State stops bar's bikini show

MAT-SU -- An enforcement officer from the state of Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board took the liquor license off the wall at the Funny Farm last Friday just a half hour before the start of an all-female dance show. Dancers performed nude the previous week in violation of the Mat-Su Borough's zoning regulations that ban strippers in the core area of the Valley. According to Mike Coomler, the bar's spokesperson and husband of owner Shamarie Coomler, the plan last weekend was to have the dancers entertain Funny Farm customers within the legal limits of the borough code.

"They were going to dance in bikinis. We didn't want to pay the fines, and we didn't want to stir things up with the borough," Coomler said.

On Sunday, after being closed completely for two days, Coomler was feeling as if the borough code compliance officials and the state's alcohol enforcement arm had conspired against the bar. The ABC officer was accompanied by an Alaska State Trooper during Friday's visit to the bar, according to Coomler.

"This was their way to get out here and shut the show down," Coomler said.

ABC Board Director Doug Griffin said that's not the case. According to Griffin, enforcement officers learned from an article in The Anchorage Daily News that the Coomlers had closed a real estate deal with the bar's previous owner Ruth Rebischke just last week. ABC enforcement then checked the bar's paperwork and found that the Funny Farm's liquor license had not yet been transferred.

"The building and the business had changed hands, but the license had not changed hands," Griffin said. "We didn't know about the [real estate] closing until we read about it in the paper."

Griffin said that temporary licenses are available to keep businesses running during such transactions, but that the Coomlers had not applied for one. He also said that the license history has been complicated by a previous transfer that took place during an attempt by Rebischke to sell the business to a previous prospective buyer.

"There are a lot of factors and the process doesn't always go as smoothly as it should," Griffin said.

Coomler said the ABC officer had jumped the gun and shouldn't have closed the bar last weekend. He said his wife and ten weekend employees -- including six dancers -- were out of work.

"They're basically shutting us down and putting people out of work right before Christmas," Coomler said. " … As far as I'm concerned they were intentionally coming out in order to hurt us financially."

On Sunday, Coomler said that the real estate deal was not technically closed until the title agency had it recorded at the state recorder's office. Griffin said the ABC office takes a conservative approach to transfer rules when it comes to enforcement.

"If there is a point when both parties have their hand on the title and there is a problem with alcohol service, who is responsible? Are we to hold Mrs. Rebishcke responsible?" Griffin said.

The Coomler's have been operating the bar in recent months under a management agreement between Rebischke and Shamarie Coomler. Griffin said that agreement was no longer valid if the real estate deal was closed.

"If they want to operate right after the deal, they have to have the license in their name," Griffin said.

As for the borough zoning ordinance, Mike Coomler said he has had meetings with code enforcement officials. Among the topics discussed were zoning variances and how to get them. He has also had a plan last weekend for a lobbying effort led by bikini clad dancers.

"[The dancers] were going to have little cue cards with representatives phone numbers on them, saying 'If you want us to take the rest off, call your representative," he said.

The Coomler's started calling media outlets last Thursday after Mat-Su Borough chief of code compliance Ken Hudson issued the bar a notice of violation for the sign advertising nude dancers outside the bar. Hudson said the zoning ordinance -- which applies only to the borough's core area -- hasn't been enforced since it was passed in 1994.

"You could say that it's done its job. Folks have had it available to read and the business that was the catalyst for it went out of business," Hudson said. "The evidence that zoning is working is a lack of evidence that it is necessary."

According to Coomler, Hudson advised him to remove the word "nude" from the sign outside the bar. Coomler said that since the Funny Farm story hit the newspapers, more than one attorney has contacted him regarding the zoning ordinance. As this paper went to press on Monday morning, he was getting legal advice over the telephone about both the zoning ordinance and the ABC enforcement action.