Stillwater Police Chief John Gannaway told the City Council Tuesday night that he is working with the city attorney to craft ordinances requiring licensure for massage parlors and tightening up regulations on tobacco shops.

After criminal sexual conduct allegations were filed against the owner of Land of Pharaohs Massage last month, the police chief said he is looking into developing an ordinance that would require massage therapists to be licensed by the city.

The ordinance would require certain levels of training, expertise and education before the massage therapist would be granted licensure, Gannaway said. “That way if we have an incident—or a series of incidents like we’re having at this particular place—we can pull the license.”

As long as the licensure fees aren’t excessive, Gannaway said he didn’t believe “professional” massage therapists would have an issue with licensing.

Woodbury recently crafted a “really good ordinance” after a similar issue with an alleged massage therapy establishment that covers a lot of regulations, Gannaway said. The city could look at the possibility of enacting an ordinance similar to the one Woodbury recently adopted.

Restricting Pipe Sales at Tobacco Shops 

The police chief also plans to bring an ordinance before the City Council that would aim to prohibit tobacco shops from selling pipes and other types of paraphernalia.

Many tobacco shops in the Twin Cities metro are starting to look like the “head shops of the 70s,” where they’re selling anything but tobacco, Gannaway said. “We’re looking at a way to prohibit the sales of pipes and water pipes and all the other stuff.”

Moorhead recently passed an ordinance that has stood up to all the legal challenges, the police chief said. Gannaway has been working with City Attorney Dave Magnuson, in the hopes of bringing a similar ordinance to the council next meeting to help regulate the sales of smoking paraphernalia.

In addition, the city has also fielded a request for business to start a hookah parlor.

“We have some issues with that, as well,” Gannaway said.

The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits hookah parlors, the police chief said. That business also proposed a vending machine where customers put tobacco and rolling papers inside to get cigarettes.

“That’s a gray area because you can’t sell single cigarettes and you also can’t have vending machines,” Gannaway said.