Judge upholds clean air ordinance

Delaware County residents will continue to smoke outside this winter following the decision to uphold the county's clean air ordinance.

A judge ruled on Dec. 21 to uphold a clean air ordinance that prohibits smoking in taverns, bars and fraternal organizations.

The suit was filed in July and is a continuation of a 2006 ordinance.

Tavern owners had testified in multiple hearings that their profits had dropped since the new ordinance went into effect in August.

Lewis Coulter, owner of the Red Dog Saloon and president of the Tavern Owner's Association, said his business has been losing $2,000 a week because of the ban. Delaware County Commissioner Don Dunnuck said that wasn't the case.

"The evidence submitted to trial indicated that the businesses are really not suffering as a result of the clean air ordinance," Dunnuck said.

He added that the reason these businesses are suffering is because of the economy.

Attorney Bruce Munson, who represented local tavern owners and fraternal organizations in the lawsuit and trial, recognized that there will be an immediate effect on taverns who have lost certain clientele due to the ban on smoking.

"Is it going to devastate our community? No," Munson said. "But it will hurt some folks in some segments of the community."

Munson said his clients will decide if they want to appeal soon. Coulter said if Indiana passes a statewide ban, the Tavern Owner's Association will file an appeal.

Brion Fickle, one of the owners of Fickle Peach, said the smoking ordinance has not affected his business because his clientele is less "blue collar" than other bars in Delaware County.

"It is what it is, and we abide by it," Fickle said. "If [the Tavern Owner's Association does] appeal it, we'll have to make a decision about whether to go back to being a smoking establishment or not. As it is, we're quite fine with it."

Although the ban has increased business at Savage's Alehouse, owner Joel Savage said he has mixed feelings about it because he feels like the ordinance forces him to run his business like a restaurant rather than a bar.

"When I went out to start my own business, I wanted to be a bar owner, not a restaurant owner," Savage said. "I don't like that I've been forced to adapt my dream to what the government thinks is best for everybody. I don't like having a third party tell me how to run my business."

Customers who wanted to try the food in his restaurant before the ordinance would not come in because of the smoking, Savage said.

He said that if there was no ordinance, he would still allow smoking in his business.

One reason the ordinance was adopted was to prevent workers in bars and taverns from being forced to breathe in secondhand smoke, Dunnuck said.

"Are we stupid people that we permit other people to spit poison in the air that we breathe?" Dunnuck said. "That's the bottom line question. At what point in our existence can we become intelligent and say that's not an acceptable practice?"

Savage said he has several employees who are nonsmokers and they like the smoking ordinance.

The ordinance was something that Rachel Buckman, coordinator for the Tobacco Free Coalition of Delaware County, said she had worked very hard toward.

"There was a lot of excitement [upon hearing the news]," Buckman said. "Just knowing that all the hard work that we had done had been fulfilled and we were protecting the public in Delaware County."

"I would prefer to see people remain allowed to vote with their feet," he said. "People who don't like cigarette smoke don't have to go in an establishment that permits smoking. That approach worked very well for an awful lot of years."

Fickle said he used to be a smoker but quit after the ordinance because of his health. He added that whether a bar was smoking or non smoking did not affect his decision to go into that bar.

"Anytime I went to Delaware County to go somewhere and to do something, I just assumed I couldn't smoke," he said.

In the United States, 40 states currently have some type of statewide smoking ban.

Both Dunnuck and Munson said they believe there will be more clean air ordinances passed in other states.

"We don't want to continue to be a part of the last 11 states that don't have a law," Buckman said. "It isn't a backwards step. This is a big, big jump forward."

Dunnuck said that the state of Indiana is considering passing a smoking ordinance before the Superbowl in 2012 because "it's creating an economic disadvantage."

"There were complaints in the past that people didn't like having to go to a bar for their team where people smoked," Dunnuck said. "There's a lot of people who will be discouraged from going out to dinner or going out to have a good time because of smoke-filled rooms."