Law and Justice Club Hosts County Attorney to Discuss Juice Bar in Seward County
by Abigail Wisniewski
On Sept. 22, the Law and Justice Club hosted Seward County Attorney Wendy Elston to discuss the legal aspects of Shane Harrington’s proposition to open a juice bar in Seward County.
Harrington is the owner of several adult entertainment venues throughout Nebraska. In the past year, he proposed a business plan to open in three new locations west of Lincoln, including a juice bar in Seward County.
Juice bars are distinct from strip clubs because they do not serve alcohol. Not only does this lower the admission age to 18, but it allows the dancers to perform with less clothing restrictions and interact with patrons without the boundary of a certain distance.
By opening a club in Seward County, Harrington hopes to better accommodate the amount of parties his business has been hired to do in the Seward County area.
“About 80 percent of the parties we do are to the west of Lincoln,” Harrington says. “This is based off of 10 years of market research.”
Elston explained that the area in which Harrington hopes to locate the juice bar is located within the industrial zone of Seward County, which does not allow adult entertainment as a permitted use. This requires Harrington to obtain a conditional use permit.
Harrington’s application for conditional use was denied. He has since sued several individuals, including Elston, for $125 million, seeing it as a violation of his Constitutional rights.
Harrington believes that the business would provide entertainment for members of the community, as well as draw in people from surrounding areas. The club would also create jobs, revenue, and simply, “…make people happy.”
Some members of the community, however, are not as supportive of the proposed addition to the community. In a Lincoln Journal Star article from last February, local pastors expressed concerns about the club promoting the “objectification of women,” as well as the connotations of the juice bar reflecting on Seward as a whole. The planning commission last spring drew in about 250 community members, many of which spoke out against the addition to Seward County, fearing secondary effects such as sexual assault, fights and the need for more police within the community.
Harrington views the religious opposition he’s received as irrelevant to the opening of his business.
“Adult entertainment is a legal business,” Harrington says. “The federal court bible is the Constitution.”
He says that his business would be safer than a house party due to the prohibition of drugs and alcohol.
Harrington is able to reapply for a conditional use permit of the area, however, he has not yet done so.
