The Spotlight’s On For Teenagers Owner Enlists Young People In Decoration, Setting Rules

A lot of hope is riding on The Spotlight.

High school students from Rathdrum, Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene want a trouble-free place to meet, dance and hang out.

Owner and Coeur d’Alene City Councilman Chris Copstead is counting on the new teen club to become a viable business venture.

“We’ve been dying for a place like this,” said Colleen Nave, 17, of Rathdrum. “Now we have a place to go, and I don’t have to worry about driving my friends home because they’ve been drinking.”

Nave is one of 10 students who are on The Spotlight’s advisory board. Copstead consults with them on how to run the club.

The club is on the corner of First and Indiana, in the former Panhandle Pizza building. Copstead has furnished it with counters, stools, pool tables, dart boards, pinball machines, video games, a big-screen television, a jukebox and an elaborate sound system for the dance floor.

The students help make the rules and decorating decisions, devise strategies for tackling problems and make suggestions for improving the club.

No smoking is one of the rules.

Nave caught a customer smoking in the girl’s bathroom one night. Unsure of how to enforce their rules, the teen board decided that violators will get one warning. After that, they’ll be kicked out.

Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Dave Scates believes that by enlisting the help of teenagers, while providing adequate supervision, Copstead might make this club survive when others have failed.

“It seems to me if there’s a recipe of success with these things, he may have hit it,” Scates said.

Board members bring up the defunct Cherry Bomb teen club when discussing what they don’t want The Spotlight to become. The Cherry Bomb attracted kids from Spokane who were involved in gangs, they said.

The Spotlight cards customers to make sure they’re under 20 and at least in eighth grade.

The student board hopes to only attract local kids.

The club has no cover charge except on Friday and Saturday nights, when a hired DJ keeps the dance floor pulsating. To discourage kids from getting into trouble, the club charges people who leave and want back in a re-entry fee.

“If someone has to run to their car, the bouncer will go out and watch them, keep an eye on them,” Nave said.

“We don’t want it to be a place where kids come to drink and stuff like that.”

Copstead has a policy of turning away drunken customers.

“If he can tell you’ve been drinking a little, he might invite you in, but only because he doesn’t want you to drink more,” explained John Jameson, a sophomore from Coeur d’Alene High School who’s also on the board.

Jameson and other students say having a place like The Spotlight to go to will curb some of the area’s drug and underage drinking problems.

“One reason North Idaho has a high use of drugs and alcohol is because they (kids) don’t have anything to do,” Jameson said. “They’re bored and looking for something adventurous to do.”

The first night The Spotlight opened, about 200 kids showed up to dance, play games and socialize. The next night drew about 100 or more kids, but all the activity went unnoticed by the police.

On Saturday afternoon, the only problem the club had was a lack of customers.

Ruth Barker manned the snack bar while she watched Beavis and Butthead on the big-screen TV. Two eighth-graders - cousins RaeAnne Capaul and Lynn Cooper - played pool.

Copstead said he’s not concerned yet about how slow the business is during the day.

“I haven’t done any advertising,” he said, adding that he plans to organize pool leagues, Monday Night Football gatherings and other events to draw in more customers.

Annie Ferguson, a high school senior from Post Falls, thinks the club will be popular once more people hear about it. She sees it as a great opportunity to overcome school rivalries.

“You’ll see we’re not just rivals, we’re also friends,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: GRAND OPENING The Spotlight’s grand opening is scheduled for Dec. 12. Next weekend, customers get a dollar off the cover charge if they bring two cans of food for the food bank.