Politics & Government

Public Vote on Countywide Smoking Ban Concerns Some Business Owners

County Executive Steve Ehlmann has until Wednesday to veto a bill that would put the matter on the November 2012 election ballot.

About eight men were lined up on barstools Wednesday at the Silver Moon Saloon at Harvester Road and Highway 94, just across from Shop ‘n Save.

Most were eating breakfast. A few had a beer or a margarita instead of juice and coffee. Half of them were smoking at any given time.

The Silver Moon owner, Vicki Musgrave, said about 80 percent of her customers smoke.

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Musgrave is afraid that the business she bought four and a half years ago will take a big hit if St. Charles County voters pass a countywide smoking ban.

A bill to put the countywide smoking ban on the November 2012 ballot is before St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann. He has until Monday to sign the bill or veto it.

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If he vetoes the bill, it’s unlikely the council will override his decision. That would take five votes. In its current form, the smoking has four supporters on the council. The bill includes an exemption for casinos as well as private clubs.

O'Fallon's citywide smoking ban, passed by voters in April, is effective June 16.

Musgrave agreed that banning smoking might make sense for family-oriented businesses, especially restaurants like Applebee's. But for smaller bars like hers, it could be the kiss of death.

“Most of these guys will probably just stay home if it passes,” Musgrave said. “Most of them live just up the street anyway.”

She said she has two problems with a smoking ban. First, it violates her rights to allow a legal activity in her own business.

“What’s next? Are they going to come tell me I can’t smoke in my own backyard?”

Secondly, the exemption for casinos is unfair to everyone else.

Council members who supported the bill were worried about the 1,600 jobs at Ameristar Casino, but didn’t seem to care about her business or her four employees' jobs. A friend who owns a bar in South County is surrounded by bars that received exemptions, and he is down $4,000 a week, she said.

“If Ameristar loses $8,000 a week, they won’t even notice,” Musgrave said. “But I don’t know any bar on (Highway) 94 that’s pushing $4,000 a week.”

“What happened to a level playing field?” Musgrave asked.

“Government is getting too far up my ass,” said Pat Fox, a Silver Moon Saloon regular and a smoker. “If you don’t want to be around the smoke, don’t come in. I know a lot of people who don’t come in because of the smoke, and that’s fine.”

Darry Breeze of St. Charles is not a smoker and said he wouldn't personally mind if smoking was banned across the board in St. Charles County.

But Breeze said he thinks business owners should have the ability to make their own decisions about what happens in their business without having the government intrude.

"It's not like there's only one restaurant in town," he said, adding that people can choose to stay away from restaurants that have smoking. It's a complicated issue, he added.

But smoking in restaurants is one reason Hannah Lee, 20, of O'Fallon, MO said she would most want a smoking ban. Even when she sits in the nonsmoking section at area restaurants, she said she leaves smelling like smoke anyway.

Lee said it should be up to residents to voice their opinion.

"I think they ought to let the people vote," she said. "But, we might not win. A lot of people in St. Charles County smoke."


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