Platinum Plus vote sparks movement

BANGOR – The City Council’s 5-4 vote Monday to change the city’s rules on nude entertainment – which until now banned the combination of nudity and alcohol – brought the wrath of residents down upon City Hall on Tuesday.

The measure essentially paves the way for Platinum Plus, a South Carolina-based chain, to open one of its strip clubs in the former Pilots Grill restaurant. The club would feature topless dancers.

Within hours of the council’s controversial vote, phones were ringing with complaints at City Hall and residents had started to mobilize in an effort to overturn the measure. Among other things, a movement to put the changes before voters in a citywide referendum was begun.

Opponents of the ordinance change warned that establishments like Platinum Plus will bring unwanted elements to Bangor, including prostitution and organized crime. They also argued that adult entertainment businesses prey on young women, many of them troubled, by using them as “bait” to lure patrons.

Though some of the councilors who voted on the losing side attempted to reconsider the changes during Monday’s meeting, the effort failed by one vote.

Council Chairman Dan Tremble has the authority to convene a special council meeting within 10 days to revisit the issue but had not done so as of late Tuesday. He said Tuesday that he did not expect that he would, unless the council receives new information warranting another vote.

The Rev. James Haddix of All Soul’s Congregational Church, one of numerous residents who pleaded with the council not to approve the ordinance changes, confirmed Tuesday night that a petition drive aimed at getting the issue on the Bangor ballot would be launched during a press conference set for 5 p.m. today on the steps of City Hall. To succeed, 2,274 signatures would need to be gathered, the equivalent of 20 percent of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election.

“For me, it’s not a moral issue,” he said. “It’s about how you treat human beings.”

Haddix said a citywide effort is taking shape that would involve former city councilors, area churches, mental health and other professionals and others who believe that the previous policy served the city well and has, so far, withstood legal challenges.

“There was real outrage in the community,” he said. “I think this will be seeing communitywide support.”

City Manager Edward Barrett said that the telephones at City Hall rang all day Tuesday with calls from residents and others, virtually all of them unhappy with the council’s decision to lift Bangor’s 6-year-old ban on the combination of nudity and alcohol. The city, staff and elected officials also received numerous e-mails from residents opposed to Platinum Plus’s plan to set up shop here.

The topic of adult entertainment businesses has generated a great deal of controversy in past years, and Monday’s meeting, which drew at least 70 people on both sides of the issue, was no exception. The crowd filled the council chamber at City Hall, spilling out into the hallway beyond.

Given the strong feelings on the issue on either side, the decision wasn’t a comfortable one for the councilors, whose close vote followed more than three hours of discussion and public comment Monday night as well as two previous rounds of discussion at the committee level.

Charles Birkel of Randolph Drive, who watched Monday’s meeting on Bangor’s government access TV channel, is among those who e-mailed city officials to express his concern.

After having listened to the arguments for and against the changes, he concluded that “this possible change definitely needed more public input and time for consideration. … I strongly recommend our city council chairman, or if he refuses, then the majority of the council members call for a special meeting as outlined in our city charter, to reconsider this entire issue.”

“It is much better to take the time needed at another public meeting, to ensure that a [hastily] made decision by some of our councilors … does not result in a completely wrong decision that may cause [irreparable] harm to our people and the city that may be regretted,” Birkel wrote.