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Home > Blogs > West Chester News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > June > 03 > Entry
Club Splat! page claims Liberty’s ‘LIBERAL BIG GOVERNMENT’
Subbing for new West Chester and Liberty reporter Kelsey Cano this a.m. (as I’ve moved on to cover Hamilton).
Continuing Cano’s coverage of the paintball/laser tag/weekly teen dance party Club Splat! in today’s traditional media and online….
Excerpt:
LIBERTY TWP. — Officials have filed a preliminary and permanent injunction Wednesday, June 2, against Club Splat!, a local teen hangout, for violating its zoning and going over its occupancy limit, township officials said.
UrbanSplat, 7102 Hamilton-Mason Road, is a paintball and Laser Tag business by day. On Saturday nights, it turns into Club Splat!, for teens from 15-18 years old — or as owner Mark Pannek calls it, a teen party place.
According to documents filed with the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, Pannek was issued a Liberty Twp. zoning certificate in July 2009 for indoor paintball. Caroline McKinney, the township’s economic development director, said operating the teen dance club violates the zoning use.
“Like all businesses, they need to follow a process and procedure to make sure we have the correct zoning in place,” she said.
In addition to the zoning issues, authorities have concerns about safety, McKinney said. The maximum occupancy of the building is 182, according to a Butler County certificate of occupancy. On May 15, approximately 500 teens were in attendance, and on May 22, nearly 300 teens were in the club, according to township documents.
The photos are still available online. Take a peek. I’d be curious to know what local parents think?
The issue boils down to two alleged violations: One, a violation of Pannek’s permit, which supposedly allows for the operation of laser tag and paintball and not a club. The permit is specific to the paintball use.
The difference? Of course, it comes down to money, and from where Pannek makes his take, i.e., charging by head at the door and via concessions. No alcohol is served at the club.
Pannek also operates the Bananas Drop-in Jump & Play next door.
The other issue is capacity. The building is zoned to allow only 182 people at a time.
Take a look again at the pictures. You’ll lose count after hitting 182, so long as you don’t get distracted by the sea of shirtless young men and scantily clad young women seemingly caught mid-writhe.
Here’s another one, Pannek — or whomever the administrator of the Facebook page is — claims Liberty Twp. is “LIBERAL BIG GOVERNMENT.”
That’s an interesting take. Liberty Twp. residents are largely, largely Republican and largely, largely conservative. And their trustees are a reflection of that.
Trustees Patrick Hiltman and Christine Matacic, while they don’t run in partisan races for the township, are and have been life-long card-carrying members of the county’s GOP.
Trustee President David Kern was elected last week as the Chairman of the GOP, and he’s even further right than Hiltman and Matacic as a passionate member of the Liberty Tea Party (his wife, Katy, is that group’s president).
If you recall, he even called President Barack Obama “a Marxist” last year.
Not sure “liberal” is the word these folks were looking for.
Then Pannek takes a stab at pulp culture, paralleling his situation with that of the great 1984 flick “Footloose” (one of my favs for sure).
They even quote Ecclesiastes 3, which Ren McCormick (Kevin Bacon) stumbles through during the movie’s town hall meeting as a counter argument to town leader and local Rev. Shaw Moore’s (John Lithgow) reason for calling off a school dance.
ALL of this is to point out trustees and township administrators are saying Pannek or others can come to the township and apply for the appropriate zoning under which a “club” or similar operation could qualify. In other words, if he solicits and is granted the appropriate use of a zoning certificate, he can operate anything he wants…save for a strip club or other adult entertainment business. But that’s a whole different blog post.
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By nulphyllis maggardl
June 5, 2010 2:03 AM | Link to this
what is going on at the teen club looks like kids gone wild! i dont blame them from shutting hin down. have the parents been checking this place out? half naked writhing looks like a bump and grind joint!check photos 11 and 18 out. surely no one condones this
By Very concerned father
June 6, 2010 9:09 AM | Link to this
I was for a place for teens to have to go to and still in favor of one. But I applaud Twp. officials for their actions. Those photos are very dis-concerning. How could any reasonable non-perverse minded adult condone actions like those depicted in the photos. We do need a place for our children to hang out but one that is in their intrest not just someone’s pocketbook.
By libtwnblws
June 10, 2010 10:24 PM | Link to this
leave the place alone you are just mad cause you are to old to get in and it is no worse then club aqua or going to the pool dancing has changed into something that lets us have fun and express ourselves you act like you are angels kids will be kids and things are diffrent now not like they were in your hay day aka the 50s oldtimers get a life stop ruining stuff for us but hey guess we could just go out and run around and be kids at least there its organized but hey we will find something to do and you know that dirty dancing is your favorite movie and you know the point is to stand up for what you love to do so basically wake up old timere and put down the cain and leave us young kids alone just because your old and cenile
By eldermt
June 14, 2010 12:40 AM | Link to this
About the photos… Are the kids dressed any worse than you would find at the beach, pool, or walking down the street? If their parents really have a problem with it, its simple don’t let them go, but most of them are 17 to 18 years old, almost adults. Would you rather kids be hanging out somewhere drinking or doing drugs? ClubSplat keeps them away from that. Nobody here gets hurt, they hire armed sheriffs deputies to check IDs, and there has never been one fight. If kids want to dance like that, believe me they will, and ClubSplat offers them a safe place to do it. If the township can not point out a specific safety concern, which it hasn’t, then they should admit that there is none. You can’t just say a place is unsafe and leave it at that. In response to zoning… They recently PROVED that the occupancy is actually closer to 800. Its a 35,000 square foot facility! Also it was PROVEN that it is zoned as an amusement center for kids, which is what it is. It does not meet the definition of a nightclub as defined by the township because it doesn’t serve food. Oh, and just because Mark Pannek is a little stubborn and flies of the handle sometimes doesn’t make him moronic, ignorant, or uncaring. If anyone is ignorant on this it is you because you wrote this without sitting down an learning the FACTS on this issue.
By javidmac
July 17, 2010 9:33 AM | Link to this
Dave, Liberty Township Tea Party is so conservative no President is elected. All grass roots with a senatorial board, everyone has a voice.Direct democracy in action.
By Braze Hunte
November 9, 2010 6:42 AM | Link to this
First, I also called Prez Obama a Marxist more than one time last year and this year. His previous services to Acorn, his close association to the “take over gun rights and freedom of speech King,” George Soros, is a pretty good sign he is beyond socialism and into the marxist category. Now, about the club. Leave the kids alone and solve it without making a public thing out of it!
By George Rostellini
January 28, 2011 7:15 AM | Link to this
There is nothing wrong with any certain community being mainly conservative or mainly republican just as it could be mainly democrat. I do see President Obama trying to change his image from Marxist and George Soros buddy to somewhat middle of the road. I don’t think the public will forget what is really going on with Obama. He is for BIG Govt. that will control our health, our eating, our communities and you name it. Just as though we don’t have the sense to do it ourselves. I think we need to remember to send him packing in 2012. I, also, note that the journal left this in to jab at Speaker Boehner’s neck of the woods. It didn’t work. The paper is going full force with stifling our freedom of speech by leaving us a small blog with few things to express ourselves on. Just another example of how big our problems are with the Obama Admin. and the media being liberal.
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February 21, 2011 5:47 PM | Link to this
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February 21, 2011 5:49 PM | Link to this
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March 1, 2011 8:28 PM | Link to this
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March 1, 2011 8:30 PM | Link to this
Love becomes logically true when lost but still sought from the same source.
By AssomySow
March 3, 2011 10:05 AM | Link to this
I also thought of playing improvisational jazz and I did take lessons for a while. At first I tried to write fiction by making up things that were completely alien to my life.
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March 3, 2011 10:07 AM | Link to this
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March 9, 2011 5:56 PM | Link to this
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By Lypeseels
March 9, 2011 5:58 PM | Link to this
People are not fundamentally bad. It only takes the smallest of correctives to take care of that tiny minority that wants to disrupt the community.
By Knimumssync
March 14, 2011 3:55 PM | Link to this
I didn’t do this for the President. When I had this opportunity, not only was it work, but it was something that I could do, as an actor, for the victims and their families. Something I could give back.
By Shebrarilegah
March 14, 2011 3:57 PM | Link to this
It could be that people just want to be connected to something that’s bigger than they are that can’t be proven. I don’t know, I don’t think that’s it.
By Ant1975
June 20, 2011 12:49 PM | Link to this
Are you people serious??? “Leave the kids alone”? How is that parenting? Kids should absolutely NOT be left alone and this kind of behavior should not be condoned. The difference between this place and the beach is that the half naked teens are rubbing all over each other while covered with soap suds. If that’s happening at the beach then the parents of those children should forced to take birth control because they obviously don’t know how to raise their children. What happened to the days of just hanging out with your friends, playing softball or soccer. Why does everything have to revolve around sex? That’s not dancing, that’s foreplay. It’s no small wonder that a 16 year old girl got raped in the parking lot there by a boy she met in the club. A lot of good the off duty police man did for her!!! It’s a shame where we’ve found ourselves. That people think this type of behavior is OK makes me morn for my children and what I’m afraid they’ll experience when they’re grown.