Club’s alcohol bid stripped Bangor council reverses decision under citywide pressure

BANGOR – After feeling the heat from scores of angry residents and others, city councilors Thursday unanimously reversed their 3-day-old decision to allow alcohol to be served in conjunction with topless dancing in certain parts of the city.

As a result of the 7-0 vote, the city’s 6-year-old ban on alcohol sales at sexually oriented businesses remains intact.

Thursday’s action came a day after an estimated 150 opponents of sexually oriented businesses gathered on the front steps of City Hall to launch a petition drive aimed at putting the issue to a citywide vote.

“The process works – isn’t that exciting?” said Cate Munch, one of the dozens of area residents who attended the special City Council meeting at City Hall.

She and others opposed to commercial nudity applauded the councilors who supported their cause from the start as well as those who did so as a result of the grass-roots effort that helped bring about Thursday’s reversal.

Though a referendum won’t be necessary now, volunteers plan to collect signatures through the weekend to add to the public record of community opposition to sexually oriented businesses, which some opponents refer to as “SOBs.”

The council’s initial 5-4 vote to change the ordinance would have enabled Platinum Plus, a national chain of strip clubs, to purchase the former Pilots Grill restaurant and open there. Platinum Plus representatives did not return telephone calls Thursday seeking comment.

A Portland attorney representing the chain told members of a council committee earlier that alcohol was a crucial component of Platinum Plus’ business model and that their clubs and others like it weren’t commercially viable without it.

If the chain remains interested in setting up shop in the vicinity, it will have to find a new locale.

City Council Chairman Dan Tremble announced during Thursday’s meeting that City Solicitor Norman Heitmann had received a telephone call from property owner and former restaurateur Bill Zoidis, who reportedly returned to Florida on Tuesday.

Tremble said Zoidis told Heitmann that he had never entered a purchase and sale agreement with Platinum Plus and that he had decided not to sell his property to the chain after all. The news brought applause from the audience of about 70 people.

The issue of commercial nudity, which has been the subject of controversy in Bangor over the years, returned to the forefront last month when Platinum Plus, which has a club in Portland, became interested in setting up shop in the former Pilots Grill restaurant on Outer Hammond Street.

In order to do so, the chain needed to convince the council to change the city’s policy on adult-oriented businesses.

After several rounds of debate and discussion over the ordinance changes requested by Platinum Plus, city councilors adopted them Monday night.

An avalanche of angry telephone calls and e-mail followed. Councilor Richard Greene, one of the five who voted in favor of the ordinance amendments, said he received more than 75 such telephone calls on Tuesday alone.

“When I’m wrong I’m the first to admit it because I have to look at myself in the mirror every morning,” he said.

“The naive trail I’ve taken to this point was paved with good intentions,” added Councilor John Cashwell, another councilor who switched sides.

“This is a civics lesson that will be very long remembered,” he said.

Chairman Tremble said public responses ran “50 or 60 to 1 against” the proposed strip club.

Tremble said Thursday that the fact that at least two council members had changed their positions after Monday’s meeting was a major factor in his decision to convene the special meeting.

By way of explanation for his initial vote for the ordinance change, Tremble said he oversimplified the issue, seeing the change as “just adding alcohol to an already allowed use [nudity].”

He also said he foresaw no relaxing of existing nudity standards and believed that the existence of a liquor license would actually give the city more regulatory authority.

Tremble said if Platinum Plus is still interested in setting up shop in the city, it can pursue the ordinance changes it wants through the referendum process.

Councilors Peter D’Errico and David Nealley, both of whom voted in favor of the ordinance changes Monday night, were unable to attend Thursday’s meeting. D’Errico was out of town and Nealley had a family commitment, Tremble said.

The avalanche of telephone calls and e-mail city officials received after Monday’s meeting had a great deal to do with the councilors’ change of position, some of them admitted.

Joel Ranger, owner of the Ranger Inn located near the former Pilots Grill, said he believed the council initially passed the change to help Zoidis sell his property. Ranger said Zoidis is a popular longtime businessman in the community with friendships and connections throughout the city. An appreciation night held after he retired drew an estimated 500 people.

“Apparently Bill Zoidis is a very influential man,” Ranger said.