Tobacco.org

Bar owner's hearing delayed  

A judge on Tuesday put off a contempt-of-court hearing for tavern owner Frank Schnarrs until June 9 to give Thurston County more time to gather evidence that he has violated the state's 21/2-year-old indoor-smoking ban.

Schnarrs, the owner of Frankie's Sports Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue Southeast in Olympia, started a members-only club in his second-floor smoking room last week to try to show that he is in compliance with a provision in the state law that exempts a "private workplace within a public place."

But Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks, the sixth judge since April 2006 to be assigned in the case, said Tuesday that the county will have to be allowed into the private club to decide whether it meets the exemption requirements.

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