ELDORADO, WI -- More than 100 neighbors are packing a meeting tonight to speak out on a plan to relocate a sex offender with a violent history to their quiet Town of Eldorado.
51-year-old Clint Rhymes has served nearly 30-years for sexual assault, and attempted homicide.
Rhymes committed his crime in Milwaukee, and local ordinances have made his relocation within that city virtually impossible.
But tonight, Eldorado residents and leaders are ready to fight fire with fire.
"I feel like their dumping him on us," says Eldorado resident Bob Swenson, as dozens of people pack into the crowded town hall behind him, making it a standing room only event, "he has no ties to the area."
Swenson and others are fighting a proposal by the State Department of Health Services to relocate Rhymes along Nitschke road--the same road that's home to residents, like Bev Haag.
"This is a violent sex offender," says a concerned Haag before the meeting starts, "we have young children. We've already had a sex offender located on our street."
It's a call to action heard clearly by Fond du Lac County Sheriff Mick Fink.
"They don't want to take out-of-county sex offenders in the Town of Eldorado," says Fink before the meeting, "and frankly, I'm with them on this."
Legally, Fink says the county can't refuse Rhymes's relocation if approved.
But they can petition against it, and are doing just that with hundreds of letters soon heading to the Milwaukee judge overseeing it.
"Why are we taking sex offenders from the city of Milwaukee," asks Fink, "when the entire county has ordinances in Milwaukee saying 'we don't take sex offenders'?"
It's a message they hope speaks volumes before a decision is made December 16th.
Just this morning, Eldorado Town leaders passed an ordinance of their own, saying no sex offender may live there unless that crime was committed in Fond du Lac County.
It's unclear how that would impact this particular proposed relocation at this time.
