Smoking issue lights up restaurant owners' opinions

To smoke or not to smoke? The Springfield-Greene County Health Department is asking Springfield City Council members to decide, while some restaurant owners say their customers should make the call.

Since the Health Department released a survey of Springfield restaurants earlier this month leading to the drafting of an ordinance banning smoking in public restaurants public opinion and the rights of private businesses have taken center stage. The health department has longed to see all Springfield restaurants go smoke-free, as it would be best for the overall health of the community, officials there say.

"We have been working for this ordinance for several years," said Kevin Gipson, assistant health director and author of the ordinance.

And during that time many eating establishments have eliminated smoking inside their doors, he said.

According to the Health Department's survey of 438 Springfield dining establishments, 61 percent of restaurants are smoke-free and a large majority converted in the last five years.

Still, 168 city restaurants allow smoking; and a few owners and managers of those feel it's not up to city government to make a private business' decision.

"We're not very pleased with the idea at all," said Debbie Roemer, manager of Harlow's, a popular place for hot wings and beer. "We don't think that the city government should be allowed to make a decision on an individual's private business to tell them what has to be done."

The ordinance, which is under review by Springfield City Council's Plans and Policies Committee, would eliminate smoking in all public restaurants except those with liquor sales totaling 60 percent of annual gross receipts.

Restaurants are also exempt if they: offer an enclosed, independently ventilated smoking area that is shielded from the kitchen and dining areas; have outdoor or sidewalk seating; or are private clubs or dining facilities.

For liquor-licensed restaurants that receive less than 60 percent of annual sales from alcohol the ordinance may cost them business.

Lance Reeves' Ebbets Field brings in less than 40 percent of sales from alcohol, which means Reeves would have to cut off smoking at the East Walnut Street sports pub and grill or make some major adjustments to the operation. He is not sure what he'll do if the ordinance passes.

"I don't know what it will do to my business," Reeves said. "Maybe it will increase my business, but my gut feeling is that it won't."

In his two years of ownership at Ebbets Field, Reeves recalls only three complaints due to smoky air.

"Right now the system is working," he said. "I am not a smoker but I feel it is anybody's right to smoke in a restaurant or bar."

The proposal threatens small diners such as Pappy's Place, said Debbie Keese, owner of Pappy's with her husband Scott for the last six years. The diner has been in business at 943 N. Main Ave. since the 1920s.

"I think it's really anti-business," Keese said of the proposed smoking ban. "It could hurt a lot of the mom and pops, the small-business owners here in town."

According to Jon Eckhardt of the engineering firm Malone Finkle Eckhardt & Collins Inc., restaurant owners should expect to pay between $2 per square foot and $8 per square foot for a separate ventilation system and installation.

Small-business owners interviewed say they aren't prepared to pay that amount, and Keese said it would not be possible to separate her 26-seat diner.

Bijan's owner Mike Jalili would favor the change because of the greater volume of business it could generate at his upscale downtown restaurant.

"Business-wise, it will be great for us because it will create more nonsmoking tables downstairs," he said.

Bijan's has a second-floor martini bar that would become the designated smoking area, he said.

Jalili, a nonsmoker, has a different perspective when he removes his business owner hat.

"Personally, I don't think that Springfield or Missouri is quite ready to go nonsmoking in their restaurants," he said.

Reeves agrees and said that six out of 10 smoke-free establishments present enough options for the public. "That is more than enough possibilities for nonsmoking people to go eat," he said.

One way out for restaurant owners is to go private, but the specifics of how to go about it are unclear.

Springfield city attorney Howard Wright said there are no specific guidelines from the city.

"They'd have to restrict their business to members only and limit the right of the public to be in the facility," he said, much like a country club does.

"My first thought to that is you sell a membership at the door for a quarter," Reeves said.

The next step for the city is another council subcommittee meeting this week. If the subcommittee sends it to council, according to Public Information Officer Louise Whall, the ordinance could appear on the March 24 agenda as a public hearing bill. The earliest vote would come April 7, she said.