Colebrook restaurant challenges smoking ban

The Union Leader ^ | November 2, 2002 | PAULA TRACY

[Max McGarrity]

A Coos County Superior Court judge is being asked to decide whether a town ordinance in Colebrook which bans smoking in restaurants is legal.

The Colebrook House restaurant on Main Street is challenging the ordinance, which went into effect June 12. It essentially bans smoking in restaurants within the town limits but allows for smoking in bar areas provided they are in separate rooms. The case is being watched in Keene where that city recently passed a similar ban.

At the annual Colebrook Town Meeting in March, voters passed an ordinance 71-45 to ban smoking. After seeking legal opinions and hearing from restaurant owners who said their businesses would suffer if people can’t smoke, selectmen decided to hold another vote.

The vote in May to uphold the ban was 262 to 106.

“The will of the people should prevail here,” said Town Manager Donna Caron yesterday, following a final hearing in the case Thursday at Coos County Superior Court in Lancaster.

But Teresa Olszower, owner of the Colebrook House, wonders where the town gets the authority, noting it issues no licenses or permits for her establishment and state government does not make smoking illegal.

“If the town can put together the people and go over the law of the state and put a new law in place, it is no good. Nobody is forced to go to the restaurant. It should be my decision, not the town’s,” she said. “I am just thinking the government regulations interfere too much with private people’s lives.”

Olszower has owned the Colebrook House for eight years. It is among eight or nine restaurants in the town that are affected by the ban.

Manchester attorney James Shirley argued that the restaurant owner’s rights were being trampled by the smoking ban, while Timothy Bates of Laconia represented the town.

Coos County Superior Court Judge Harold Perkins heard each side present arguments of law for about a half an hour and then gave each side two weeks to submit refuting arguments. Upon receipt, Perkins will then rule.

The City of Keene also passed a similar measure in March but has not been challenged. An article in the Oct. 9 issue of The News and Sentinel of Colebrook reported that restaurants have seen little increase or decrease in business that they can attribute to the ban.

At the Wilderness Restaurant, longtime waitress Julie Rainville said the ban has actually made the restaurant busier because they can now seat morning business in the bar, where smoking is allowed. “Actually, if you think about it, we’re busier because we can seat more people,” she told The Sentinel.

The move to make Colebrook restaurants smoke-free was initiated by the town’s health officer of six years, Dr. Robert Soucy, who said non-smokers are apt to drive 11 miles to Bessie’s Diner in Canaan, Vt., where smoking is banned.

“We’d like Coos County to send a message to Concord — we’d like to turn this into political action,” he said. Already in Coos County, the towns of Randolph and Columbia have passed smoke-free ordinances, even though there are no restaurants in those communities.

Larry Pryor, chairman of the board of selectmen said he expected a challenge. “As time went on, one of the reassuring things about having a second vote was to get a mandate and we definitely got it,” he said. “I welcome any judge to take on the voters of Colebrook.”

 

[Gabz]

Holey Guacamoley!!!!!!!!!

[Great Dane]

#3....... Darn good reading.