SHAWNEE — A coalition of Shawnee residents rallied Monday to keep a bar's Sinful Sundays and hot oil contests out of downtown.
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Protestors packed the city commission chambers, awaiting the commissioners' decision on whether to grant ROK Bar's owners a permit to have alcohol at their business.
The owners wanted to open a nightclub in a former clothing store at 118 E Main and had already gotten approval by the city's planning commission. The club would be a smaller version of the ROK Bar in Oklahoma City's Bricktown, the owners said.
Before commissioners could vote and after more than a dozen angry people spoke out against it, the club's co-owner, Kevin Bentley, withdrew his request for a permit.
"I changed my mind, and I'm going look for another location,” said Bentley, a Shawnee native. "Maybe, Shawnee isn't an appropriate place for ROK Bar.”
Among those that spoke against it were downtown business owners and Baptist clergy. Several used ROK Bar's Web site against the owners, saying it advertised Sinful Sundays, hot oil contests for women and being a place where morality is optional.
Immanuel Baptist Church pastor Todd Fisher said the bar was devoid of character.
"On behalf of morality and sanity, vote against it,” Fisher told the commissioners.
A nightclub environment would repel the family-oriented environment downtown is known for, said Russell Cook, director of missions for the Pottawatomie-Lincoln County Baptist Association.
Cook said the churches in his association have more than 14,000 members, more than half the population of Shawnee. He said not all, but a vast majority of the Baptist community would be against the bar opening.
Downtown business owners Mary Vincent, Bill Ford, Theresa Cody and Nick Shepherd voiced their protests.
"I don't want this type of activity downtown,” Vincent said.
Vincent said crime would increase, along with cursing, fighting and vomiting in the street. She suggested ROK owners find a more secluded location.
Before the meeting, Joel Buffington, co-owner of the ROK Bar, told The Oklahoman he was excited about opening a new club in Shawnee. He said he believed the club would help revitalize downtown.
"I think the people that are against us are afraid of their small town changing,” Buffington said. "Regardless, we've had a lot of people telling us they were looking forward to us opening.”
Buffington said now that they're not opening a club in Shawnee, efforts can be concentrated on the August opening of their new club at 2747 W Memorial Road in Oklahoma City.
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Reminds me of the old joke "How do you keep a Baptist from drinking all your beer when you take him fishing?" "Take another one along with you". So if half the town go to church does that mean they don't drink? Prob not and the other half that doesnt go to church , I wonder what they think? As always a small number of zealots holding the rest of the world hostage with their morally ambiguous hypocrisy borne of superstition and fear of folks different.
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