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Last night, the Tavern Association was lobbying commissioners to change the City Ordinance banning smoking within 20 feet of a building.
While some local bars and restaurants say they're hurting from the city ordinance, City Attorney Chad Parker thinks health trumps those concerns.
“The intent and purpose of this is to protect the publics right to not breathe smoke filled air. And so what do you do with that? Is there a right to smoke - no. There's no recognized right to smoke. There's a desire to smoke - we understand that. We also understand there's an addiction,” Parker said.
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Smoking in Montana's bars, casinos and restaurants was forbidden Oct. 1, but some Great Falls residents are complaining the prohibition isn't being enforced.
That's prompted the Great Falls City Commission at a meeting Tuesday to again take up an issue many had thought resolved last month.
A statewide ban on smoking in bars that went into effect Oct. 1 has created complications for bar owners and customers, City Manager Greg Doyon said last week.
He told city commissioners that the ban has prompted complaints from some residents that it is not being strictly enforced.
He said the Cascade County Tavern Association has its own concerns about the ban. Several taverns have built outbuildings or patios away from their buildings to try to provide customers with a place to puff.
City commissioners will discuss issues surrounding the ban, and hear from association executive John Hayes in a work session at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Gibson Room of the Civic Center, second floor, 2 Park Drive S.
Six weeks into the state wide smoking ban and the effectiveness of the newly implemented law is yet to be determined. As the cold months of winter approach, questions of enforcement, public reaction and the displaced smokers that have taken up shop outside of bars have created a quagmire that have many wondering whether this law can work on a state-wide level. Others, both smokers and nonsmokers, have welcomed the ban, for health and personal reasons.
One of the more striking changes after Oct. 1 was the increase in groups smokers standing along Main Street. In the first few weeks after implementation, Polson Police Chief Doug Chase received complaints from town citizens about being harassed by smokers standing outside of bars.
"We've stepped up patrol because there have been complaints of disorderly conduct by unwanted or unappreciated comments, but it has settled down the last couple weeks," Chase said.
The University of Montana is poised to join a growing roster of colleges nationwide banning tobacco on campus.
The ban is set to go into effect in the fall of 2011, and would be the second campuswide smoking ban in Montana - as Montana Tech in Butte is going tobacco-free in 2010.
Montana State University has proposed a similar ban.
Across the country, more and more colleges are banning not just smoking, but the use of all tobacco products anywhere on campus. There are now 172 tobacco-free campuses nationwide, and another 322 smoke-free campuses.
UM and other Montana campuses currently have a 25-foot smoking perimeter around building entrances. But a study by the UM Tobacco Task Force found that nearly two-thirds of smokers were violating that regulation.
The University of Montana is proposing a campus-wide ban on all forms of tobacco, though students and staff would have nearly two years to quit before it's enforced.
The Associated Students of the University of Montana Senate endorsed the ban and President George Dennison recently sent an e-mail informing faculty, staff and students of the proposal.
Over the next year, the university will gather comments and hold public meetings and smoking cessation programs. The ban would take effect in the fall of 2011.
The University of Montana and other Montana campuses already have a 25-foot nonsmoking perimeter around building entrances, but a study by the UM Tobacco Task Force found that nearly two-thirds of smokers were violating that regulation.
Tobacco use on the University of Montana campus could be banned by the fall of 2011 under a proposal put forth by President George Dennison.
Dennison sent an email on October 19th informing faculty, staff and students of the proposal. The ASUM Senate, the student governing body, endorsed the ban last month.
The tobacco ban would include Washington-Grizzly Stadium, where smoking currently is allowed along perimeter fences. It would also include the UM Golf Course and all campus parking lots.
The policy would ban the use of all tobacco products, including Snus, chew, and snuff anywhere on land owned by or leased to UM.
The majority has imposed its will on the minority. Smoking is now illegal inside buildings open to the public.
It seems that some, however, feel it necessary to mislead us and expand the law beyond what it says and does. For example: a local mall has posted signs saying that "Smoking is prohibited here and around all entrances to comply with Montana's Clean Air Act." Montana does not have a Clean Air Act - it's limited to indoors (except on school property). The act does not prohibit smoking around entrances. This lie is perpetuated even by state agencies that promote ads praising The Montana Clean Air Act.
It's been about a month since the Montana Clear Indoor Act took effect in bars, casinos and restaurants across the Treasure State. According to a Billings gaming distributor, gambling revenues are down 16% to 18% across the state.
On October 1st, the Reno Club in Billings joined hundreds of others businesses in going smoke-free. Now that the smoke has cleared, businesses are taking a hard look at the bottom line.
"My gambling is down about 20% and that could be recession, it could be the weather, it could be just about anything," Reno Club owner John Blair said.
The ban on smoking in taverns and casinos seems to be going smoothly with little problems in the bars, tobacco prevention specialist Jay Schuschke said Monday. "I cover Hill and Blaine counties, and we have not had any complaints as of yet," he said.
RONAN - Enforcement of Montana's Clean Air Act appears to be a little hazy on Indian reservations.
Tribally owned casinos are exempt from the indoor-smoking ban, while some enrolled tribal members who own reservation bars and casinos aren't enforcing the ban.
In the meantime, Rick and Vicki Wheeler, who are not members of the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes, recently received their first letter of complaint from the Lake County Health Department for not enforcing the smoking ban at their Ronan business, The Club, which is within the Flathead Indian Reservation.
"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," said Rick Weaver, who has owned The Club for 20 years. "This bar is my retirement -- do they want to take that away from me, too? It's racial discrimination."
Diana Schwab, the tobacco prevention coordinator in Lake County, agrees the law raises different issues on the state's reservations.
SWAT teams will not descend on The Club, the Ronan bar whose owner told the Missoulian this week he is not, nor will he, enforce in his business the statewide ban on smoking in enclosed public places that was extended to bars on Oct. 1.
The ban, says Diana Schwab, Lake County tobacco prevention coordinator, is a complaint-driven law.
If people file complaints about The Club or any other business in Lake County regarding non-enforcement of the smoking ban, she will follow the steps outlined in state law, in which educational and warning letters are sent after the first two complaints, and fines of $100, $200 and $500 can be imposed on the third, fourth, fifth and subsequent complaints within a three-year period.
If no one gripes, nothing happens.
It was almost a month ago Montana went smoke free as on October 1st, smoking was no longer allowed in bars and casinos.
They were the last businesses in Montana to go smoke free after a law was enacted in 2005 and they spent months getting ready to go smoke-free.
Some businesses have seen their worst fears have come true. The bartender is still pouring drinks at 'That Bar' in Great Falls, but Kelly Dunn says there are few customers to serve."
"Normally by this time of day, I've got probably ten to 12 people lined up at this bar and right now as it stands I have two in here."
Customers aren't staying as long or drinking as much and Dunn added that the regulars would rather drink at home than deal with smoking in the cold."
"My biggest fear was losing a lot of our regular customers and by the looks of it that's happening...And it's sad because we had a lot of good times in this bar." . . .
But Brick Sports bartender Michelle Gravlin has a different story to tell. "It's gone fine. We haven't had any big changes."