| Smoking ban brings mixed opinions in Carroll | |
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| Saturday, January 26, 2008 | |
Like it or not, a statewide indoor smoking ban is going into effect in less
than a week.
“I think the smoking ban is a joke. It takes away from your rights,” said Chad
Cockey of Westminster.
Cockey, who was at Buffalo Wild Wings Thursday night, said he frequents the
restaurant and bar but won’t be out as much once the Clean Indoor Air Act takes
effect Feb. 1.
“I don’t want to sit down and have a drink if I can’t smoke,” Cockey said.
He’s not alone.
“I’m a citizen, I pay my taxes. Let me decide where and when to smoke,” said
Sharon Ringley, a smoker and a waitress at the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in
Westminster.
But Jim Bloom, nonsmoker from Littlestown, Pa., said he’s happy about the ban.
“I’m glad they’re trying to stop it. You won’t smell [smoke] in your clothes
as much,” said Bloom, who was at the VFW last week.
Not all smokers oppose the ban.
Brothers Ryan and Michael Smith were both smoking at Buffalo Wild Wings Thursday
night and debated the issue.
“I think it will [make bars] be a cleaner environment,” Ryan Smith of
Westminster said.
While the two debated the pros and cons of the ban, Michael said not seeing
older people smoking in bars might deter teenagers from smoking.
Will Ames of Taneytown quit smoking two years ago and said he welcomes the ban.
While in the bar at Buffalo Wild Wings with his family and young daughter, he
said the ban will make going out easier.
“It’s a nasty habit that affects my normal breathing,” he said.
Effects on businesses
Some Carroll establishments have already put a smoking ban in place.
Maggie’s Restaurant in Westminster enacted the ban Jan. 21 and, so far, has had
a mixed reaction according to the restaurant’s management.
The restaurant started the ban early because the owner wanted to clean the bar
before the ban. The cleaning company came in earlier this month, and Manager
Matt Pisula said the owner didn’t want to have smoking in the cleaned restaurant
and bar.
On the first day Maggie’s started the ban, Pisula said a couple of people came
into the bar and left because they couldn’t smoke. On the other hand, he said
another couple who had stopped eating at the restaurant returned this week,
because before the ban they said the bar was too smoky. Pisula himself has mixed
emotions about how the ban will affect business. Maggie’s has been fighting this
kind of ban for 10 years, he said.
But Scott Beck, owner of E W Beck’s Pub in Sykesville, said the ban will bring
in new business.
“I think on the short term it may negatively affect us, but in the long term, it
will probably be positive,” said Beck, who anticipates the ban may make his
restaurant more family friendly and attract many of the area’s young residents.
“We have people that won’t come out because it’s too smoky,” he said.
Beck said he will try his best to accommodate the smoking clientele. Before the
ban goes into effect, a door that will access an outdoor patio will be added to
the restaurant. The plan is to eventually have the patio covered and heated,
Beck said.
“I think some of the bar business might decline, but people don’t come to a bar
or restaurant to smoke. You go out ’cause of the food or drinks,” he said. “I
think in the long run it will be better.”
Marcia Brengle, manager at the Westminster VFW, is more concerned.
Brengle, a smoker, said she is afraid many of her customers will want to
transfer to clubs in Pennsylvania where smoking is allowed.
The law is particularly bothersome to Brengle because the VFW is a private
organization.
“The government should stay out of private clubs,” she said.
Brengle is looking to band with other private nonprofit clubs in the area to
fight the smoking ban.
Del. Susan Krebs, R-District 9, co-sponsored the bill into the state House of
Delegates and said the issue for her is the health of employees.
“We’ve had a [smoking] ban for years, with an exception for bars and
restaurants,” she said. “This just gets rid of the exception.”
Though Krebs understands the private clubs’ arguments, she said this is a health
rule, which private clubs still have to follow.
Getting a waiver
Businesses are eligible to apply for a waiver if they can prove a significant
decrease in business. To receive a waiver, a business must show a 15 percent
reduction in food and beverage sale after the ban begins or can prove another
reason why the ban is unreasonable, said Clifford S. Mitchell, the director of
the Environmental Health Coordination Program at the State Department of Health
and Mental Hygiene.
However, Mitchell said the waiver is not a free pass.
“It’s not intended to be permanent,” he said. “Everyone should be in compliance
by Feb. 1, 2011.”
State studies show that the smoking ban shouldn’t have a negative effect on
business, though. In other jurisdictions with similar bans, businesses have not
suffered.
In documents the state made available to businesses, it was reported that
Montgomery County, which enacted a smoking ban in 2003, saw restaurant sales
rise 7 percent in 2004.
Enforcing the ban
Charles Zeleski, acting chief of the Carroll County Health Department’s Bureau
of Environmental Health, has been charged with monitoring complaints and
investigating claims made about the smoking ban.
“The legislature made [the ban] in order to eliminate as much as possible
peoples’ exposure to tobacco smoke,” he said.
The Health Department will investigate claims that a business isn’t following
the law and if the business is found to be violating the law it is given a
warning. For a second offense, it is fined $100, the third violation is $500 and
the fourth and every violation after is $1,000.
Money collected from fines will go to the state’s cigarette restitution fund.
Zeleski said he expects to get a fair amount of complaints within the first six
to nine months of the ban.
“This is a significant change to many businesses’ operations and a significant
change to how the public operates within those businesses,” Zeleski said.
Reach staff writer Erica Kritt at 410-857-7876 or erica.kritt@carrollcountytimes.com.
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