Neighbors in Lisbon Falls say a convicted sex offender doesn’t belong in their neighborhood.
LISBON – Residents who live along Summer Street and Edgecomb Road have a new neighbor and they want him gone.
They plan to gather at a selectmen’s meeting Tuesday and a police meeting the night after that. They are considering hiring a lawyer.
The new neighbor is Langdon Green, a 49-year-old man recently released from jail after he was convicted of molesting a young boy in the Brunswick area.
Green served nine months in jail for gross sexual assault. Now, he is living with a relative in a house on Summer Street.
Green lives a very short distance from a nursery school on Edgecomb Avenue. Kids wait at bus stops to catch rides to other Lisbon schools. Green’s neighbors don’t like it at all.
“We want him out of this neighborhood,” said Patricia Schwicker, who lives on Summer Street. “This is a friendly, family neighborhood with a lot of children.”
Schwicker herself has several grandchildren who visit her. Many of them are around the same age as the boy Green was convicted of abusing, she said.
All told, Schwicker and her neighbors counted at least 35 children living in the area around the house where Green is living. In the summer, when families get together, that number may soar up to 65 children at one time.
Schwicker said she won’t let her grandchildren leave the fenced-in area of her yard when they come to visit.
“This is making a prisoner of our kids,” Schwicker said. “Nobody wants their children out there walking near that house.”
When Green moved into the neighborhood in recent weeks, Lisbon police notified people who live in the area. School officials were also alerted as part of a policy to keep people informed when a registered sex offender moves to town.
Some neighbors have contacted town officials. They determined that Green lives roughly 700 feet from Pooh and Tigger, Too nursery school.
“It’s too close for comfort. We want every parent of every child in that school to know about this,” Schwicker said. “We’re not going to let it slip by.”
Green’s name and photograph are listed on the state’s sex offender registry, along with nine other convicted offenders now living in Lisbon.
After receiving police notices about Green’s presence last week, several Summer Street and Edgecomb Road residents got together at an informal meeting. Just about everyone who lives in the area showed up, Schwicker said.
They agreed that Green should not be living in an area with such a large population of children. And they plan to say as much to selectmen Tuesday at the 7 p.m. meeting. Hopefully, the situation can be resolved through those channels, Schwicker said. If not, the group is prepared to intensify their efforts.
“If we have to,” Schwicker said, “we’ll hire a lawyer. We want him gone.”
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