, the Iowa County Attorneys Association released a statement opposing that state's 2,000-foot restricted zones, saying they sapped police resources, caused offenders to become transient and fought only the "rare" phenomenon of sex crimes by strangers.

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