The rumor that a gentlemen's club may be coming to the Ironton Hills Shopping Center is "ludicrous," as far as property owner Bill Trembly is concerned.

Trembly attended the Ironton City Council's Thursday meeting at Mayor Bob Cleary's request to dispel the rumors and shed a little light on his current development plans.

Also, Mike Haas, the owner of Charlie's Tire Sales Inc. located at 619 S. Second St., voiced concerns for his business after he learned at the Ohio Department of Transportation's public forum Wednesday that he may have to sell all of his property because of bridge replacement plans.

Although rumored for some time, the issue regarding an establishment going in at the shopping center really took off two weeks ago after council received a license application through the Ohio Department of Commerce's Division of Liquor Control. The application was issued to Cronacher Hill, LLC and company president Roland T. Gilbert of Columbus for a location at 1001-A, Ironton Hills Drive -the former Ames building.

No one on council knew much about the project and the rumor of a "strip club" continued to surface.

"I used the word ludicrous when I heard this," Trembly said. "The center has met the community needs and never put anything out there that was negative to the community."

Mayor Cleary said he wrote letters to all the local churches emphasizing that the rumors were not true.

Trembly outlined the ongoing process to recruit legitimate restaurants. He said he is working to market the 75,000 square foot building and may divide the building that has been vacant since January 2002 into two or three properties.

City officials and the community have advised him that nice, sit-down restaurants are needed in Ironton to work with economic development efforts. The only way to bring these types of establishments is to allow them to serve alcohol as well, he said.

"Food is the main thrust of our energy," Trembly said. "The other part is incidental but also critical to go forward."

Several councilmen indicated that they do not oppose the issuance of a liquor license if it is for a quality restaurant like many of the national franchises Trembly used as examples.

Councilman Brent Pyles said he hopes this project "this will stem the tide of bypassing our community by a lot of development."

Before the discussion ever made it to Trembly's efforts to attract new businesses, the meeting centered on an old business, Charlie's Tires, that may be in jeopardy because of ODOT's proposed plans for replacing the Ironton-Russell Bridge.

The projected location calls for construction of a cable-stayed bridge to begin near the intersection of Second and Jefferson streets in Ironton and connect to the intersection of Kentucky Route 244 and U.S. Route 23 in Russell. Construction could begin in 2005 and be completed in 2008.

The Haas family has operated Charlie's Tires for 40 years, for approximately 35 years at its current location. The family owns 17,000 square feet -

about a half of a block between Jefferson and Madison and Second and Third streets.

Mike Haas said that during the past few years he was always led to believe that ODOT would only acquire the property absolutely necessary and although his current structure would have to be removed that he would still be able to relocate his business to the other side of the property.

That belief changed Wednesday night.

"When I walked in there (Wednesday) night and saw (the plans) I was very shocked," Haas said.

Although the bridge structure itself will still not have much effect, ODOT has decided to acquire Haas' property and other areas to use as "green space" landscaping and small park area, he said.

Haas said ODOT officials told him that this is still just a preliminary plan but that the recent decision for the change is based on convenience.

He requested that council contact ODOT and tell them that the retention 0f jobs is more important than "green space." Charlie's Tire currently provides five jobs but could add more if a new building is constructed on the property, Haas said.

"I know (the bridge) has tremendous aesthetic value," he said. "If you saw the picture, it was beautiful, but beauty doesn't serve our needs."

Council indicated that it would ask the city attorneys to draft a resolution that would allow willing property owners to keep their property if not directly affected by the structure.

"I knew there was going to be impact but I did not know it was going to be this bad," said Councilman Pyles, who also attended the ODOT forum.

"This business has been in the community for 40 years. We don't want to lose something like that," Councilman John Elam said.

When contacted by phone Friday morning, ODOT District 9 Deputy Director John F. Hagen said that this plan was primarily to allow ODOT to meet the requests of some property owners and begin purchasing the land.

Now that Haas has expressed concern, Hagen said they will wait to purchase his property after the final designs.

"We will find out what we need for the construction and just buy that property," he said.

After hearing this, Haas was pleased, although he does realize that plans can still change.

"This fills me with optimism that they have reverted to the original plan," Haas said. "I hope they retain this and don't shock us again."

He added that his family has no problem selling their other property that is needed for the advance acquisition.

In other business, Mayor Bob Cleary showed council plans for the roof redesign of the Depot building in downtown.

The plans for a new sheet metal roof and decorative tower atop the building will be submitted to the state next week and the project should be able to go to bid within a few weeks, Cleary said.

Ideally, construction will begin by the end of November, he said.

This part of the project is funded with $200,000 in Empowerment Zone grants but will only require about half of that amount.

The remainder will be used to help remodel the insides to meet the needs of any potential tenant identified by the Lawrence Economic Development Corporation group that manages the property for the city.