Bar owners cited for smoking
Smoking ban causes some people to visit bars outside Columbia.
Published Feb. 9, 2007
Columbia resident Brandon Carter had been to The Upper Deck, a bar just outside Columbia, only a few times before this year. But after the smoking ban took effect Jan. 9, The Upper Deck is the only place he goes.
"Since we can't smoke, we don't go (to bars in Columbia) anymore," Carter said. "The ban is a violation of our personal rights."
Two Columbia bars, Cody's and The Tiger Club, have had a series of complaints about smoking in their bars filed against them.
Tiger Club owner Betty Hamilton, who was unavailable for comment, is heading a petition to repeal the Columbia smoking ban with cooperation from other bar owners who feel their business has been hurt by the ban, including Cody's owner Becky Reynolds.
"For hundreds of years, people have gone to bars to smoke because when you're socializing, you want a cigarette," Reynolds said. "My loyal customers are tickled to death that I'm trying to help them out (with the petition). They feel their civil rights to do what they want have been violated."
Reynolds said the ban affects her business every night. Her happy hour has about one-fourth the customers it used to have because people can just stop by a liquor store and go to someone's house where they can drink and smoke, she said. To make matters worse, she now has to deal with the city of Columbia because some customers still insist on smoking in Cody's.
"I'm hoping (the city's health inspectors) back off and give us some time to take care of things," Reynolds said. "It's not much time when you consider 90 percent of my clientele are smokers."
The bar was sparsely populated Wednesday night because many people are now going to The Upper Deck, she said.
The Upper Deck is about two minutes outside the Columbia city limits, so it is not affected by the ban. Carter, now a regular patron there, said the number of people who go there is increasing. At some points, the bar has even been filled to capacity.
The Columbia/Boone County Department of Health is in charge of enforcing the city's smoking ban. Cody's and The Tiger Club are the first businesses in which the police have had to be contacted to enforce the ban, said Environmental Health Manager Gerry Worley. The health department received three or four complaints about the two bars and sent a representative to speak with them. When that did not prove effective, the health department sent a letter to the businesses. As a last resort, the health department can contact the police so the police can issue a citation.
The language of the Columbia anti-smoking ordinance states, "Any person violating, neglecting, or refusing to comply with any provision of this article shall be guilty of an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than two hundred dollars ($200.00)."
Reynolds has been contacted by the police but has not yet received a summons. She said she was under the impression only individuals could be fined for not following the ordinance, and she said some customers need her to "baby-sit them" to make sure they don't smoke.
"They put enforcement on us," she said. "I shouldn't have to hire extra staff to go around and tell people not to smoke. I'm being persecuted because I'm vocally against the ban. Every bar has people who smoke."
Public Health Planner Linda Cooperstock said Cody's and the Tiger Club have been singled out because they have had the most complaints issued against them.
"They were complained about the most," she said. "It doesn't have anything to do with what they're doing around town."
Although Reynolds said he thinks repealing the smoking ban would help her business, and she will continue working to get it repealed, she said she will follow the ordinance as best she can while it is in effect.
"We're doing our best to keep people from smoking here short of throwing money out the door," she said.
