I will be back in the morning to continue.
Posted on 06/26/2006 8:19:38 PM PDT by SheLion
While some say the introduction of the statewide smoking ban next Saturday will level the playing field, a group of restaurants and bar owners are fuming over what they say are unfair exemptions.
Smokers who travel to Colorado’s casinos and Denver International Airport will be able to light up.
Puffing on a Basic Ultra Light last week over a game of bingo at Loveland Elks Lodge 1051, Frank Bustos said the law is unfair.
“They shouldn’t hold the bar and pool hall owners back,” said Bustos, who has been a smoker for 53 of his 65 years. “Bars are traditionally a smoking place. People know that.”
Businesses should be allowed to have smoking rooms, he said, and employees can choose whether they want to work in them.
That’s exactly the atmosphere Chauncey Taylor has created at Johnson’s Corner on Interstate 25.
In the past two years, Taylor has invested more than $7 million renovating the 50-year-old truck stop and restaurant, largely to comply with highway access regulations.
The renovation included building a separate glassed-in smoking room with its own heating and ventilation system. That alone set him back $50,000.
Taylor, a nonsmoker himself, said the DIA exemption aimed at travelers was inconsistent.
“Truck stops are inherently a travel oasis. So why not truck stops?”
More than 50 percent of Johnson’s Corner’s clientele are travelers, he said.
“Truckers have told me that they’ll just drive on through to Wyoming.” he said.
Harrell Cross owns the Top Hat Lounge in downtown Loveland. A horseshoe-shaped bar near the door serves as the bar’s gathering place. Weekday happy hours — 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. — are the busiest times of the day.
A jukebox hugs a wall across from the bar. A pool table stands in the back. A handful of tables are scattered throughout. A small stage hosts bands on weekend nights.
While the live music on the weekends may draw a crowd of a hundred or so, those nights are hit-and-miss, Cross said.
“Sometimes you make a buck, sometimes you lose a buck.”
It is the regulars who come in every day that keep the place alive.
And 95 percent of them smoke.
While a menu board offers a slim array of eats — hot dogs, corn dogs, hamburgers, frozen pizza — most of the Top Hat’s regular clientele — 40 to 50 average working Joes — stop by on their way home for a drink, a smoke and to shoot a little bull and maybe some pool.
“What smokers want to be able to do is sit at the bar and talk. It’s a social environment. They want to be able to play pool and hear the jukebox. Even having a patio, you can’t achieve those goals,” he said.
While restaurant owners might be able to make up the lost bar business in food sales, less than 1 percent of The Top Hat’s income comes from food, Cross said.
An injunction filed to stop the ban from taking effect failed Friday when a federal judge said a coalition of bar owners and others failed to prove their position.
Jim Von Feldt, owner of Billy’s Inn in Denver and founder and president of the coalition, said the money he will lose because of the ban will push him over the edge.
He’s selling out.
While some studies show that large-scale bans do not have long-reaching effects on bar business, his statistics show that smoking bans in New York and Florida have slashed bar revenues as much as 75 percent, he said.
“Nobody can sit there and tell me this is not going to affect business.”
The owner then invested in a very expensive liquor license to once again allow smoking and business started to boom again.
They then remodeled. The place is beautiful. 4 big ceiling air purifiers. Full menu. A beautiful glass enclosed non-smoking section. Sign on the entrance door "This is a smoking establishment. No one under 18 admitted without guardian."
It is a Sports Bar with the full computer golf game across the back wall; bunch of big TV's. Just beautiful.
But that still wasn't good enough for the state. A full no smoking ban went into effect a year ago January. I went once after the ban, was so miserable that I couldn't sit there like old times and enjoy the evening that I haven't put myself through that again.
And do you think the state will reimburse this business owner for spending his own money to be able to accommodate everyone? You can bet they will not.
To all you smokers who can still go into town or the city and go into a restaurant and/or bar or tavern.....order your meal and beverage and smoke, you better treasure every day that you can.
Maine went totally smoke free in 2003. That was my recreation: going out for meals a few times a month. It was wonderful. I didn't know how wonderful it was until we smokers in Maine lost that right.
So, take it from me! Enjoy the places that can continue to accommodate you and the ones who still have smoking sections!
I will be back in the morning to continue.
The do-gooders are only getting started. Even a mob boss gets sated occasionally. Dogooders are insatiable. This victory by the health-nazis is only a bare beginning.
As a non-smoker I defend your rights to smoke at restaurants, bars etc....if I dont like the smokey places I dont go there but would not deny others that right if they wish. The gestapo tyrants on the left would impose their solutions...or slap a punish tax on you. BEWARE THE SOCIALIST LEFTISTS who step on freedoms. Defeat them.
Thanks for the ping.
Sad thing is, I think these people enjoy taking things away from us.
What a bunch of losers. How dull their lives must be.
I choke on second hand smoke, so I don't go where the smokers gather.
Saves me a lot of money, avoiding the NV casino's!
But I still detest the anti-smoking Nazi's, they are the sort of imbeciles that want to ban my machine guns!
I defend everyone's right to smoke, please return the favor and support my right to own machine guns.
If your first reaction is "No", then you are getting the government you deserve for abandoning full and uncompromised adherence to our countries constitution and guiding principles!
Exactly.
We used to say cigs were just the beginning. Now, they're after soda, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and are even whining about starbucks. Some states have outlawed "junk food" in schools. Isn't that the parents job, to decide what their kids can eat? I thought it was. But, I guess nanny-state knows best.
There is no end in sight.
I'd bet decent money that the anti-smoking movement started by a transplanted Californian. The same thing happened in Nevada when the head of the anti-smoking jihad in Cali moved to Vegas (apparently, after she created her dream state back in Cali she still wasn't happy and had to come oppress more people in NV). The do-gooders (who don't want the Feds in their bedroom but do want them in your house if you smoke) just can't live unless they can force everybody else to believe what they believe.
Thanks for the ping!
I don't know about "just getting started." They started these bans in California and Maine in 2000 and 2003. Sickening.
But we all should keep in mind that once they are finished controlling and restricting smokers, they are going after the obese and foods in restaurants, etc.
The only ones that are standing up for their rights is the NRA and the Liquor Company's. I sure wish Big Tobacco had the b*alls that the NRA and the liquor company's have. If they did, smokers wouldn't be in this mess today.
As a non-smoker I defend your rights to smoke at restaurants, bars etc....if I dont like the smokey places I dont go there but would not deny others that right if they wish. The gestapo tyrants on the left would impose their solutions...or slap a punish tax on you. BEWARE THE SOCIALIST LEFTISTS who step on freedoms. Defeat them.
THANK you!!!! Actually, private businesses today have installed big smoke eaters. Unless you stop into Joe's little bar and grill on the corner, there really isn't any reason for a restaurant/bar/tavern to have "smokey rooms" anymore.
I choke on second hand smoke, so I don't go where the smokers gather.
Saves me a lot of money, avoiding the NV casino's!
Like I said:
Actually, private businesses today have installed big smoke eaters. Unless you stop into Joe's little bar and grill on the corner, there really isn't any reason for a restaurant/bar/tavern to have "smoky rooms" anymore.
Oh! When is it legal for a common citizen to own a machine gun or an uzzi? I don't know much about guns so I am curious. Can you legally obtain a permit for a machine gun? Saying that you are just a common folk like the rest of us???
I'd bet decent money that the anti-smoking movement started by a transplanted Californian. The same thing happened in Nevada when the head of the anti-smoking jihad in Cali moved to Vegas (apparently, after she created her dream state back in Cali she still wasn't happy and had to come oppress more people in NV). The do-gooders (who don't want the Feds in their bedroom but do want them in your house if you smoke) just can't live unless they can force everybody else to believe what they believe.
Actually, this is just the tip of the iceberg. When Big Tobacco fell to their knees in front of the Attorney Generals, the Tobacco Settlement was born.
From the MSA, state boards of health all across the United States jumped on the bandwagon and started creating these Partnerships for a Tobacco Free Everything. Which are being paid for by the taxes SMOKERS pay on cigarettes.
So, in all actuality, smokers themselves are paying for all the control, restrictions and bans by buying cigarettes and paying that tax.
Talk about "personal abuse!" Sickening isn't it?!
Let me know and good luck.
I have heard horror stories of how people book a smoking motel/hotel room, only to find out that there IS none left when you check in. And since it is the last minute, how can you find another motel/hotel? It's a nightmare. So, I sure hope all goes well for you. Just make sure you let them know that you are 'demanding' (in a nice way of course) a smoking room. 
“Truckers have told me that they’ll just drive on through to Wyoming.” he said.
Story available at http://66.218.69.11/search/cache?p=%2BWyoming+%2Bsmoking+%2Bban+%2B2006&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=moz2&x=wrt&u=billingsgazette.net/articles/2006/06/19/news/wyoming/50-ban.txt&w=wyoming+smoking+ban+2006&d=ezzB-TmtM_n8&icp=1&.intl=us
Published on Monday, June 19, 2006.
Last modified on 6/19/2006 at 1:00 am
Smoking ban petitioners organizing
By Gazette News Services
CHEYENNE -- As expected, liquor dealers and local private clubs have decided to undertake a petition drive to refer the city's just-approved smoking ban in most public places to voters.
"We're not organized as of right now," said Dan Hatanelas, general manager of a local liquor store and spokesman for the group leading the petition drive.
Organizers need to collect 2,676 signatures from registered voters in the city.
The law, which was approved by the Cheyenne City Council on Monday, is set to go into effect Aug. 15. If it is referred to a vote, the law will be suspended until the vote is held in November.
The ban prohibits smoking in almost all public places, including bars and private clubs.
City Councilman Don Pierson, the primary sponsor of the ban, said he welcomes the referendum.
"I look forward to the vote of the people, who I feel very strongly will support the ordinance," he said.
If they don't, Pierson said he can live with that.
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