MANKATO — About three dozen people turned out Thursday to air questions and concerns regarding a level three sex offender’s planned move to Mankato.

The public notification meeting at Verizon Wireless Center concerned 36-year-old Romeo Alba’s anticipated move to a residence on the 1900 block of South Riverfront Drive. Alba will be released from prison Monday.

Per usual at these meetings — public notifications are required by the state when level three offenders move to a community — audience questions focused on concerns such as “Why does he have to move here?” (because he has the right) and “Will my children be safe?” (hopefully, yes, though no one’s safety can ever be guaranteed).

Fielding most of the questions was Mark Bliven of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, which will have Alba under intense supervision for four months, after which time he’ll be subject to lower-intensity supervision for years.

Also per usual at these meetings, strong emotions from neighborhood residents can flare up.

“We’ll burn the place down. We don’t want him living there,” one man sputtered before Bliven calmly reviewed some tempering realities:

n There are 17,000 registered predatory offenders of all levels in Minnesota, with 116 now living in Mankato.

n There are 239 level three offenders living in Minnesota communities (A level three classification is the most severe assigned to a sex offender and indicates that the person may re-offend sexually).

n Alba’s intensive supervised release program will be a regimen that includes random and unannounced home visits by corrections agents and constant “house arrest” surveillance that can employ ankle bracelets equipped with GPS.

“Don’t focus your attention on this guy alone because most offenders in your community are not even on the (sex offender) registration,” Bliven said.

Mankato Detective Commander Matt DuRose told those in attendance that Mankato police will pick up where state corrections personnel leave off following the four-month intensive supervision program.

“When Alba comes off supervision in December he’ll be our responsibility,” DuRose said, adding that checks on Alba by police and corrections staff will be frequent.

“But we don’t have the resources to have someone park in his driveway and monitor him 24 hours a day.”

Alba was arrested in Texas in 1995 for attempting to sexually assault an 8-year-old girl.

He moved to southern Minnesota several years ago and in 2009 was living in Gaylord, where authorities suspected him of hanging around younger girls.

He was arrested and charged with failing to register as a sex offender when he moved to Minnesota and was sentenced to a year in prison.

He was released in 2010 and arrested in Le Sueur a short time later for attempting to grab a girl in the city’s downtown mall. Alba pleaded guilty to fifth-degree assault and was given 90 days in jail.

Alba was subsequently arrested in Mankato, again for failing to register as a predatory offender, and sentenced to a year in prison.