Reproduced from The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC (used with permission)
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County cancels nightclub's license

By: NADINE PARKS    
Originally Published on: 4/22/99
Page: 1

     Section NCH Edition ZONE
     Charleston County has revoked a Midland Park nightclub's business license in its ongoing campaign to remove bars and sexually oriented establishments from residential areas.
     A county attorney says the Big Rock Inn on Kimbell Road has become a dangerous public nuisance that should be shut down. But the owner says he has operated a neighborhood bar there for 27 years, and he doesn't understand why it is suddenly a target for removal.
     Deputy County Attorney Christine Companion said she hadn't finished unpacking at her office last July when the phone started ringing.
     ``The Big Rock club issue started when we received phone calls from citizens in the area. There were several angry phone calls right on the heels of my arrival,'' Companion said. ``It became clear that this club, located in a residential area, very close to churches, it was creating a nuisance.''
     The attorney said Charleston County Sheriff's Office reports showed multiple incidents of fights, loud noise, gunshots, prostitution and illegal drug activity in and around the bar.
     ``They (deputies) walk in, drugs are on the counter, and everybody is over on the other side of the room,'' she said.
     Companion was prepared to take the public nuisance issue before a judge when she learned that the establishment's business license had been issued for a motel, not a bar. Also, the Big Rock Inn property is not properly zoned for a bar, she said.
<     The county business license department revoked the bar's license. On April 5, Big Rock owner Theodore Howard appealed that decision, but the licensing board upheld it and told Howard he had until last Tuesdayto move out.
     Last week, Howard said he will appeal the board's decision again. He said the building was a bar before he moved in, and he told the county when he applied for his license he would continue to operate a bar there.
     ``It was an error in their paperwork. I put it down for a club,'' Howard said. ``They should give me an opportunity to reinstate my license and let me go down and reapply and put it in for the right thing.''
     The bar property is zoned for residential uses only. Howard, who opened the business in 1974 after he retired from the Air Force, said the county never told him the property was not properly zoned for the business.
     ``Why didn't they let me know about this? They let me invest in this,'' he said.
     The county attorney said that regardless of the zoning issue, the county business license board of appeals will fight Howard's license on the argument that it is a nuisance.
     ``It's a matter of, number one, aiding citizens who are crying for help out there. Two, it's a matter of following through, making sure that the club is compliant with county ordinances and ensuring that we're not licensing a nuisance,'' Companion said.
     Howard, who lives on the property, says drug and prostitution activity is apparent farther down Kimbell Road, not at the Big Rock. But the club is assumed guilty because of its proximity to the high-crime area, he said.
     ``People buying drugs in here don't stop in my place, they keep on going down the road where it's sold at,'' he said, adding that he has banned all patrons known to be involved with crime.
     Howard said if the county shuts down his operation, he will not relocate.
     ``I won't have any source of income,'' he said. ``This is my livelihood. What Uncle Sam gives me (for retirement) is not enough.''

Reproduced from The Post and Courier, Charleston, SC (used with permission)

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