New Joliet Park May Force 11 Sexual Offenders To Vacate 'Pedophile Palace' On Cora Street

JOLIET, IL — Three years after concerned citizens of Joliet raised awareness regarding the opening of a two-story apartment building in the Cunningham Neighborhood to provide shelter for several mostly out of town registered sexual predators and convicted offenders, efforts by the city of Joliet to get rid of the so-called "Pedophile Palace" are finally coming to fruition.

This week, for the first time, Joliet's new Cunningham Neighborhood Park is being built, thanks to a generous donation of free labor and materials by Allied Landscaping of Joliet.

John Sheridan, president of the Cunningham Neighborhood Council, met with Joliet Patch at the new park site on Thursday, as did his friend, Jim Lanham, the former candidate for Illinois State Representative against Larry Walsh Jr. of Elwood.

"It's going to be beautiful," Lanham remarked. "And like I said, this is a good thing, especially considering now there's a movement in our state legislature in the General Assembly to try to lower sex offender distances. These bleeding-heart liberal progressives want to lower the distance to 250 feet. One of their biggest complaints is because Chicago is such an urban overgrowth that it's hard to find compliant housing for sex offenders. Well, have it be a Chicago law.

"In Joliet, they need to stay 500 feet. And let's remember, these guys aren't victims of anything. They're volunteers. They did what they did on purpose. So if they're inconvenienced or their feelings are hurt, I don't care. John (Sheridan) does not care, the residents of Illinois don't care. So if they're inconvenienced, this is too bad."

You can watch Thursday's 14-minute interview with Sheridan and Lanham at the bottom of this story.

Lanham and Sheridan have addressed the Joliet City Council on a number of occasions in recent years regarding the placement of out of town convicted sexual offenders into different areas of Joliet. In the Cunningham Neighborhood, Sheridan indicated that his review of the Illinois State Police sexual offender registry shows as many as 11 men may be living at 1000 Cora Street at this very moment.

The address for the new Joliet park will be 1000 N. Center St. It's at the corner of Center and Moran.

Last October, the Joliet City Council approved a $100,000 expenditure to build a small neighborhood park at 1000 N. Center St. It will force the child sex offenders at 1000 Cora to finally move, they said.

Since then, Allied Landscaping came forward and donated its labor and materials to the city of Joliet to make the new park a reality.

It's Sheridan's belief that the new city park will force the property owner of 1000 Cora Street, NewDay Apartments out of Lake Zurich, to comply with state law that prohibit sex offenders from living within 500 feet of any neighborhood park. Sheridan said it does not matter whether the park was built after the convicted sex offenders were introduced into the neighborhood.

Sheridan recommended that everyone visit the Illinois State Police sex offender registry to become aware of whether any convicted sex offenders are residing in their neighborhoods and subdivisions and what the details of their crimes were.

The link to the Illinois State Police registry is posted here.