Council passes anti-obscenity ordinance

By RON LARSEN

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- If you had been planning on opening up an adult entertainment business in the New Ulm city limits, you're too late.

The City Council, meeting in special session Friday, approved an interim ordinance regulating adult uses within the city which incorporates Section 5.90 of the city code which prohibits nudity and obscenity. It passed unanimously as an emergency measure which takes effect with the publishing of the summary ordinance in today's issue of The Journal (see page 8A).

The ordinance could remain in effect for up to 12 months, at which time it could be extended an additional six months if necessary, City Attorney Hugh Nierengarten said.

The ordinance also directs that a study be conducted, a fact-finding effort to determine the best ways of regulating adult use businesses.

Nierengarten suggested that because neighboring communities like Nicollet and Courtland are enacting similar ordinances, "there could be a joint effort in fact-finding because everyone faces the same situation."

The council had a choice of two ordinances which were prepared in advance by Nierengarten. One was the one it passed, and the other was a "mirror-image" of the Nicollet interim ordinance passed by the town's council two days after a total nudity club selling only bottled pop set up shop in the town.

Councilor Clark Tuttle, an attorney, said he felt Nicollet's ordinance was "overly broad and could be used to harass businesses. This is why I favor replacing what Nicollet is using with our ordinance on nudity.

"I didn't vote no the other night because I'm opposed to preventing businesses like that from coming in. We know from the news accounts that those boys (owners of The Mirage in Nicollet) hired the best attorney available, and we need to be careful that what we're doing is constitutionally valid."

Nierengarten told the council he agreed with Tuttle and felt the Nicollet ordinance was outdated and possibly sexist, as well.

Tuttle said his only concern about making it an emergency was that "we need proof of a clear and present danger." He noted that an account in The Journal which told of The Mirage owners' targeting New Ulm as a site would probably meet that criteria.

However, Councilor Ruth Ann Webster who made motion for the interim ordinance motion, the "smoking gun" when she said she had received a letter from a constituent telling how that "lady had been approached by the two young men about renting a vacant building she owned. She said she turned them down."

Councilor Joel Albrecht suggested a commission be formed to study the situation. However, that idea was immediately shot down by Council President Dan Beranek who felt "it's not a good way to get the facts we need," and by Webster. The other councilors concurred that it would be best handled by staff.

While the ordinance decision held the spotlight, the council also authorized the City Manager and City Clerk/Treasurer to sign documents to obtain reimbursement for expenses stemming from the 2001 spring floods.

It also gave its blessing to Martin Luther College's Summit Avenue landscape improvement plan.

MLC Grounds Supervisor Tim Rambow explained how the college plans to re-landscape the slope above Summit Avenue. He said plans include planting 1,070 fragrant-grow low sumac, along with 11 fall gold ash, on the slope, creating a canopy to keep weeds down.

Thirteen skyline honey locusts would be planted on the boulevard because they are salt-tolerant. While the boulevard would be covered with brick pavers similar to the ones used in downtown crosswalks, holes would be left for the trees and the flowers that would be planted around each tree.