Posted on 08/07/2005 10:13:06 AM PDT by elkfersupper
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- The day the Legislature approved a smoking ban for most North Dakota businesses, Dennis Laches put a sign on his laundry and television repair shop, announcing he would close when the ban took effect Aug. 1.
"Nobody knew if he was going to go through with it," said Troy Mosbrucker, the mayor of Mott, a town of about 800 in southwestern North Dakota. "He had a point to prove, and he proved it."
As promised, Laches closed his business that day. He said it had nothing to do with his pack-a-day habit. Rather, he said, it was a matter of fairness.
"The state of North Dakota is attempting to make me discriminate against another person or group of people," said Laches, 59. "I don't believe government of any kind should be allowed to dictate what I do at my own business and my own building."
State officials say they know of no other businesses that have closed because of the new smoking ban, though police have rounded up ash trays in some bingo parlors.
The new state law bans smoking in most public areas and workplaces. Bars are exempt, unless they have a restaurant in the smoking area. Violators can be fined up to $500. A building owner who allows illegal smoking also faces fines of up to $500 for multiple infractions within one year.
Law enforcement officers are trying to adjust to the new rules.
"It's almost embarrassing walking in and being called the smoke police," said Ward County Sheriff Vern Erck said. "We have better things to do, but we'll enforce it."
But health officials say feedback had generally been positive.
"We had some (people) call that are dissatisfied, but it's been very few," said Kathleen Mangskau, director of the Health Department's tobacco prevention and control program.
Two days after Laches closed his shop, an economic development group purchased his laundry machines, mostly to keep the 100 or so visiting custom wheat harvesters in town.
"If they leave town to do their laundry, then they leave the town grocery, the gas station and the cafe," Mosbrucker said. "Everything loses."
Laches said his business was never a moneymaker in the 17 years he owned it. Now, he'll either retire or move to another state to find work.
"If I find a job, it's going to have to be in a state that allows smoking," he said.
The whole Soviet Union tone, rat out your neighbor, blah, blah, blah.
I remember when people used to laugh at stuff like this.
If you run a business out of your home in Delaware the smoking ban their does enter your home.
People going out of business sure as heck ain't laughing, as you well know.
Not my home it wouldn't. That would be time to draw a line.
Even though, presumably, your home is an actual RESIDENCE, and zoned that way? Dirty tricks abound in DE...no wonder you left!
Do you know if this applies to people running a computer or internet based business? If they don't have customers coming directly to their homes? Or can you give me an idea of where to look for that info? I hate to admit it, but I have a feeling if I don't ask, I'll be knee-deep in unrelated Google hits!
I totally agree with you - but if you have employees you better make sure they either smoke or won't rat you out.....
If you had a cash business would you claim to be making fabulous profits?
Smoking in homes and cars has already become a factor in contested child custody cases. The smoker is likely not to be awarded custody (or even unsupervised visitation) - so the nanny state can be sure the child is not exposed.
We were planning on leaving Delaware long before the ban, but it just so happens that we didn't sell our house until after it took effect.........but it was just another example of WHY we chose to leave there. and I don't miss it :)
If you do not have employees and do not have customers coming in off the street the ban doesn't apply. But it does apply if you run a home based child or adult care center....and in those cases it is the entire house that is off limits, not just the area where your center is.
Smoking already is a crime in many places, but tobacco won't be outlawed the way marijuana was only because the government makes far too much money in taxes to ban it. Governments are far more addicted to tobacco than any moker ever has been.
I will ignore your snide attempt to equate smokers with meth and heroin abusers.
"It's almost embarassing walking in and picking up the (Jews, Blacks, Christians - take your pick)," said security bureaucrat, Vern Jerkoff. "We have better things to do, but we'll enforce it."
And what, specifically, are the chemicals that you don't use...and are not in the products which you use on a daily basis? Or that make up your home? Or fuel your car?
Why pick on the chemical industry? You are a user like everyone else.
It's always someone else's fault with you people....
I think that's code for "migrant farm worker"
Sure I know, but it makes no never mind since we're all going to live forever in the Big Camp, safe at last.
It's such a relief not to have to live your own life anymore, isn't it? All that pressure.
Strangely enough, not everyone does it for the money.
Well, that would certainly have me thinking twice if I wanted to run a day care out of my home. I think it's best to have the areas where the children are at smoke free, but your entire home? Geesh. I choose to smoke outside, for the most part, but I don't want some nanny telling me I have to, or lose my license. Do they even allow them to add some kind of special ventilation if they -I can't believe I'm typing this- want to smoke in a part of the house away from the center, I wonder?
You people?
Of course the free market would have solved this problem, by installing fans to keep customers or another entrepreneur would open a new clean smoke free laundry. And the free market should be all the control society needs.
Yep, laundry could've been his passion.
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