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The center, run by the state Office of Children and Family Services, will continue to offer regular high school classes to the youths at the facility on Cheese Hill.

State officials changed the focus of the camp in response to neighbors' concerns about the safety and security of the facility. Now, the camp will house only nonviolent juvenile delinquents between the ages of 13 and 16 who are referred there by family court judges.

The state agency "has been sensitive to the concerns recently voiced by the community and we are implementing measures that enhance safety, in and around the community," said spokesman Brian Marchetti.

The camp will house a new group of children. They were expected to arrive on Thursday, but the snowstorm that blanketed the northeast postponed the move.

There have been seven escapes in the last two years, frightening residents in an area where people previously had felt safe enough to leave their homes unlocked. Despite the nonviolent nature of the new residents, the state is moving ahead with plans to build a $2 million perimeter fence with razor wire.

Earlier this month, residents packed a Town Board meeting to demand answers from Children and Family Services officials who they said have consistently ignored them. That followed a move by more than 500 of the town's 2,000 residents who gathered petitions seeking to close Camp Cass, claiming they no longer feel safe in their own homes.

Those concerns escalated after a 15-year-old convicted robber walked out of the camp undetected in November. He traveled for five miles on foot to the home of an elderly couple he robbed before driving off in their car. The boy was found hours later in Poughkeepsie.

For some in town, nothing that the state puts forward will be enough to quell fears, said Supervisor Jost Nickelsberg. "The bottom line is this fence may or may not go up within nine months," Nickelsberg said. "Once the fence is in it's a different prison and they'll use it for whatever they want to use it for.

"The bottom line is, we've been lied to, and made fools of and shame on us," Nickelsberg said. "We should have known what was in our own backyard. And now we do. Job number one is the health and safety of people in our town."

Marchetti said the new Camp Cass certificate program in restaurant management services and retail operations is being offered, in part, through a partnership with Cornell Cooperative Extension and Nike, respectively. The Boy Scout Troop will be led by camp director Tim Kelso, officials said.

Meanwhile, Ed Ausborn, deputy commissioner of the Office of Children and Family Services, disclosed his intention to retire last week. Marchetti said nothing should be read into the timing of Ausborn's announcement because "it is a complete coincidence." Ausborn will remain on board until May, he said.

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=564505&category=FRONTPG&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=2/19/2007