It has been over a year now and the adult entertainment club that was supposed to open next to a convent in Stone Park remains closed. That’s a fact that the Missionary Sisters of St. Charles Borromeo celebrated during a April 22 press conference as they vowed to continue fighting to keep it closed. The Scalabrinian sisters have circulated petitions against the club, held press conferences and prayer vigils and organized a march last year in public protest. PASO-West Suburban Action Project in Melrose Park has partnered with the sisters to keep the club closed. The initial owners recently sold the club to a new owner so the sisters and their supporters are sending a message to them. “So we’re here to tell them, this is going to happen to you also. We don’t want this place regardless of who you are,” Scalabrinian Sister Noemia Silva told the Catholic New World following the press conference, which took place on the sidewalk across from the club. “We want this out of the community and to be done with it. And we’re going to continue the fight. If they are going to open we will be here.” The club would feature alcohol and partially nude dancers on a site that was formerly a factory. The sisters say the club will degrade the community, depress property values and create dangerous situations for children who sometimes play in the alley that runs along the property. It will also further harm the reputation of the community of just under 5,000 people, which already has at least five adult entertainment venues. “I don’t know who in the world would build a strip club at the back of the convent,” Sister Noemia said. The Chicago-based Thomas More Society represents the sisters in their efforts to have the village of Stone Park enforce a state law that says an adult entertainment center cannot open within 1,000 feet of a house of worship. The sisters have a chapel on their grounds. Peter Breen, executive director of the Thomas More Society said they were planning to file a lawsuit against Stone Park to get them to enforce the law. Michelle Martin contributed to this story.