RUMFORD – Voters going to the polls Tuesday will decide whether to approve Rumford’s first sex-offender ordinance, which would bar such convicts from living near schools, day care centers and recreation facilities.

Phone calls from convicted sex offenders seeking to live here, where there is no such law, spurred police to quickly propose one.

“We didn’t want Rumford to be a safe haven for convicted sex offenders,” police Chief Stacy Carter said Tuesday. “And, we wanted to provide reasonable protection for our children.”

The law would not apply to the 28 sex offenders already living in town, and they would not be required to move if new schools or day care centers are built or relocated near them.

The ordinance, which states that sex offenders who prey on children are at a higher risk to re-offend, targets people convicted of sex offenses against children under the age of 18 and who are required to register for life as convicted sex offenders.

It would prevent them from living or loitering within a 2,500-foot radius of the property line of a school or within a 1,000-foot radius of the property line of a day care center. The law also would ban them from entering a school or day care center unless specifically authorized to do so by the school administration or day care owner.

Violating the ordinance would prompt court action to force compliance or a minimum fine of $500 compounded daily for each day the violation continues after town notice.

Should the town prevail in court, it would be entitled to receive reasonable attorney’s fees, expert witness fees or any other associated costs.

Carter said that pending voter approval, Rumford would join the few towns that have recently enacted sex-offender residency laws.

“It’s something relatively new across the state,” he said.