Indiana’s Lafayette Community Church to Buy Neighboring Strip Joint

Associate pastor Billy Hardy, left, and pastor Jeff Mikels Wednesday, March 2, 2016, at Lafayette Community Church, 2301 Concord Road in Lafayette. The church will be next door neighbors with Filly’s Gentlemens Club, background. (Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)

A church in Indiana is planning to purchase a strip joint by the end of the month, less than a year after the church moved in next door to the club.

The Lafayette Community Church hopes to convert Filly’s Gentlemen’s Club into a community center that will provide recreation opportunities and resources to nearby neighborhoods.

Tona Biddle, who co-owns Filly’s with her father, Ed Gobel, said the club will not be relocating, although the affiliated Fantasy Adult Gift Shop will reopen elsewhere.

After 26 years of operation, Biddle said it is just time to close.

“We’ve been talking about it for a while,” she said. “It’s time we move on. … I’m really busy and my dad is just getting to that age; he’s 75.”

The hardest part of moving on will be all the people Biddle and Gobel have to say goodbye to, she said.

“The staff was wonderful. They’ve been with us for 20 years. The dancers are great, I tell you what, and they’ve been with us for years, too,” she added.

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SOURCE: USA Today
Emma Ambrose, (Lafayette, Ind.) Journal and Courier