Councilors call special meeting over adult entertainment issue

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm City Council will meet Friday in special session to weigh options in blocking adult entertainment businesses from setting up shop in the city.

The meeting is set for noon in the council's chambers at the Public Library.

Emphasizing the urgency, Council President Dan Beranek and Councilors Joel Albrecht and Ruth Ann Webster called the session because Mayor Arnold Koelpin who is delegated the power to call such meetings is traveling in Europe.

City sources said the signatures of three councilors is required to call a special meeting in the mayor's absence. It's the first time since the mayoral term of the late Bert Schapekahm that councilors have called such a meeting.

In addition to discussing ways to regulate adult entertainment, the council will hear from Martin Luther College's CFO, Gary Sonnenberg, on the college's Summit Avenue landscape improvement plan. The councilors also will consider authorizing the city manager and the city's finance director to sign documents allowing the city to get reimbursed by the government for expenses incurred during the 2001 spring floods.

Proponents of swift action to prevent strip clubs from entering New Ulm as The Mirage has in Nicollet were stymied Tuesday. A vote to get consideration of the issue on the agenda failed when the motion did not receive unanimous support from the council.

Councilor Clark Tuttle voted against putting the issue on the agenda.

Councilors were concerned that if action is taken quickly, the city would be tempting fate in that another strip club like the one in Nicollet which does not sell alcoholic beverages could set up shop in New Ulm because of gaps in ordinances.

The moratorium which was to have been considered Tuesday is authorized under state laws governing zoning issues. However, City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten said, "To my knowledge, it has not been tested in the courts."

In an opinion prepared for the council Tuesday, Nierengarten wrote, "Pending a determination of whether and how the City would regulate adult uses, the City may adopt an interim zoning ordinance intended to 'freeze' the status quo until a determination is made on the underlying issue."

Nierengarten said the interim ordinance would remain in effect for one year but could be extended by the council up to a maximum of 18 additional months.

As an example, he provided a copy of Nicollet's interim ordinance regulating adult uses in the city. Its ordinance also directs that a study of the issue be conducted. It was enacted two days after The Mirage opened for business, so its provisions can't apply to the total nudity club.

City Manager Brian Gramentz, who was city administrator at Hudson, Wis., prior to coming to New Ulm, provided copies of Hudson's ordinances regulating sexually oriented businesses.