Transitions Home in Neillsville Testing Limits and Patience of Neillsville Police Department
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017 -- 11:14 AM
-The Transitions Home in Neillsville is testing the limits and patience of the Neillsville Police Department.Transitions, a program of Lutheran Social Services, opened its doors in February of this year. They’re located in the former Homme House, which served male juvenile sex offenders. The Homme House closed their doors seven years ago and it has since opened as Transitions, with the purpose of helping young girls that are victims of sex trafficking and abuse. Since its opening, Neillsville Police Chief Scott Klueckmann had high hopes of he, and his department, working as a partner with the home. Unfortunately, during the Report of Officers at the Neillsville City Council meeting, Chief Klueckmann stated he has yet to see that and that he’s “washed his hands” of the situation. He continued stating that he has to make sure that the rest of the residents in the City of Neillsville are safe. The Neillsville Police Department’s resources have been stretched thin as they deal with multiple calls on an almost daily basis with out of control residents of the home and causing issues with in Neillsville. Last month alone the department had 29 calls involving incidents at the home or with its residents in the city and, currently, the facility only has 3 girls.
It’s not just the city police department that has suffered because of it. The Clark County Sheriff’s Department has had their resources stretched thin as well. Multiple businesses in the city have banned the residents of Transitions from their property including Shopko, the Neillsville American Legion and A&W. Chief Klueckmann and the Sheriff’s Department have had multiple meetings with the staff and management of Transitions, as well as others, to try and find ways to rectify the poor situation, but nothing has helped. The department identified four areas that have resulted in these issues including undertrained staff, lack of control, poor intake screening and inappropriate use of sight and sound supervision. At a previous council meeting, a resident had brought up concerns about the facility and Neillsville Mayor Steve Mabie stated the city and residents needed to be a good neighbor to the facility. However, at this meeting, Chief Klueckmann stated that the management of the facility had said the chief was uncooperative with them. Mayor Mabie said that “angered him” as Chief Klueckmann is “one of the most cooperative people I know.” For now, the city will look at the facilities licensing if these issues continue. Because of some issues the Neillsville Police Department has brought up with the state, Transitions is being investigated, as of last week, and they can’t accept any more residents.
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