But society has deemed that 18-year-olds are adults. They can vote, they can go to war ---- so outlawing teen stripping is a battle he doubts he can win.

He can, however, try to stop stripping by 18- to 20-year-olds, which is legal in nonalcoholic venues, through city regulation. And he plans to introduce a law to accomplish that at tonight's Assembly meeting.

There's only one under-21 strip club left in Anchorage -- Fantasies on 5th Avenue.

Fantasies doesn't sell alcohol. Owners Kathy and Carol Hartman found a way to operate a bar and a club with under-21 strippers by separating their bar, The Setter, from their strip club with a big glass wall. Drinking customers can watch the young dancers from a distance.

It's all legal. They've been doing it for years.

However, after a massive renovation and expansion project at the Fantasies/Setters complex is done this fall, the Hartmans plan to move the bar upstairs to the new second floor and stretch the nonalcoholic strip club across the whole first floor.

Upstairs drinkers still will be able to peer down on the dancers through a big hole in the floor. The hole will be surrounded by a railing and vertical glass walls.

"Old men can sit there on the corner and drool on young girls on the first floor," Traini said ---- a slight exaggeration ---- and that's bad for the women.

After visiting the site, Traini drafted a proposal to require a 1,000-foot separation between liquor-licensed premises and clubs specializing in under-21 strippers.

Although Fantasies and The Setter are technically separate businesses, they will continue to share a common entrance and common customers who can migrate between the bar and the strip club. Traini said he worries that "kids" will have access to alcohol and be hassled by drunks.

The Hartmans say there are protections in place to prevent that: security at the entrance monitoring who goes where and bartenders who will card anyone before selling a drink.

Traini said he's not trying to put the bar out of business. "They could hire all 21-year-old strippers, and that would solve the problem."

Moving the bar upstairs requires the Assembly to approve an amendment to The Setter's liquor license. Traini wants both issues discussed at the same time. The Hartmans, who only recently learned of Traini's proposal, say the liquor license question should be kept separate from the strip club.

"Fantasies shouldn't be an issue," Kathy said.

"It's a different business," Carol chimed in.

"People will argue that there are two separate businesses, but my response is 'Oh, come on,' " Assemblyman Allan Tesche said. "They're using the underage dancers as a draw for adults upstairs."

Tesche, who represents the area in which the businesses are located, said the idea of placing some distance between any two adult establishments, or an adult establishment and a bar, is worth consideration. Sometimes congregating these types of businesses prompts more problems, he said.

Even if the law changes, Carol Hartman said, she thinks The Setter/Fantasies should be grandfathered in. And if it's not?

"Go out of business, I guess," Kathy Hartman said. "We don't intend to do that."

They've invested a ton in the expansion, they said, although they declined to give a specific number. It's taken incredible sacrifices and big loans, they said.

Kathy tiled the bathrooms on the new second floor. She built a waterfall that will spill into a glass-block alligator cage, where a live, "rescued" alligator is going to live.

"This is not only our livelihood; it's our life," Carol said.

Assemblyman Dan Coffey, reached in Seattle, agreed with Traini that 18-year-olds probably shouldn't be strippers.

"So why don't we deal with that?" he said.

He said rushing Traini's proposal could generate "unintended consequences," but he hasn't seen it yet to speak to its details.

Assembly Chairwoman Anna Fairclough said she's for separating drinking establishments from places where minors congregate -- such as the 515 Club, a downtown bar, and the adjacent teen club, Bitoz. But she's not sure yet whether she'll support Traini's ordinance, because it doesn't appear to address that scenario.

"Alcohol next to 18-year-olds -- that's my issue," she said.

Fairclough predicted the vote on The Setter's liquor license amendment will be close: not because The Setter has had significant public or safety problems, she said, but because Assembly members will let the strip club issue influence their vote.

The Hartmans are spending their days gathering paperwork. The liquor license question should be about the relocation of the bar, but it's becoming political, Carol said.

Daily News reporter Anne Aurand can be reached at aaurand@adn.com or 257-4591.