By ANDREA POTEET
Sunday Times Newspapers
WYANDOTTE – Officials here are hoping a revised ordinance won’t rub businesses that offer massage the wrong way.
The City Council Monday voted to amend a 50-year-old ordinance that required establishments that offered massage to have a bathtub or shower after the owners of local salon 3152 Studio, wrote a letter to the council last month requesting the stipulation be dropped as it presented an “undue burden” to the salon, which turned away several clients per week because its location, 3152 Biddle, was not equipped with a shower or bathtub.
After much discussion among councilors at previous meetings, including questions about why tubs and showers were necessary, City Attorney William Look investigated the ordinance, which was updated in 2007, and gave
councilors the choice to eliminate the need for a tub and shower for establishments that offer massage as a secondary service, or to eliminate the stipulation altogether.
Councilors chose the latter option, citing its potential to bring more business to the city.
“It is my opinion that this ordinance needs to be updated,” Councilman Larry Stec said. “We run a chance of a business not opening here, but taking their business to another town. We’d like to see these things remain in Wyandotte.”