The group working to prevent a strip club from opening at an Interstate 44 interchange learned there are limits to what they can do to fight the club's opening.
Approximately 70 area residents met at the Joplin Regional Stockyards on Tuesday and adopted the name Citizens for a Decent Environment, or CDE, and talked for more than an hour about the steps they wanted to take to fight the proposed strip club at County Road 100 and I-44.
John Putnam, an organizer of the group, said U.S. Supreme Court rulings and state laws limit what residents can do before a business can open.
"We're trying to adjust between what we would like to do and what we feel that the law will allow us to do," Putnam said. "I think everyone is a little bit disappointed that we can't define what sexually oriented businesses are and say we don't want them. That would be the common sense, readily apparent way to set community standards to most of the folks here, but we're told by most of the people we talk to you have to let them come in and then deal with the breaking of regulations after they open."
The group thanked the Jasper County Commissioners for their swift passage of a tougher ordinance regulating cabarets, or strip clubs, and discussed plans by the commissioners to make applying for a business license more detailed.
Currently, someone applying for a business license only have to pay a fee and sign their name, but the commissioners have discussed requiring applicants to list what kind of business they will operate, who owns the business and other details about the business before granting a license.
Pete Connelly, another organizer of the group, said he had delivered a Bible and letters for the owner of the lot, now identified as Ernie Doyon from the county recorder of deeds office, to an individual living in a mobile home on the lot. Connelly said he made a second visit to the lot with a second letter and was told by the individual that if he returned the man would call the Sheriff's Department and have him arrested for trespassing.
Collateral damage
The daughter of one of the employees of the Express Store, a convenience store located on the same lot with the proposed strip club, spoke passionately about how people had come to the business and yelled at the women working there about the strip club.
The girl, who would only give her first name, Tiffany, for fear that her mother would be fired from her job, said boycotting the store would only hurt the employees who have no control over what their employer does on the property.
"People are talking about boycotts and that's the wrong thing to do," she said. "It's a place of work for other people and they need to understand that. Not everyone who works there is for what they're doing next door, but there's nothing they can do about it. They have no choice over what happens."
Tiffany said are residents have come into the store and yelled at the employees, calling them names and other things.
"People have come in and said the rudest things and if we're such a great community why would we say those kinds of things to each other," Tiffany said. "I've lived in this community since I was born, and I want to live here forever, but I mean why be rude to each other. They should be more supportive of each other like they are doing, but they should not be so rude to the people who work there. They've all been there over two years, since before the current owners took over."
Residents attending the meeting expressed their support for the employees and condemned anyone being hateful to them.
Other ordinances
Putnam and Connelly said they had researched ordinance passed in Jackson County and a law up for public vote in Ohio, both dealing with sexually oriented businesses.
According to The Independence Examiner newspaper, the Jackson County ordinance, passed on Jan. 22, requires all adult entertainment establishments to obtain a license, as well as employ licensed staff who cannot have sex-related convictions or narcotics convictions. In addition, a manager must be on duty at all times, with the name posted, to prevent entry of minors and any sexual activity or narcotics on site.
The ordinance also prohibits solid doors with locks and openings or holes in walls or video booths, which people might use to have anonymous sex. The businesses will be inspected by both the Public Health Department and Public Works.
"You have to always be concerned in our day in age that someone will beat what the general public wants on some small technicality, maybe because the wording is not quite precise enough," Putnam said. "That's why I'd like to go with something that maybe is tried and true in some of these other communities and learn from it. The Jackson County ordinance comes to mind."
Putnam said State Rep. Ed Emery has introduced a bill in the Missouri House of Representatives to stiffen strip club regulations on the state level.
Click here to view House Bill 2026
Emery's bill, House Bill 2026, would prohibit employees of strip clubs from simulating or performing sex acts, require them to remain at least 10 feet from customers, on a stage at least two feet off the floor and behind a two-foot railing, and prohibit customers from tipping the employees.
It would also limit the hours such a business could be open to between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. weekdays and Saturdays. A strip club would also be forced to close on all official state and federal holidays and Sundays.
"Ed Emery's bill actually picks up a bill that was already introduced in the Senate and brings it over on to the house side," Putnam said. "Because of the timing of the session, it's pretty late to get a bill passed even thought the session seemingly has just started. A lot of the bills that make it clear through both of the houses and the governor's signature get set up and written before they even get up there. This one is trying to play catch up."
Next steps
The group decided to meet in two weeks do talk more about what it wanted to do. In the meantime they agreed to draw up a petition expressing their support for what the county commissioners had done so far and asking them to look into further regulation of the strip club.
They also decided to ask the owners of the property where the strip club is located to meet with them and seek a meeting with Prosecutor Dean Dankelson to discuss further steps.
