The Casper Journal :: Casper's Community Newspaper

The gentlemen's club that Sonny Pilcher plans to open in the former Cowboys bar facility, northwest of Casper, won reluctant approval recently from the Natrona County Commissioners.

Community acceptance for the decision to allow what some are calling a strip club in a visible location on the way to the airport won't be coming any time soon.

"This type of establishment in our community is an opportunity for immoral behavior," said Maria Antonovich, who is marshaling an effort to ask the commissioners to withdraw their approval of the conditional use that will allow the club to open.

"The opening of a club of this type will fuel the fire of what's already a struggle. It's a temptation that doesn't need to be there," Antonovich told the Casper Journal.

Opening a club that will allegedly have topless dancers was a business decision, according to information that County Attorney Eric Nelson said Pilcher provided to the county.

Pilcher owns two other establishments with liquor licenses: Sidelines Sports Bar with a Casper license and the Beacon Club with a Mills license.

A deal that would have used Pilcher's County-issued license for a shooting range in the renovated building fell through when financing was unavailable.

The gentlemen's club that Pilcher proposes would use the license and the building for a different clientele than the sports bar or country dance club.

Nelson said Pilcher told the commissioners that the new club would include business men in suits and ties, drinking scotch and watching the dancers.

Pilcher did not return calls from the Casper Journal.

Morals, regulations

Antonovich doesn't have a lot of constitutional education, but said she believes "the founding fathers wrote up the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, basing it on Christian morals.

"If you're a Christian, you still have the obligation to vote morally correct and defend good morals in the community."

She continued, "We're not a bunch of Catholics getting on our high horse. We just happen to be Catholic, getting together to say, 'No, no, no; not in our community.'"

Natrona County does limit adult entertainment only to commercial and light industrial zoned areas of the county.

There also are distance regulations for proximity to other adult entertainment venues, schools, churches and residential areas, but regulations only can go so far, according to Nelson.

"The Supreme Court says adult entertainment is a form of protected speech. It can be regulated, but not just denied or forced out completely," without risking a lawsuit, he said.

Such a suit against Natrona County would involve attorney fees and the potential for a monetary judgment for violation of constitutional rights.

The county's restrictions on the new club will put limits on hours of operation, prohibit some kinds of signage and guarantee access and inspection by the sheriff's, fire and health departments.

County regulations also prohibit minors under age 18 from entering or working in an adult entertainment venue.

The restrictions aren't enough for Antonovich and those who joined her at the Sept. 23 County Commission meeting to protest the commissioners' 4-1 decision to allow the gentlemen's club.

"I base what I'm doing out of my Christian obligation and what my community should look like. We want Casper to be the best it can be," she said.

"If this gets going, what will stop people from opening more? It could be the beginning of astronomical growth in this type of entertainment," Antonovich explained.

Commissioner Matt Keating, who was the sole dissenting vote on approving the conditional use permit, supports those who will ask the commissioners to reconsider.

"We can still stand up and yank the conditional use permit," he told the Casper Journal.

"It's messier than doing it right the first time and standing up and saying, 'this is not right.'

"We're put in a position where we have no choice or get sued. It's a decision we have to make," Keating said.

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