Residents protest smoking ban, bars left empty

The smoking ban for Cabell County went into effect Tuesday and is generating a lot of talk around town. It is expected to affect the proposed budget.

"The reaction I have noticed is pretty equal," said Shannon Oakes, manager of Mac-Reedo's. "I have heard both sides. Some people feel their personal rights are being taken away and others are thrilled."

Over 50 bars came together and hired an attorney to file an injunction that put the ban on hold for a week. The injunction was lifted in the hearing by Circuit Court Judge Jane Hustead on Thursday. 

The Health Department gave the bars the weekend to notify customers and delivered letters to all the bars in the county informing the businesses that they are now a nonsmoking establishment, Oakes said.

"I think you will see a lot more people at home sitting on their patios this time of year, being able to light up, drink beer and not put their money back into the community, and it's just sad," she said.

One rule of the ban is if you are smoking outside, you must be 20 feet from the property, and a server or employee cannot be working in the area, Oakes said. 

"I think that we will be better off than some places just because we are able to have an outdoor area for smoking, and they can still sit and enjoy their cocktail or food with a cigarette," Oakes said. "But we're just more fortunate than other places in that matter."

The bars that will suffer the most are the ones with a large clientele of smokers and don't have anywhere for the customers to smoke, she said.

"On Fourth Avenue, people will have to go outside and across the street to smoke a cig to comply with the 20-foot regulation," Oakes said.

Although Mac-Reedo's isn't too worried about the ban having an affect on their business, other bars such as Maxie's Lounge, that depend on video lottery revenues, are not having the same luck.

"We are seeing an impact, and it is only the first day," said Chelsea Elmore, bartender at Maxie's Lounge. "All weekend it was dead."

Maxie's is usually full in the evenings, and the video lottery machines are usually all being used, Elmore said. There have only been a couple people in the place all day, and nobody was occupying the machines.

"In a lot of ways people are protesting, this is their form of protesting, and it stinks because they're protesting against the wrong people," Elmore said. "We don't want this. We absolutely don't want this.

"Basically our business is gone," Elmore said. "People are staying at home or going somewhere else. Whatever they are doing, they are not coming here."

The majority of the gamblers are chain-smokers and do not like to leave their machines, she said. Although smokers can go outside and reserve the chair for 10 minutes, they don't want to.

"Reserving chairs is not a problem because nobody is even coming in," Elmore said.

The city of Huntington is also being affected by the ban with the expected decrease in video lottery revenues, said Deron Runyon, director of finance. A council member asked the finance department at the budget session on Saturday if they had considered the effect it was going to have.

"I did a little research and looked at how Charleston and Kanawha County were effected when they implemented their smoking ban in July 2008," Runyon said. "It was pretty consistent that there was a 15 percent reduction in video lottery revenue."

In the proposed budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year the city has estimated $251,180 in video lottery revenues. If Cabell County and the city of Huntington have the same drop as Kanawha County, the city will have to cut around $40,000 from the budgeted revenues, Runyon said.

"Some might say that's money that will stay in the community and be spent other places, but I don't think that argument works that well in this situation," he said.

The city might also have to decrease the proposed liquor tax revenue for the budget but they are still looking into that, Runyon said. Currently it is estimated to bring in $498,000 in revenues.

Cigarette butt littering on the streets is a problem already, and it is just going to increase, Oakes said.

"There have been jokes of people gathering the butts and dumping them in the Health Department parking lot, but we would never do that," she said.

There has also been talk in both Maxie's and Mac-Reedo's of citizens getting together like the bar owners did to try to fight the ban and shooting down the Health Department levy that's going to be voted on in May in the primary election.

"A lot of people are talking about campaigning against the Health Department," Oakes said. "These are smokers and nonsmokers who think this is an infringement on people's personal rights."

Tess Moore can be contacted at moore231@marshall.edu.