Fairfield County Sheriff Will Montgomery updated neighbors of the Cambio Academy last week on what his department is doing to keep residents safe from Cambio runaways who, Montgomery said, roam Greenbrier day and night causing damage, leaving residents fearful for their safety.
GREENBRIER- After making more than a hundred calls to Cambio Academy in the Greenbrier community since May and hearing from many residents about runaways from Cambio breaking and entering and causing property damage and harrassing Greenbrier residents, Sheriff Will Montgomery held a community meeting last week at Greenbrier United Methodist Church.
While Montgomery didn’t have a lot of answers, the Greenbrier neighbors had a lot of questions:
“What kind of in-house security does Cambio have?”
“What are you (the Sheriff) doing about this?
“What structure does Cambio have in place to keep these kids busy?”
The Sheriff’s answers:
“None.”
“I’m working on it.”
“Breaking and entering,” someone in the audience joked
There were numerous testimonials about property damage and runaway teens roaming the neighborhood day and night.
“How long is it going to be until something serious happens? That what worries me,” a woman from the audience said.
Another asked, “When one of these kids goes missing, why aren’t we notified?”
Montgomery suggested residents could sign up for the County’s reverse 911 service that will notify them of emergencies and that he will consider using the service for the Cambio issue.
Cambio Academy is located in Greenbrier.
Montgomery said that after talking with the Academy’s Director, Pamela Woods, he is trying to work out some type of security for the facility such as fencing or an alarm system that will alert management when a teen is leaving the facility.
Resident Laura Thomas suggested residents call the governor’s office to complain about the community chaos created by Cambio.
Asked how the facility got approval to operate in the County, Administrator Jason Taylor said Cambio representatives did not have to come before the County to ask for rezoning of the property.
“It was already zoned for that use,” Taylor said.
County Council Chairman Billy Smith addressed the process for getting the state to close the facility.
“Part of the process of trying to get them closed is to basically identify to them what problems they are causing, give them a period of time to fix those problems and then if they don’t, we can petition the court to grant an injunction to close it,” Smith said. “So it is very important that we have everything documented, anything that you are aware of, be sure to make those phone calls to the County or the Sheriff’s department. That will be the information we have to have to present to a judge.”
Another community meeting is set for Tuesday, Dec. 19 at 6 p.m. at Greenbrier Methodist Church to discuss the issue.