By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

State Rep. Ed Emery said he plans to add more restrictions to a bill he introduced this week that would regulate strip clubs such as a juice bar proposed in Jasper County.

Emery said the measure he proposed Wednesday is identical to a bill sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Matt Bartle, R-Lee’s Summit.

“It’s a companion to his (Bartle’s) bill at this point,” said Emery, a Republican from Lamar whose legislative district includes eastern Jasper County.

Emery said he agreed to sponsor the legislation before he heard from Jasper County residents and agreed to help in their effort to battle a juice bar that is planned just off Interstate 44, west of Sarcoxie.

“I’ve talked to (state Rep.) Bryan Stevenson and others about trying to come up with some things we can do to make it difficult for that type of perverted business to sustain itself in Missouri,” he said.

Emery said he hopes to add those provisions to the bill “so those businesses will know they’re not welcome in Jasper County or other parts of the state.”

The measure currently before the General Assembly would add restrictions barring nudity in the operations, prohibiting seminude workers from touching patrons or soliciting tips, and requiring dancers to be 10 feet away from patrons, on a stage and behind a railing. It also would specify that a building can contain only one sexually oriented business. For example, a strip club would be banned from also selling books or videos.

John Putnam said he and other neighbors who oppose plans for the juice bar appealed to Emery for help in state legislation to target juice bars and other sexually oriented business, like adult video stores, also along I-44 in Jasper County.

Putnam said he sent Emery copies of legislation that he hopes can be used in the Missouri bill, including a law passed last year in Ohio, a new Jackson County ordinance and a model ordinance from the American Family Association.

“We’re hoping it can include regulation of adult bookstores and video stores, as well as strip clubs,” Putnam said. “The (county) commission told us they couldn’t do anything to control bookstores or video stores, but apparently that has changed, or they’re trying to change it, with these new ordinances.”

The Jasper County commissioners recently approved a new county ordinance that they said they hoped would be a roadblock to the opening of the juice bar.

Joplin attorney Bill Fleischaker, who has been hired by the developer of the operation, said the proposed state bill “has problems, from a technical standpoint” because the measure appears to both regulate the activity and ban the activity it is to regulate.

“It doesn’t make sense,” he said.