FAIRMONT — Fairmont City Council denied the permission LumberjAxe sought in order to sell alcohol at a dwarf wrestling event they had planned for June.
The majority of council voted down a proposed ordinance that would have granted consent for the event with the exception of Council Members Josh Rice and Rick Garcia.
“At the end of the day we’re representatives of our community,” Councilmember Rebecca Moran said. “I talked to a bunch of people in my community, including an individual with dwarfism, just to see, ‘how do you feel about this,’ and they responded – not good. This is language that they’ve worked very hard to not be identified with, to not be known as a spectacle.”
Moran’s comments were echoed by Council Members Julie Sole, Gia Deasy and Kandi Nuzum.
While Council was largely supportive of LumberjAxe as a whole, there was no shaking off any of the queasiness that accompanied Tim Barr’s application to sell beer at the dwarf wrestling event.
Sole and Moran both researched the event proprietors prior to the meeting. Moran even went as far as to watch a documentary about the company, Extreme Dwarfanators Wrestling. What they found troubled them. Sole pointed out the prevalence of the terms “midget” and “spectacle” in the company’s marketing materials.
“The word ‘midget’ is considered derogatory by the Little People of America,” Sole said. “It is considered the m-word, we have the r-word, the n-word and in this community the m-word is not to be used.”
Sole also noted that dwarfanators.com was not listed on the licensing agreement or application, or otherwise spelled wrong on the application to the city. Council Member Deasy also registered her surprise at the true nature of the event in June, only learning about what the application entailed after reading about it in the Times West Virginian.
“Again, I think the business is wonderful,” Deasy said, referring to LumberjAxe. “I’m having a real difficult time with that [Extreme Dwarfanators Wrestling], and what’s known historically to be exploited. So I find it troublesome and concerned that it wasn’t more clear.”
Deasy said she found tickets already on sale for the event. Barr strongly disputed her assertion, calling it a lie, but Deasy stood her ground, making it clear that she knew what she saw.
To be clear, Barr is not selling tickets to the event on his website. There is no mention of the event at all, including under the events tab. However, on the Dwarfanators website, the event is already listed and selling tickets. The event is billed as Lucha Live in Fairmont, and general admission tickets can be bought for $25. Third party ticket vendors are also selling tickets to the event.
Council Member Nuzum brought up her concerns relating to alcohol and what is by nature a very rowdy event.
“If you’ve ever been to a WVU game where everybody’s hyped up about a game, there’s a whole different atmosphere with alcohol and things like this wrestling,” she said. “We already have a problem with little people and our feelings about loving them, and them feeling demeaned by this, but then you’re going to have alcohol around it, too.”
Moran also brought up concerns at how behavior at the event would negatively impact children by modeling toxic behavior toward marginalized people.
Council Member Josh Rice offered LumberjAxe owner Tim Barr a chance to explain, however, before he could City Attorney Kevin Sansalone jumped in to provide the city’s position on the event. Barr did not avail himself afterward of the opportunity to take the podium and explain his reason for holding this type of event.
Sansalone explained the city’s job, meaning the administrative side, is to ensure the city’s legal bases are covered. This means making sure the business applying for the event liquor license has the right kind of liability insurance, and that police, fire and public works are notified of the event.
It is not the city’s job to serve as morality checkers, but to ensure the paperwork is filed correctly. And prior to Tuesday’s council meeting, it appeared it had been, even as Sansalone himself struggled with the correct verbiage to describe the event.
To sell beer at the event, Barr needed to obtain a Faire and Festival license from a regulatory agency in order to suspend the portions of city code that prohibit open containers outside. However, before doing so he needed consent from Council first.
Council shut the way forward, making its feelings on the type of event crystal clear.
There was dissent. Council Members Garcia and Rice voted in favor of granting consent to Barr.
“I just think with an event, when our business is in town, and I support our businesses and I support their event,” Rice said.
Barr is not barred from holding his event, however, he can still hold the event without alcohol sales.
In other Council business:
The Ad-Hoc Committee dedicated to ascertaining what to do with property the City acquires was resurrected and will get to work. Sansalone took responsibility for what he deemed a mistake, and apologized for the error. He explained he provided outdated information on how to create a city committee, but, Shawna Santee, Fairmont resident, pointed out there were newer guidelines to follow.
Sansalone listened to her concerns and after doing some research to confirm what Santee had found, concurred with her opinion. He moved to have the city re-establish the committee using the newer guidelines.
The next council meeting is April 9.
