AUSTINTOWN Strip club considers inviting residents

The township can't enforce the resolution unless it's approved by voters in November 2003.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Ever wondered what it's like inside a strip club? If you're an Austintown resident, you may soon get an invitation to find out.
Atty. Scott Cochran said the owner of The Babylon on Javit Court is thinking about inviting residents to visit the club. The invitation would be part of The Babylon's campaign to encourage township residents to vote to overturn the township's new strip club resolution.
"After they get in there, they'll think, 'Boy, what's the big deal?'" Cochran added.
The resolution would require all strip club owners and employees to receive a license from the township zoning inspector before working in Austintown. In addition, the resolution would prohibit strippers from dancing totally nude and from touching customers.
Bid for ballot
On Tuesday, Cochran presented township clerk Michael Kurish with petitions asking the Mahoning County Board of Elections to place the resolution on the November 2003 ballot. The petitions contained 1,749 signatures.
Those working to put the resolution on the ballot needed to collect about 1,100 signatures from township residents to meet their goal. The elections board must certify that the signatures are from township residents before the resolution can be placed on the ballot.
Cochran said information from the board was used to decide which township residents should be asked to sign the petitions.
If the board certifies the petitions, township officials wouldn't be able to enforce the resolution unless it is approved in the November 2003 election.
Cochran said The Babylon also might work to educate township residents about the cost of the township's last legal battle with strip clubs as part of the campaign against the resolution.
Struck down
In March, a federal magistrate struck down a section of the township's zoning code requiring strip club owners to obtain a conditional-use permit to operate. The magistrate also ordered the township to pay the legal fees of The Babylon and Club 76, a strip club on Seventy-Six Drive, which had asked to have the section of the code struck down.
Those fees totaled $22,000. Township officials said the club's legal fees, as well as their own fees, were paid through the township's negligence insurance policy.
The policy has a $5,000 deductible. Township officials pay about $60,000 for the policy each year.
Worried about impact
Trustees have said they hope the resolution will limit the negative effects a strip club can have on a community. Cochran has stressed that he thinks The Babylon hasn't been a detriment to Austintown.
Trustees also have questioned the methods used to collect signatures on the petitions. Kurish said that Sunday, he was approached by someone asking him to sign a petition on home rule.
The petition was to place the strip club resolution on the ballot. Home rule is a limited form of self-government that will appear on the township ballot next month.
Cochran said he told those circulating the petitions for The Babylon that the petitions were not about home rule but to ask residents if they wanted to have a say on the strip club resolution.
hill@vindy.com