CHESTER, W.Va. -A Chester nightclub is going to court to regain its status as the only all-nude bar in the county.

Hancock County commissioners denied Daizy Duke’s Country Saloon’s adult entertainment license on appeal in January, saying that the new owners were not in compliance with the county’s Adults-Only Establishment Location Ordinance.

But the nightclub’s owners, Robert Lucas, of Mingo Junction, Ohio, and Amber Groves, of Chester, claim they should be “grandfathered in,” as were the previous owners, and allowed to operate as a nude bar at that location, 2097 Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30).

When the establishment was Kamikaze’s and the Velocity Club, female bartenders were permitted to serve patrons in the nude from behind the bar between 2-9 p.m. daily. The current bartenders, while not nude, are still scantily clad.

Lucas and Groves operate Daizy Duke’s through their business, AMROB LLC, which holds the liquor license and leases the property from owner Hilltop Development LLC, according to court records.

AMROB is appealing the commissioners’ decision in Hancock County Circuit Court, saying the county did not follow its own ordinance when it denied the adult entertainment license.

AMROB assumed management of Daizy Duke’s last summer after a shooting in June 2014 temporarily closed the establishment, then known as the Velocity Club.

Following a “cool down” period, AMROB applied for a liquor license from the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration (ABCA) in July 2014. The license, which was granted in early September, stipulated that Daizy Duke’s have no nudity behind the bar or in the kitchen area, and that all exotic activity be confined to the stage.

AMROB’s partners learned that the restrictions were imposed because they had not obtained an adult entertainment license from Hancock County, according to the appeal. AMROB applied for the adult license on Sept. 11, 2014, putting it well outside the 60-day abandonment provision contained in the adult ordinance.

The provision states that an establishment is considered abandoned if it goes unused for 60 days. AMROB’s appeal states that it could not have obtained the adult license within 60 days of the Velocity Club’s closing because of the state-imposed “cool down” period and the liquor license pending before the ABCA.

“Sixty days is oppressive and fails to recognize the near impossibility for a new business to be able to obtain all appropriate licensure within a 60-day period,” the appeal states.

In the county’s response, Solicitor Michael Lucas III said, “(AMROB) should have been able to easily comply with the county’s adult entertainment ordinance. As the site had been grandfathered as an existing use, the petitioner only needed to complete the county’s basic application with a notarized signature and payment of the $100 fee. Sixty days is far more than sufficient time to complete this.”