Thursday, April 16, 2020

Massage parlor ordinance updated by trustees

Julie Brown, Staff Writer
Following complaints about criminal sexual conduct at a Canton massage parlor in 2018, members of the township board of trustees have updated the ordinance language applicable to these facilities, along with several others in the township.
In 2018, a young woman was living at the massage establishment, noted Township Supervisor Pat Williams during a meeting of the board of trustees recently, although police said she was not a target of an investigation at that time. The new ordinance includes explicit regulations regarding massage parlors, kennels, junkyards, arcades and fortune telling/palmistry.

Responding to a query at the recent meeting, Canton Public Safety Director Joshua Meier said that massage parlor checks, “will be random by design so we can enforce the ordinance as written.”
Canton Clerk Michael Siegrist explained that the ordinance is clear about the facilities. “Two massage establishments cannot be within 1,000 feet of each other,” Siegrist said. Siegrist added criminal convictions such as sexually-oriented soliciting will, under the new law in Canton, have a seven-year “cooling off” period rather than five years. Williams thanked Siegrist and others for “a lot of good high-quality meetings (that) got us to this point.”
Canton Board of Trustees members have addressed concerns in the past with proximity of massage businesses to day care centers and schools. The ordinance addresses that issue and now prohibits fortune telling/palmistry “which was determined to be illegal” commented Siegrist.
In other business, Trustee Anne Marie Hudak asked Meier if there had been increased medical rescue calls to senior health care facilities in light of the current coronavirus pandemic. Meier said that the call levels appeared to be at about the same rate as usual.
“It has not been an easy time. From my perspective the township seems to be operating on an even keel,” with the average citizen not noticing differences, remarked Trustee John Anthony.
“We're in a unique position financially” compared to other municipalities, Williams said. “We'll make the best decisions we can as a team,” he added.