ELLSWORTH ? Ellsworth County’s licensing requirement for sexually oriented businesses — and the rules for being granted one — are designed to put an existing adult video store out of business, the store’s manager claims.

Terry Yarbrough, manager of After Dark Video, says he’s upset with what he calls an unfair attack by county officials on his business.

Yarbrough already has criminal charges pending against him for promoting obscenity and possessing obscenity with intent to sell. A ruling from District Magistrate Judge Dale Urbanek on Yarbrough’s guilt or innocence is pending.

Yarbrough said that because he had criminal charges pending against him, he couldn’t qualify for a store operator’s license. And he’s upset by the cost — an annual fee of $500 for the manager and $200 for each employee, each time a new employee is hired.

“I can’t be licensed because of the first charge they’ve got on me. It’s putting me over a barrel, me personally, because they’re running me through the ringer,” Yarbrough said.

The ordinance took effect May 6 with a provision that current sexually oriented businesses had two months to apply for the proper licenses. But no licensing forms have been certified, because the county’s lone adult novelty and video store, After Dark Video, at the junction of Interstate Highway 70 and Kansas Highway 232, hasn’t applied.

The business is continuing to operate until the case is resolved in court, he said.

Yarbrough said he wasn’t surprised that county officials would try to keep him from being licensed as a way to close the business.