DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 1997             TAG: 9704230001

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B12  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

MASSAGE AWARENESS WEEK EDUCATING CITY OFFICIALS

You might not be aware that it is Massage Awareness Week in Norfolk, by proclamation of Mayor Paul D. Fraim.

The proclamation, issued March 14, contains four Whereases and one Therefore. The key Whereas states, ``Whereas, massage therapy . . . is an effective and ethical therapy for dealing with the stress and tension of our modern lives, and is sometimes useful as preventive medicine and an alternative method of managing health; now, therefore, I, Paul D. Fraim. . . ,'' and so on.

The proclamation was recently brought up in a letter to City Attorney Philip R. Trapani after he was indirectly quoted in an April 9 front-page Virginian-Pilot article on a psychic's lawsuit against the city.

Trapani said Virginia cities have a right to ban certain types of businesses, such as tattoo parlors, massage parlors and adult-oriented businesses.

Pamela Best of Virginia Beach, president of the Tidewater unit of the Virginia Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association and co-owner of The Best Body Co., wrote Trapani:

``Your slight to the dignity and professionalism of more than 300 professional practicing massage therapists in the Tidewater area is unfounded. Even Mayor Fraim has recognized the importance of therapeutic massage to the health and well-being of the area citizens in a proclamation. . . .''

The group complains that its massages don't take place in ``parlors'' and that legal, therapeutic massages should not be confused with illegal, erotic services that sometimes go under the same name.

Best said in an interview that this is Massage Awareness Week in all five South Hampton Roads cities, by proclamation of their mayors.

In her letter to Trapani, she offered him a ``complimentary therapeutic massage.'' He hasn't responded, she said.

She added, ``We just need to educate our city officials.''

Sometimes one can understand why public officials, after decades of service, grow wary of commenting on anything.

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