Family Friendly Strip Club Update

One gunshot victim was down on the ground and four or five more shots rang out just as he was rolling up on the scene. Laurel Police Lt. Phil Pollock testified that it was nothing short of chaos when he arrived on the scene in the wee hours of Saturday April 22. Four or five hundred people were running around and there were not enough police officers on the scene to maintain order or preserve evidence. The Amazon Club in South Laurel was open once again for business.

My son Stosh and I attended the Prince Georges County Board of License hearing regarding Club Amazon’s liquor license transfer. Stosh is 16 years old and he normally avoids any form of civic activism, especially if it includes his boring dad, boring meetings or airless, boring court rooms. But on the hormonal hope that at least some of the club’s exotic dancers might be working the room, he agreed to tag along with me to Hyattsville to watch local government in action.

Stosh told me later that--even without the strippers--the meeting was pretty cool. The Amazon Strip Club liquor license saga is a long tale of profound woe and greedy intrigue. Let me start at the beginning and try to explain what Stosh found so interesting.

There is a strip club called the Stardust located at intersection routes 450 & 410 in Hyattsville. The patrons of this club have caused a ton of trouble in that community. The final straw was a shooting a couple of years ago. The owners of the Stardust lost their liquor license based on the shooting and a number of liquor license violations committed by the owners.

The owners appealed the license revocation. Before a judge could rule on the appeal, the owners struck a deal with the liquor board. The owners asked the board that, if they found a more appropriate location for the strip club, would they be allowed to have a liquor license. The board agreed, but with restrictions, and unfortunately the new location turned out to be the former Dinosaur/Amazon night club at the corner of Contee Road and Rt1, just outside the Laurel City limits.

As part of the transfer deal, the new Amazon club owners were only provided a class B liquor license. A class B license is intended to permit a restaurant to sell liquor as an incidental part of their business. It is not a license to operate a bar or a night club. The other restrictions included; no live entertainment, no more than 175 patrons, and plenty of security in and around the facility.

A hearing to permit the owners to change their license from a class B to something more appropriate for a night club with exotic dancing was scheduled for March 1st. The owners then asked for a continuance until May 3rd.

This is what brought my son Stosh, Delegates Barbara Frush, Brian Moe, Laurel Mayor Craig Moe, Laurel City Council Members Smalls, Leszcz, Robison, Sarich, Snyder, Laurel City’s Ace Solicitor Bob Manzi, Deputy Chief Rich McLaughlin, City Administrator Kristie Mills, City Clerk Kim Rau, PG County Council Member Tom Dernoga, Oldtown’s own Susie Marucci, at least two local Pastors and about 75 concerned citizens to Hyattsville on Wednesday night.

Shamefully, there were no State Senators in the court room, although the liquor board members are appointed by the State Senate.

When the hearing started, the Deputy Chief Liquor Inspector stood up and under oath described the violations that were found after the shooting on the 22nd of April. Lt. Pollock and a PG County detective also testified under oath about the chaos and number of people in the area. Lt. Pollock described how Laurel’s Volunteer Rescue Squad and Fire Fighters were on the scene and trying to provide aid. Five Laurel police cars responded to assist the county police, even though the problem was officially outside of the city. The call “shots fired” demands that everyone responds. One police unit was left to patrol Laurel.

My hat is off to all of Laurel’s public safety officers. It takes a special kind of person to courageously wade into that kind of dangerous confusion.

The Deputy Chief Liquor Inspector then asked the Board to hold a show-cause hearing to consider revoking the Amazon’s license based on the stated violations.

The next person to testify was the manager of Amazon. He was asked under oath what kind of place he was running. He said a restaurant. He was asked how much food he sold. He said that he did not sell food. His kitchen was not finished because they ran out of money. But they had catered a buffet for the patrons.

Class B liquor licensees must keep receipts showing the ratio of food to liquor sales. The manager could not remember the current ratios. The manager said that he was planning a big event for this coming weekend and he was anticipating 250 people. He was targeting a patron age group from 25 to 40 years old.

At this point the Amazon’s lawyer mercifully stepped in to say that the owners were willing to close after this weekend aftger the 7th. They wanted to wait until that time because they had a contract with a popular Latino DJ for a big Cinco De Mayo party.

Then the owner of the Amazon testified, also under oath. She said that they were indeed running a restaurant because she offered food. When asked what kind of food, she said chips, popcorn and wings. She then explained that they have been closed for six months and simply did not have the money to fix the kitchen.

The board voted unanimously in favor of conducting a show-cause hearing on June 14th. The original hearing to consider changing the license from a class B to exotic dancing, was postponed until after the hearing on the 14th of June.

Many of the officials in the room asked the board to shut the Amazon down immediately based on the testimony of the manager and owner; since they said they were already violating the liquor license restrictions. The board said that they could not do that without due process. But that they intended to be watching closely.

Here is a copy of the advertising poster for the Cinco De Mayo party, courtesy of Councilman Sarich. It brings a whole new flavor to Family Friendly.




I heard this morning that the Amazon has voluntarily closed beginning immediately. I guess there will not be a party tonight.

Stosh and I will be returning to Hyattsville on June 14th to see how that revocation hearing turns out. You might want to do the same. Stosh is still hoping that we might have some family-friendly exotic entertainers in the court room.

Please correct my errors, add your opinions or questions in the comments section: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=10814078&postID=114685097237502318

You Know You Are A Laurelite If ...

Back in 2003 I sent an email to the MainstreetAlert list about how to tell if you are a real Laurelite. My original message went on to generate the largest response we've ever had on the Main Street List.

The Laurel Leader picked up the story and ran it for three more weeks (9/25/03, 10/09/03) that generated a few more lists as letters to the editor (9/25/03, 10/02/03, 10/23/03).

Please add your own new ones in the comments section of this post.
Here is how that original message was posted on 9/18/2003:

Friends, Neighbors, & Laurelites:

I think it is time we had a good "You know you area Laurelite if ... " list. Unfortunately, I've only lived in Laurel 23 years and not the required 3 generations, so I still can't get an official Laurel ID card. But my unofficial status aside, Ioffer a few ideas to get started. I know you all can do so much better so I thought I would ask you to contribute.

• You know you are a Laurelite if ...
• You don't think the names "Robison" or "Marton"are spelled wrong.
• You don't read the paper. You go to the coffeeshop for real news.
• Bart's is the only barbershop that has ever cut your hair.
• You can remember shopping at the old Hechts and eating at Horn & Horn after.
• You know that the "Meat Market" is not a singles bar.
• You use Fourth Street to avoid the traffic at Christmastime.
• You took your first date to the drive-in movies behind Dunkin Donuts.
• You remember when there was only one Laurel Lake and it was not muddy.
• Your political party is not listed as DEM or REP but LVFD or LVRS.
• You bought your hardware from a Cook, your meat from a Miles and your cars from Fred.
• You still call it Tippy's.

Citizens Bank Vault Cracked in Laurel

Safe crackers use 10 ton, self-propelled jackhammer on vault.

The vault fought off the jackhammer for a good long time. I opened an account at this bank at the Laurel Shopping Center during my first week in Laurel almost 26 years ago. It is good to see how secure my money was all these years.

(Please click on picture to enlarge.)

Kojo Comes to Laurel

WAMU's king of community talk radio, Kojo Nnamdi came to Oseh Shalom Synagogue last evening as part of his Kojo in your Community series. Kojo taped two one hour shows about living in Laurel and Prince Georges County.

About 100 people attended the event. Current and former politicians were well represented in the audience. The first hour was a wide ranging conversation about growth, development and preservation. The second hour, well actually 49 minutes in radio time, was about our schools and education.

I was called about a week ago by Tara Boyle, one of the producers of the show. She asked me if I would be a facilitator for the first hour. Not quite sure what a facilitator would do, but having a face for radio, I readily accepted.

It turns out that facilitators sit at the front table with a huge, Edward R. Murrow style microphone in front of their faces and wait for Kojo to ask them a question to help push the conversation forward. Or in my case , to kill the conversation when Kojo asks a question out of left field while I was not paying close attention.

During the first show we talked about historic preservation versus development, community identity, shopping on Main Street, the ICC and politics in the county. Sounds almost like this blog.

The second hour was about education policy, school boards vs. superintendents. That show was facilitated by Dr. Alvin Thornton and West Laurel's own Mary Lehman. About half of the 49 minute hour was Kojo and Thornton sparing about the future of our schools and how the funding, school board and community needed to come together.

You can hear the first hour today, Wednesday, March 29th at noon and 8:00 pm on 88.5 FM. The second hour will be broadcast next Wednesday, April 5th at the same times.

N.B. Wednesday Night. In case you missed the broadcast. A kind reader passed along the following in the comments section:

"The first hour will be archived online here, and the second hour, to be broadcast next week, here (this link won't work until next week)."

American Patriots

I was on my way home from New York City. It was well after midnight and I was Southbound on the New Jersey Turnpike. I pulled in at the Joyce Kilmer service plaza for a soda and some peanuts to stave off drowsiness.

I was standing in line at the little convienence store behind a very young soldier in desert fatigues and jump boots. He had an armful of junk food and sodas. He looked barely old enough to shave. In front of him at the checkout was a sixtyish man and his wife.

The older couple were just about to pay for their things when the man turned to the cashier and said to the clerk, "Ring up this soldier's things too."

The young soldier protested and said, "That's not necessary sir."

The older man said, "Son, I want to thank you for what you are doing. I never had the opportunity to serve. But I'm proud of what you guys are doing. Let me pay for this. It's the least we can do."

The young soldier was visibly shaken. But he got out a quick, "Thank you, sir."

Then the older guy shook his hand and said, "Thank you, be safe, and God bless you." And then he and his wife walked back out into the night. The soldier gathered his bag of junk food and walked out to the highway towards his life too.

The clerk and I smiled and tried to ignore each other's tears as I paid for my peanuts.

Two American patriots just met for the first time on a New Jersey turnpike. A generation apart in time, but brothers in spirit.