Elizabethtown village board members Sandra Conkle, Becky Barnard, secretary Alene Carr and mayor Bertis Cook debate the presence of the Chippendale Dancers, which were scheduled to perform at Rick’s Love Shack on September 5; last-minute wrangling by the board put a stop to the show, for which tickets had already been sold.
ELIZABETHTOWN—At a specially-called meeting of the Elizabethtown Village Board, the Chippendale Dancers being scheduled to perform at a local watering hole was the focus of discussion.
In fact, at that meeting, held Wednesday, September 4 at 5:30 pm., the only topic of discussion was whether or not holding a show featuring the Chippendale dancers would be in violation of the village’s liquor license ordinance, and accordingly if it could cause Rick Love, the owner of Rick’s Love Shack in Elizabethtown, to be at risk of losing his license if he allowed the performance to go on as scheduled.
Booked two months ago
Love had booked the Chippendales to perform at his bar on Thursday, September 5, two months before the special meeting was called. He and his family had promoted the event for the duration of that two-month time frame using fliers, word of mouth, and the bar’s Facebook page. As of the date of the meeting over 100 tickets had been sold and, according to Love, that number included the wives of the police force and even one ticket to a village board member (which no one would fess up to it at the meeting).
Given that amount of discussion, advertisement, and excitement in the area, it might have been a given that the board would have been aware of the event long before the meeting date and would have addressed the issue during a regular village council meeting. Yet the board claimed, with exception of two members, to have been unaware of the performance.
Mayor Bertis Cook stated at the beginning of the meeting that he had apparently been told by another board member that the event was scheduled, but he had “forgotten” about it, so he didn’t raise this issue. It seems like Mayor Cook might have had his thumb up his butt for a month or so, because he seemed to have suddenly remembered the ordinance one week before the event.
What the law states
The village’s liquor licensing law states that any business with a liquor license must not “allow any lewd or lascivious act or any topless and/or bottomless employee and/or employees (topless being defined as naked and substantially without clothing or covering of the body from the waist to the neckline and bottomless being defined as naked and substantially without clothing or covering of the body from the waist downward), or entertainment to be performed within the licensed premises by an entertainer employed therein, or by any employee or guest.” This provision of the law can be found on page 16 of the Village of Elizabethtown liquor license ordinance, which the Mayor is responsible for. Why he suddenly remembered this little factoid after knowing about it for a month should certainly be taken with a grain of salt, considering the direction the board took after that point.
When the mayor was addressing this law at the village board meeting, discussion opened between the board and Love. Love was told that he should learn the ordinance before having any more events, to which he replied that he was aware of the ordinance laws, but did not think that any infringement would be taking place because the dancers do not expose their genitals. The question then became what the issue was. They were not exposing themselves, and could be asked to keep on their vests. The board agreed that would be acceptable, but one board member suggested that there would be bigger problems when the women at the show “got pissed that the dancers wouldn’t be taking off their tops.” That statement was met with heavy disapproval from the women present at the meeting.
Yelling fit erupts
One issue that is noted is that a notification that Rick’s Love Shack may potentially be in violation of the laws of the liquor licensing ordinance may have been due, or suggestions on how to avoid a violation of the provisions related to this incident could have been acceptable, but the meeting in and of itself was overkill. The protocol listed on pages 25 – 26 of the ordinance states that five citizens must make a written complaint, and then a hearing with the Local Liquor Control Commissioner will be scheduled where the licensee can plead his case and a penalty will be decided. It’s believed, however, that there will ultimately be more complaints that the show has been canceled than there would have been if it had continued.
The point of the meeting became moot rather quickly, however, when Love stated he had canceled the event, which set him back to the tune of $2000 apparently, and a potential lawsuit against him because of the cancellation was even mentioned. He told the board that he had only wanted to bring in revenue from this event, both for his business and the city, to which he received nothing more than a cursory pat on the back. Love then became upset when it was suggested that he was at fault for not knowing the ordinance (which, remember, Mayor Cook had apparently forgotten as well), which brought a war of words that caused the kind of screaming that could be heard in conventional a daycare, and threats that Love “didn’t need to take this verbal assault” and would be leaving. Attendees noted that a severe lack of etiquette was displayed on behalf of most of the parties.
Sandbags
Worse is that Love addressed the fact that board member Sandra Conkle had approached him at his business and told him that “He had better cancel his performance if he wanted to keep his liquor license.” When the rest of the board had heard this, and she confirmed that she had in fact done that, the point of the meeting was temporarily forgotten. The entire board wanted to know what in the hell she was thinking, to which she only replied “I just felt it was okay to give him a warning.” Whether that was a threat or a friendly warning, “Sandbags,” as she’s been called since the Flood of 2011, had the type of smug smile on her face that most decent people absolutely loathe.
At the time that the meeting was adjourned, no ruling had been made and the only thing that had been achieved was to determine that Love wouldn’t be holding the event, that he was out several thousand dollars in booking fees and refunds of tickets, and that it “was unfortunate” that the show had to be canceled 22 hours from its scheduled time due to the lack of attention that was paid to the issue within a reasonable time period. Also, the owner/operator of Rick’s Love Shack plans on holding no events in the future and is planning on selling the bar.