Cozad and Dawson County officials are looking for ways to keep a nude juice bar from opening just outside Cozad's jurisdiction.
The Associated Press | Posted: Sunday, February 17, 2008 6:00 pm
COZAD — Cozad and Dawson County officials are looking for ways to keep a nude juice bar from opening just outside Cozad’s jurisdiction.
The club would be a sister operation to the owner’s Shakers club northeast of Lincoln at the edge of Waverly, just off Interstate 80.
Barring legal obstructions, the new club will open March 7.
Owner Dan Robinson wasn’t surprised by the opposition in central Nebraska.
“(When) we did this 12 years ago Waverly had the same opposition when we first started. In the first four months we showed them we could run the place professionally,” he told KHGI-TV in Kearney. “Waverly’s been OK ever since: no violations, no problems with law enforcement or with the community,” he said.
The Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office provides police services to Waverly.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Andy Stebbing said Monday that a quick records check found no citations for violations by Shakers. He said Shakers didn’t seem to have any more problems than any other entertainment establishment in the town.
Robinson said he was looking to open a juice bar in western Nebraska when he found the property near Cozad.
It used to be a pizza restaurant and the land was going to be turned into an RV park. That deal fell through when the would-be park developer couldn’t get financing.
Because the new Shakers would serve only juice and no alcohol, customers could be as young as 18.
Some area residents packed a planning commission meeting last week to air their opposition.
Said Christina Parsons, who lives next to property: “We have an 8-year-old boy, and I want to know he can go outside and play.”
Officials have searched in vain for a way to deny the planned use.
“We have gone through the regs with a fine-tooth comb,” said the county zoning administrator, Ellen Arms.
“If we can find a loophole, we will,” she said.
“Not a loophole,” Commissioner Don Batie soon said. “We will just follow the letter of the law.”
Arms said she’s contacted the state Department of Environmental Quality about two commercial fuel tanks buried on the property and some illegal fecal discharge from a septic system.
Club owner Robinson said he wants his club to be a good neighbor.
“Once we’re here for a while I think people will realize that we can run a clean operation. …
“We’ll always have people against it,” he said. “They have the right to their views, but we have to right to open up.”