Put out that butt

In the United States, an estimated 25 million men and 23 million women are smokers. Even though smoking has been linked to many diseases and types of cancers, it is still a common practice among restaurant patrons.

Ken Vance, Milledgeville City official and Georgia College & State University director of Public Safety, has proposed a plan to make restaurants in Milledgeville smoke-free.

“The plan will not only affect the downtown area restaurants, but it is city wide,” said Vance. “Right now, I am just testing the waters to see how people feel about the idea. To my knowledge, there are about 80 restaurants throughout the county.”

Vance knows that this is a very touchy subject for many smokers, as many of them are already angry about some of the non-smoking rules in effect now.

“We will hold several public hearings so that many people can voice their opinions about this subject,” said Vance. “We will be having a meeting sometime next week to decide when these forums will be held. Another thing that I am thinking of doing is putting something up in a restaurant where people can write their own opinions on the topic.”

Several establishments have already started non-smoking days; The Brick in downtown Milledgeville is one of them.

“The Brick started non-smoking Mondays just this Monday night. I talked to a class just the other night, and there were about 20 to 25 students in favor of the non-smoking policy,” said Vance. “I have had smokers tell me that they feel that it’s wrong to impose their smoke on people in bars.”

Vance said as an elected official, he feels it’s important he keeps on putting new ideas out there.

“It’s my job to see where these types of ideas go. So far it’s been about 20 to 1 in favor of the plan,” said Vance.

Restaurants in the downtown area cater to many different types of customers. They get college students and residents from the community, so the atmosphere in their establishments must be diverse. Most thought of Vance’s proposal as unnecessary.

“A large amount of our business comes from college students, and I don’t understand why there would be a rule put into effect that would inconvenience such a large part of our customer base,” said Carrie Hallman, general manager of Brewers Downtown Caf?. “There should be some kind of compromise. I think that the way that we handle smoking right now is working just fine. Having worked here for three years now I know what the atmosphere here is. There is such a large base of customers that smoke that it’s not right to inconvenience them. People come to restaurants for atmosphere. People should be able to go into a restaurant and have a cigarette if they want.”

Although the proposed rules about smoking will be administered all over the city, there will most likely be some arguments and compromises when it comes to nightlife.

“Something that I did notice though was that the students felt that if the restaurant was in a bar atmosphere, they wanted to be able to smoke,” said Vance. “That will most likely be the topic of argument.”

“We are absolutely against any non-smoking restaurant policy,” said Jimmy Holder, general manager of The Brick. “A lot of smokers tip better and spend more money. Before Vance started talking about this no smoking policy, we had already planned on implementing the no smoking Monday night program. This time next year we will have a non-smoking wing night added on to the restaurant. I think that a good solution to what Vance is proposing is to require that a certain percentage of your seating be non-smoking.”

Smokers bring a lot of money into restaurants as they try and find somewhere to socialize and relax. This new proposed plan could cause some businesses to lose money.

“Smokers are an important part of a bar and restaurants clientele, and this building is so well ventilated that we very rarely get complaints about smokers,” said Dave Danchak, general manager of Amici. “In this restaurant business, I want to be sure that all of my customers are happier when they leave than they were before they came in. Cut and dry we are in the business to make people happy, and I definitely feel that this plan wouldn’t do that.”

Although there are many aspects to this non-smoking policy up in the air, Vance plans to have something concrete in the near future.

“Right now I am just testing the waters to see how people feel about the idea,” Vance said. “I will try and get as many opinions as possible.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Oct 25 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry