OGDEN -- Tanith Cox knows that any time she's having a hard time financially or has lost a job, there's always been one place she can turn to to make money to support herself and her 6-year-old child -- The Lighthouse Lounge.
"It's always been here to go back to," she said of the strip club where she has worked on and off for five years. "It's been my backbone."
Now, with the threat of city ordinances possibly shutting down the lounge, Cox, who is a bartender and DJ at the club, said she would be without that safety net.
"I wouldn't have that anymore," she said. "I love the Lighthouse. A lot of good people are employed there."
Cox and about 20 other people -- a mix of dancers, staff and some customers of the lounge -- gathered outside the Ogden Municipal Building on Thursday morning, protesting the possible closure of The Lighthouse Lounge, 315 24th St.
"We employ 30-plus people," said Stefanie Butte, general manager of the club. "A lot of them are single moms, people who don't have a formal education."
The protesters believe it's unfair that ordinances passed by the city council will put the club, which has operated since 1958, out of business.
"We're just trying to take care of our kids," said Tiia Seccor, a dancer who is currently going to school and raising her 4-year-old daughter. "We're not bad people, we're not a hotbed of crime. We're just working here."
Assistant City Attorney Mark Stratford said the decision to keep the lounge open as a sexually oriented business is not up for debate, but how long it can continue to operate is.
He said the city council passed an ordinance last October that required all nonconforming sexually oriented businesses to terminate all sexual activities at the club.
"They can operate as a bar or a restaurant or a tavern without any difficulty," he said.
He said the city council originally banned sexually oriented businesses from operating about nine years ago. Three clubs -- The Lighthouse Lounge, Northern X-posure and Barebacks -- were considered "nonconforming" and were allowed to operate because the clubs had women dressed in G-strings covering pubic areas and pasties on their breasts.
Last October, the city council addressed the issue again -- this time saying that no sexually oriented businesses would be allowed near schools, churches, malls or residential areas. Both The Lighthouse Lounge and Northern X-posure were in direct violation of the new ordinance.
The businesses were supposed to no longer offer sexually explicit entertainment in February, Stratford said, but they could file a petition seeking an extension to help recuperate costs for the owners.
The Lighthouse Lounge filed an extension, and now Mayor Matthew Godfrey will decide whether the lounge must close immediately or if it gets an extension -- but either way, at some point the dancers must stop stripping.
Barebacks has closed, and information regarding whether Northern X-posure has filed an extension to remain open was not available from the city. No one answered the phone Wednesday at Northern X-posure.
Butte said she feels the city doesn't care about the people it is putting out of work, which is her biggest frustration.
"I feel like people judge what a strip club is," she said. "Our rules are so strong and strict. Godfrey and the city council have never been in our bar, but they want us to go away."
Seccor said she's surprised that the city administration is so opposed to sexually explicit business because of the colorful history that Ogden city has had in the past.
"You think they'd be more tongue-in-cheek about it," she said. "Everyone used to stop and sow their wild oats here (in the past.)"
Seccor and Butte each said most of their business comes from travelers who stay at nearby hotels, and Seccor said many travelers say they like the club there because other cities also have strip clubs close to hotels.
"Most of our business is from out of town," Butte said. "It gives them a place to go and the location is perfect."
This topic is being discussed at The Weber County Forum.
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