Scantily clad bikini girls and male dancers haven't yet been asked by local officials to quit strutting their stuff in local bars.
RCMP Const. Shane Kropielniski, who's filling the roll of the town's community constable and dealing with both bylaw and policing matters, says the Mounties are waiting for more direction from the Town of Bonnyville on the issue of clothed adult entertainers.
The town's landuse bylaw prohibits “adult entertainment establishments” from operating within 225 metres of parks, schools and churches, but doesn't specifically define adult entertainment. Council gave general direction to town administration to enforce the bylaw when the issue came up at a council meeting in May following a closed-door session.
The Tailgate Bar & Lounge in the Bonnyville Hotel has been featuring bikini girls and male dancers as part of its Tuesday night entertainment package for a couple of months, in conformance with Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission rules. Those rules only allow for non-nude entertainment in bars that feature video lottery terminals. The Tailgate is adjacent to Bonnyville Off Campus School, putting it within 225 metres of the school. It's also only a block from Bonnyville Centralized High School.
“We're not really enforcing that aspect of (the bylaw) because it's kind of a grey area,” said Kropielniski, adding that the town is looking for clarification.
“They either want to get clarification, or they want to speak with their lawyers on what the definition (of adult entertainment) would be,” he said.
“If the town… makes a decision and says it will encompass that, we'll of course, on the town's behalf, enforce that, and we'll enforce the bylaw.”
He said as of last Wednesday, Mounties hadn't done any bar walk-throughs specifically to check on conformance with the adult entertainment section of the landuse bylaw.