Opponents Of Stone Park Strip Club Hold Protest March
STONE PARK, Ill. (CBS) -- Community anger over a new strip club in west suburban Stone Park moved into the streets Thursday night.
Some 200 protestors carrying candles and signs showed up Thursday evening to vent their concerns about the club's effect on the neighborhood, as well as a Catholic convent nearby, CBS2's Mike Parker reports.
Mostly they prayed silently while marching with candles they said were meant to shine a light of hope on the communities of Melrose Park and Stone Park just next door. Their concerns are about a planned strip joint called the "Get It" gentlemen's club. It sits just a few hundred feet from the convent of the Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo.
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"You're going to have people who are drinking. There'll be drunk drivers, and anything can happen," Sister Noemia Silva, a member of the order, says.
Demonstrators made it clear they don't want a $3 million adult entertainment center in their midst.
Among them, at the head of the march, was Vietnam War veteran Sam Scardino. He said the business may have the right to operate but should exercise good judgment about where it does.
Dean Krone, the attorney for the village of Stone Park, said he understands the controversy, but it can't stop the new establishment.
"I don't think overturning the decision is legally possible," he said.
Still, Sister Noemia holds out hope for a miracle.
"We have a long way to go," she says.
Lawyers for the convent say the sisters and other club neighbors were not properly notified about the project and had no chance to protest until it was too late.
