Oran bar closes; owner cites police chief's aggressive style

~ The mayor says the business was a gathering place for those opposing the police chief.

ORAN, Mo. -- Otter's Bar and Grill in Oran has shut its doors, and according to a marquee sign on the building the business's owners blame the town's mayor and police chief.

One of the bar's owners, Tony Brashear, who is also known as Otter, said they closed its doors about two weeks ago due to slow business. The owners put a message on the marquee sign saying, "Closed ... Thank your chief and mayor."

Otter's has been a central point in the now yearlong battle between some of Oran's residents and police chief Marc Tragesser. Some people in the Scott County town said Tragesser's policing style has been too aggressive since he began the job last summer, driving visitors away from Oran.

They say Tragesser has gone overboard in enforcing traffic and other laws, and that the change was too abrupt after the retirement of former chief Howard Stevens, who rarely even wrote tickets.

"Our business is down $100,000 in the last 11 months since the new chief has been here," said Brashear.

"It's true, I don't care what they say," Brashear said of the sign's message.

Oran's mayor has a different view of the situation.

"They didn't make it, so they had to blame somebody," said Mayor Tom Urhahn.

Some people in Oran, including Urhahn and Tragesser, said Otter's was a sort of rallying place for the opposition to the chief.

Tragesser said people in the bar would say negative things about him. Owners and patrons would antagonize other patrons to verbally challenge the chief, Tragesser said.

But Tragesser insists he and his patrolmen didn't actively seek to pull over patrons leaving the bar, and only made three DWI arrests of people leaving the establishment since he took over last summer. Tragesser said on several occasions he could have charged bar patrons with serious crimes but didn't.

Brashear disagrees with that assertion. He says Tragesser targeted his patrons and scared off customers from outside Oran -- customers the small-town business depended on.

"I know of five people right off hand he did that to, and that's just people I know," said Brashear.

The bar had six owners: Michael McVay, Tony Brashear, Billy Senciboy, Michael Steimle, Brian Vogel and Stacy Hargrove.

Both Senciboy and McVay won election to the city's board of aldermen in April, but neither attacked the chief or mayor in the media during their election campaigns.

McVay said he stopped his involvement with the business several months ago, but thought the issue would probably come up in the city's next board of aldermen meeting July 11.

At the beginning of this year Otter's owners joined with some other business owners in town to talk to the board of aldermen under the auspices of the Oran Business Betterment Association. Owners of several local businesses said their revenue was down significantly since Tragesser had been working in Oran.

Brashear said the closing of Otter's could have been stopped or delayed if the board of aldermen had tried to address the situation. Some blamed Urhahn, but he won re-election in April against two opponents.

"Everybody that voted for the mayor, look at owners with families that will lose a lot of money," said Brashear. "What are you going to say to them? You voted for the dumbest guy in Oran."

Brashear said the group started the bar not just to make money, but to give the community a gathering place and strengthen the local economy.

Repeated calls over several days and a visit to Senciboy's home Saturday yielded no response from Senciboy, but Brashear said the alderman witnessed him put up the message against the mayor and chief.

Urhahn said he's just trying to ignore the message on the sign. "I just consider the source," he said.

Tragesser said he thought the situation in Oran had calmed down. But the controversy over his job might become more heated again, especially with the presence of McVay and Senciboy on the board of aldermen, he said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182