Community Corner
Video: Protests Continue Over Planned Wantagh Business
Rally held Saturday morning at site of property residents fear will resemble a strip club.
Angry local residents turned out Saturday morning with picket signs in hand to protest a business under construction on Sunrise Highway in Wantagh that they feel is going to operate as a strip club, located mere feet from a residential neighborhood.
The planned business on 3500 Sunrise Hwy. is being developed by Billy Dean, who owns a strip club in North Bellmore called . Opponents of his business slated for Wantagh who turned out for Saturday's protest believe it will also resemble adult entertainment and thus bring wreak havoc in a residential community with traffic as well as bringing down property values. Protests have been held on the Sunrise Highway property at the corner of Oakland Avenue every weekend since late March.
The Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals, which granted Dean a cabaret license last year for the Wantagh property, has scheduled a for May 18 due to vocal opposition that has mounted as well as a belief that not enough people were notified of his plans during the application process.
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Dean’s attorney Bill Cohn of Forchelli, Curto, Deegan, Schwartz, Mineo, Cohn & Terrana, LLP in Uniondale has declined to comment on what his client has planned for 3500 Sunrise Hwy. The Billy Dean's Showtime Cafe website describes the unnamed Wantagh facility as a "full service restaurant" that "will feature dinner and show theatrical production packages with various types of variety entertainment." The description of the planned business said the club will "cater to anniversary, birthday, bachelorette, bachelor parties or groups of friends looking for a new twist for an exciting evening."
Dean Patch last November that he was not planning to have any adult entertainment at his new Wantagh business and it would instead be operated as a dinner club with “unique comedy acts.”
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An opposition group that formed to fight against Dean's development called “Wantagh-Seaford Protect Our Children and Preserve Our Community” has scheduled a fundraiser for May 5 at in Bellmore starting at 7:30 p.m.
