THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9407300227
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER\
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 131 lines
In a city striving to attract tourists and new business, a nightclub that aims to bring in national acts like Tina Turner and Kenny G might seem like a dream come true.
But some neighbors of the Ebony Showcase say noise from the club on Airline Boulevard has been nothing but a nightmare.
Now Portsmouth officials are faced with a challenge: Trying to address residents' concerns without driving the club out of business.
City Manager V. Wayne Orton and other officials were to meet with the club owners and the neighbors at 9 a.m. today to try to work out a solution. But neither side is optimistic.
Harry T. Bonner, the manager of the Ebony Showcase, said he believes the city is working against the club and will do little to help it.
Another neighborhood resident who supports the club said the meeting will be ``a kangaroo court'' designed to further hurt the club.
``I think the club is an asset to the city,'' said E.H. Rollins Jr., who lives three blocks away. ``It has an older clientele. They pull up in Mercedes and other expensive cars; they're dressed to kill. It's money. It's something the city needs.''
But residents of Mohican Drive, directly behind the nightclub, have been in a feud with the Ebony Showcase since the business opened in the spring.
Club co-owner David Casteel, a former Portsmouth police officer, and his two business partners say they spent more than $1 million to convert an old bowling alley in the Westgate Plaza shopping center into an upscale nightclub. New lighting, carpeting and a state-ofthe-art sound system were installed, but the owners didn't replace the building's old tin roof.
That roof, it turned out, acted as an amplifier, sending the music from the club out into the nearby Collinswood neighborhood.
Residents began complaining that they couldn't sleep because of the noise. They said the music was so loud it shook the pictures hanging on their walls.
They called the club to complain, and Bonner turned down the volume. But it was still loud in the neighborhood. When Bonner refused to turn the volume down further, the neighbors began calling the police.
In the early weeks, Bonner was handed two dozen citations for noise violations.
The owners called in sound experts, who told them they had to install insulation and a new false ceiling to absorb the sound. They did the work a month after the club opened. Later, they also erected an 8-foot privacy fence.
Some neighbors stopped complaining. Others noticed an improvement but said the music was still audible. Others heard no difference.
``The noise is just as bad as it always was,'' Lloyd T. Eure said. ``They claimed they insulated, but music is still coming out of the building. They told me they were putting tiles up, and if that didn't take care of it they were going to rubberize it.''
Kerry Schleeper, who owns a home directly behind the club, said he finally moved his family out. He said his 15-month-old son was suffering health problems because the noise kept him awake at night.
Schleeper said that he uses his home just as a garage now and that real estate agents have told him it won't sell because it's directly behind the nightclub.
Schleeper and his wife have been fighting the Ebony Showcase since it opened. They have called the police dozens of times to come out and stop the music. One night, Schleeper was so frustrated that he cursed at a police dispatcher and was arrested on a charge of telephone abuse.
Mayor Gloria O. Webb visited the Schleeper home, but the couple remained convinced that nothing was being done to solve the problem.
``We just want to stop the noise,'' Schleeper said. ``They're saying this is a racial thing. This is not a racial thing. This is about noise. I don't care if they stay there, as long as I don't have to listen to the constant noise.''
The Ebony Showcase's owners said the predominantly white neighborhood wants to close the club because most of its clientele is black. Rollins, who is white, agrees.
``To me it's all racial,'' Rollins said. ``I'm sorry to say that in this day and time. It's nauseating for it to be that way.''
Rollins said the citations and the city's attitude toward the Ebony Showcase have hurt the nightclub.
``I think those people are owed an apology for what the city has done to destroy their business,'' Rollins said. ``I know this has destroyed the business. Older people don't want to come into a place with the problems they're having.''
The club can hold nearly 2,000 people. When it opened, it drew crowds of nearly 1,000. Now, the owners say, the dispute with the neighborhood has cost them customers. The club, which used to be open Wednesday through Sunday, has cut back to Friday, Saturday and an occasional Sunday.
The owners say the dispute has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in construction expenses and lost business.
The club has had to cancel bookings with Tina Turner and Lou Rawls because of the problems, Bonner said. On another night, when national rhythm and blues act Alan Hall performed, the club was given a noise citation.
Bonner said the controversy also caused the club to lose a wedding reception for comedian Martin Lawrence and Miss Virginia, Patricia Southall.
Largely because of complaints from Collinswood, the city passed a noise ordinance last month. But the club has never received a citation specifying that it violated the noise levels in the new ordinance.
Residents say the city has not measured noise levels coming from the club. A spokesman from the Police Department said only that the department has never written a citation that included a specific measurement of the noise levels.
For that reason, residents had little faith that the meeting with the city manager today was designed to help them. They believe the city favors the business.
Bonner said, however, that only the two blacks on the seven-member City Council have visited the club, while the other members condemned it. For that reason, and because he believes the noise ordinance was designed specifically to target his business, Bonner said he doubted today's meeting would help much.
``The mayor and the neighbors are trying to put us out of business,'' Bonner said. ``They're doing a pretty good job. We haven't been able to play the music, and if you can't have the music and the quality, people don't come.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff color photo by JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/
David Casteel is one of the owners of the Ebony Showcase in
Portsmouth. Nearby residents have complained of noise.
Color staff map
Area shown: Ebony Showcase
by CNB