Massage Businesses a Topic of Discussion at Crow Wing County Board Meeting

The Crow Wing County Board had a lengthy discussion about massage businesses and their place in the county during last week’s board meeting.

Assistant County Attorney Stephanie Shook and Lutheran Social Service’s Kate LePage raised the question, stating 67% of Rochester’s massage parlors are involved in some form of illicit activity and that 1.5% of adolescents in east central Minnesota have experienced this form of victimization.

LePage stated potential mitigation solutions would involve making Crow Wing County for the first county in Minnesota to enact a public health ordinance. However, County Administrator Tim Houle pushed back, stating this may be more of a human trafficking concern rather than about massage businesses.

“If this is about human trafficking, then let’s make sure that the efforts that we take are as closely related to that problem as possible,” said Houle in an interview with Lakeland News. “And if we’re talking about cleanliness standards that we try to draft something that is going to take care of that problem. I doubt one ordinance is going to take care of both.”

Houle, Commissioner Steve Barrows, and Board Chair Jon Lubke all said they’d need more information on the matter before taking further action.