SALEM, S.D. – The owner of a strip club near Salem said he’ll sponsor an outdoor drag-queen festival if McCook County commissioners place new regulations on his business.

Bob Rieger, owner of Racehorses Gentleman’s Club and Adult Movie Theater, said the festival is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of July 2 in the club’s parking lot.

Salem’s 125th anniversary celebration is scheduled for the same weekend.

Commissioners will vote June 21 on an ordinance that would ban nude dancing and regulate other forms of sexually oriented activity in the county. Rieger claims the ordinance would make it impossible for him to operate an exotic-dancing club, and he thinks an annual drag-queen event could help provide a substitute income.

“If the county’s going to fight, I’m going to do what events I have to in order to stay alive,” Rieger told The Daily Republic of Mitchell.

If commissioners do not adopt the ordinance, Rieger said, he will consider canceling the drag-queen event.

McCook County Commission Chairman Marc Dick, of Bridgewater, said his vote on the ordinance will not be influenced by Rieger’s plans.

“It’s a free country,” Dick said in a phone interview. “He can do whatever he wants.”

If the ordinance becomes law, Rieger said, he will plan more events throughout the year to replace his exotic-dancing business. In October, he hopes to conduct a “Salem Witch Trial Days” with mock trials and costume competitions. In the past, he has often referred to female critics of his club as the “Salem witches.”

Rieger opened his club two years ago in a former restaurant three miles east of Salem. He does not sell alcohol because county commissioners denied him a liquor license.

The county’s current ordinance banning public nudity exempts theaters and certain other locations. Rieger was able to keep his business open by adding movies.

The ordinance up for a vote June 21 would forbid nudity at sexually oriented businesses.