An area swingers club called Topside II is currently facing fines of $300 per day after area officials decided it was in violation of what they called “morality zones.”
“[A swingers club] isn’t something that you would expect in rural Indiana,” Shelby County Sheriff Tom Debaun, told FortWayne.com. “We don’t know if any of this activity is illegal. All of their caveats on their Web page say they don’t tolerate illegal activity, so that people who are participating in this are participating of their own free will, and they are supposed to be adults.”
Amy Butcher, executive director of the commission, told the report that Gary James, the owner of Topside II, had moved the club onto an old farm he had bought in rural Shelby County after running afoul of zoning officials in Indianapolis, where she said he had operated a similar club.
However, the club’s website does request donations which could be enough to classify the club as an adult business, officials said, and the area is zoned for agriculture and single-family residential use.
Butcher served James with a cease-and-desist order Sept. 7, and sheriff’s deputies who conducted surveillance recently detected no activity.
The commission voted 7-0 to find the club in violation and make the fines retroactive to Sept. 7.
