WESTBROOK – It was a tale of two votes in Westbrook on Monday night.
At approximately 9 p.m. the city’s Municipal Officers, which consists of the seven city councilors and the mayor, voted unanimously to deny an application by the owners of Dreamers Cabaret, a proposed strip club in Westbrook, to open with a bottle club license.
Then, at approximately 11 p.m., after an executive session where the officers conferred with legal counsel, the Municipal Officers voted to reconsider the denial and voted 7-0 (Councilor Michael Foley had left the meeting) to grant the bottle club license, albeit with three restrictions.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the councilors and the mayor elected to reconsider their earlier vote on advice from city attorney Bill Dale, but he declined to discuss the nature of the advice. Dale did not return phone calls seeking comment.
The debate over the bottle club is the latest in an ongoing battle between Dreamers and the city. Last week, just two days after the Committee of the Whole began discussions on the proposed nude dancing ordinance, the owners of the club filed a lawsuit against the city.
The suit filed last week by Thomas Hallett, the club’s lawyer, sought an immediate restraining order from the court, forcing the city to restore the club’s operating permit, allowing the business to reopen. The club’s permit was revoked a day after it opened with the city citing code violations as the reason for the shutdown. Last week, Bryant said that the judge in the case declined to issue the order and the would likely be a hearing in the case in the coming weeks.
The first restriction that the city placed on the license Monday was that the club could not be open past 1 a.m. The application listed operating hours as Monday through Wednesday 11 a.m.-3 a.m., Thursdays from 11 a.m.-4 a.m., Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m.-6 a.m. and Sundays 4 p.m.- 3 a.m.
Additionally, before the license can be issued, the city clerk must have written confirmation from the city’s code enforcement officer and fire inspector that the property meets all local and state codes. Finally, the city also put a reference on the license regarding the pending nude dancing ordinance currently before the council’s Committee of the Whole.
Under the proposed ordinance, any club offering nude dancing would not be allowed to have any alcohol on the premises, which would prevent Dreamers Cabaret from operating as a nude dancing establishment and a bottle club if the ordinance passes.
“No alcoholic beverages shall be sold, served or given away on the premises of any commercial establishment offering nude entertainment, whether for on-premises or off-premises consumption,” the proposed ordinance reads. “Further, operators of any such establishment shall not allow customers or patrons to bring or consume alcoholic beverages on the premises.”
Bryant explained that if the ordinance is approved by the council, the club could operate as a nude dancing club or a bottle club, but the ordinance would restrict management from doing both.
Hallett did not return calls on Wednesday seeking comment, but at the meeting Monday night, he told the Municipal Officers that the Ferrante Group, of which Westbrook resident Lawrence Ferrante is president, the owners of the club would make sure there were no problems due to alcohol at the establishment.
“(The Ferrante Group) intends to operate this club in a safe fashion,” Hallett said. “They want to provide a quality club in Westbrook, they don’t want trouble.”
Hallett told councilors that club management planned to have at least three employees on the floor at all times to monitor the patrons for any problems. Additionally, there would also be an employee at the door and another in the parking lot to stop problems there as well. He added that because the city has no ordinances that govern bottle clubs in Westbrook, the state statutes apply and the club’s application conformed to those regulations.
After Hallett spoke, Code Enforcement Officer Rick Gouzie informed councilors that under state statute, a bottle club was considered a Class 3 restaurant, which includes any establishment where alcohol is served with little or no food service. Gouzie said that the city’s zoning ordinances do not allow Class 3 restaurants in any zone. Hallett responded by saying state law forbids municipalities from zoning out Class 3 restaurants.
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