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The docket of the West Wendover Municipal Court got a lot more interesting in May with at least a half a dozen proceedings set for dancers of the Southern X-posure strip club accused of inappropriate lap dancing among other violations.
According to court records on May 11 there could be two trials and four pleadings from dancers at the club for stripping beyond the limits of the law.
While the fullest the May docket is a reflection of the increased enforcement of the West Wendover stripping code that began earlier this year.
“This is plain and simple harassment,” said strip club owner Scott Bangerter Wednesday. “I have been in operation since 2001 and never once have one of the dancers received a citation for in appropriate behavior until this year. In 90 days they issued 14.”
West Wendover City Attorney confirmed Wednesday that Bangerter could be correct at least to the fact that his dancers were never cited before for “inappropriate” acts while stripping or performing.
“I really can’t confirm the number of recently issued citations,” Coyle explained. “They only come to me when they are challenged.”
Bangerter suggested that the citations came only after he made an official complaint to West Wendover Police Chief Ron Supp regarding the conduct of his patrol officers during a walk through of his club this January.
“They barged into the dressing room without even knocking,” He said. “We made a kind of stink about that and then the girls started getting tickets.
While Bangerter’s dancers may not have been cited before the club has had frequent run-ins with the city over a whole host of issues.
Just last year the West Wendover City Council turned down a plea from West Wendover businessman to amend an agreement with the city that would force him to close one of his businesses by 2016 at the Plaza Mall.
Bangerter owner of the Southern X-posure Strip Club petitioned the council to amend an agreement made three years ago with the city where he agreed to drop a civil lawsuit against Wendover in exchange that the city would not alter its Sexually Oriented Business ordinance. Bangerter also agreed that he would relocate the Southern X-posure to a then undeveloped section of town zoned for adult businesses.
Bangerter not only owns the strip club but also the entire mall where the bar is located that houses a dozen or so other tenants. In addition the local businessman owns Wendover’s only taxi service.
“Considering the costs of having to build a new building,” Bangerter said in an interview before the meeting. “Plus the cost of having to maintain the Plaza, I simply can’t afford it. And if I moved the Southern our of the Plaza I don’t think there is any way that the tenant rent could any way pay for the mortgage or the up keep. I would end up having to close it and a dozen or so businesses would be closed as well.”
The agreement, the local business wanted to change was sign in 2007 that was supposed to have ended what is now a 20 year legal battle between West Wendover and strip clubs at the Plaza, Wendover’s only mall of any consequence.
Even before the Plaza was purchased by Bangerter, his club as well as another were the anchor stores of the mall whose rent kept the entire mall in operation.
“Do you think that if I had businesses clambering for space I would rent to a strip club?” Said former owner David Stevens. “But even with all the headaches and pressure from the city, he pays his rent on time and is a good neighbor to the other tenants.”
Since Bangerter bought the property occupancy has risen from a scant half a dozen struggling retail outlets to about 75 percent occupancy.
If the city holds him to the agreement, Bangerter may have no other choice but to move or to close his doors in six years.
The weakest part of the city’s 20 year effort to get strip clubs out of the Plaza was the fact that the city did not have a Sexually Oriented Business zone. That problem was rectified when part of the new industrial park was so designated two years ago.
The arraignments as well as the trials of the Southern X-posure strippers will be webcast on the High Desert advocate’s website www.coyote-tv.com.
Nice, I’m so glad to see the morons that run this town and solved all the other ilks. A few strippers not following the inane rules the morons that run this town have put in place are far from high crimes.
Run Supp is a moron. There is far more pressing issues this town has to solve like the corrupt politicians that are in the Peppermill’s pocket, the high domestic violence problem and the rampant corruption of public officials.
The WWPD and Tooele Sheriff Dept have nothing better to do than harrass people. Start doing your jobs and patrol the streets. I feel unprotected by the thugs in the blue uniforms. Is this not America? Do they not know their job description. HELLO! You work for us the citizens of this town. WE pay your salary. Both sides of town have high drug,gang,violence,minors drinking and etc to keep them busy. Who cares about the strippers!? Yuck on the police having to do walk thrus sounds kinda kinky to me. Do your job! Patrol the streets! You are not celebrities stop hanging out at the casinos or clubs.