GRAFTON (AP) - City officials here are considering regulating strippers, after a local bar hired two topless dancers.

Last Chance Saloon owner Paul Gudgel hired the Fargo dancers on Jan. 4. "It's been a slow winter," he said. "I needed a night like that."

The City Council last week defeated an ordinance that would have regulated strippers, but the matter is to come up again at the group's Feb. 11 meeting.

Councilman Chris West, who was part of the 6-4 majority vote defeating the ordinance, said he now plans to vote for it.

If everyone else's vote stays the same, the 5-5 City Council tie would be broken by Mayor Todd Burianek, who proposed the ordinance.

West said he initially voted against the ordinance only for technical reasons. "I don't personally believe we need this kind of activity in Grafton," he said.

Gudgel said he is not surprised by West's decision.

"They are going to keep after me until they win," he said. "I can't fight 'em."

The issue has arisen in Grafton before. In 1978, the city passed an ordinance to ban topless dancing. It was offered at the Red Ram bar, which was in the same building Gudgel's business now occupies.

The state Supreme Court struck down the ordinance, saying it was a violation of free expression. Since then, however, courts have ruled that topless dancing can be regulated.

The proposed ordinance in Grafton is patterned after those in Grand Forks and Mandan. It bans topless dancing in a business if alcohol is served.

Council member Tim McDonald took the lead role in defeating the ordinance during the first vote.

"It's been legal forever to have dancers here," he said. "If people don't want to see it, they don't have to go into the bar."

Burianek said he has attended topless clubs in the past.

"My problem isn't the idea of strippers, it's the negative collateral effects that come with stripping that I want to keep out of town," he said. "It's the increased drug trafficking and immoral violations of law that have shown to coincide with strippers.

"I'm not some prude who hasn't seen these things," he said. "It just feels creepy in my town."