Suggestive signs return, taunting Park Ridge city authorities

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A sign advertising an "adult store" hangs in the window of a vacant dry cleaner's at 805 N. Northwest Highway. The city took legal action last year to remove similar escort-service ads. | Jennifer Johnson~Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 6, 2012 8:47AM

New signs marketing massage services and an “adult store” to Park Ridge city officials have appeared inside a vacant business that was the site of controversial escort-service signs last spring.

The two signs are displayed in the window of a former dry cleaner’s at 805 N. Northwest Highway. One of the signs, which faces east, reads “P.R. Adult Store” and welcomes city officials and city attorneys, but promises, “names kept secret.”

The other sign, which faces Northwest Highway, reads, “Massages by Dicks and Trix” and offers discounts to police, fire and city officials, and the city attorney. A line at the bottom reads, “Happy days are here again!”

The phone number on the sign is the same cell-phone number that was printed on posters advertising “Trixee’s Escort Service,” which appeared in the strip mall last year. The city of Park Ridge filed legal action against the shopping center’s reported owner, Michael Schiessle, and was granted a temporary restraining order allowing city officials to enter the vacant store and remove the ads.

Park Ridge City Manager Jim Hock said the newest signs appeared last month and the owner of the building has been issued a citation for having off-premises advertising, a violation of the city’s Zoning Ordinance. The same citations were reportedly issued last year when the Trixee’s signs appeared.

The sign for the “adult store” infers the denial of licenses by the city. Hock said the city has never denied the owner of 805 N. Northwest Highway licenses or permits, but has in the past provided him with a list of measures required to meet city codes in order for new businesses to be located there.

There is a lien on the property as a result of previously unpaid fines, Hock said. The city manager said he did not know how much is owed and a call to Finance Director Allison Stutts was not immediately returned.

Last spring City Attorney Kathie Henn said the owner owed about $15,000 to the city related to prior litigation.