Owensboro Update
Smoking Ban Passes in Owensboro
September 3, 2014
By Dave Spencer
Henceforth, if you’re in a public place like a park or an outdoor dining facility, you will no longer be able to smoke.
Big events like, say, the Barbecue Festival? Forget it. Don’t light up.
Because here’s what will happen if you do. You’ll get clicked for $100 on your first offense. Do it again within a year and it’ll be a $250 fine. That same amount will be applied to any subsequent offense within a year’s time.
Existing bars that have allowed smoking have been grandfathered in and will be allowed to let their customers continue to smoke. For any new bar that goes up, the ban will be in place.
Also, E-cigarettes will be allowed in public places. They are not covered under the ordinance.
Some Restaurant Owners Working Around Daviess Co. Smoking Ban
by: Lindsay Gantner?? January 8, 2006
OWENSBORO – The smoking ban in Daviess County, Kentucky has been in effect since Sunday, and some enterprising business owners are finding a way to still allow smoking in their restaurants. Now, a handful of restaurant owners are getting around the ban with a simple sign and self policing.
“I elected to go this way because I think it was best for our business and best for our customers,” says David Payne, owner of The 8 Ball.
Payne has run The 8 Ball for more than twenty years. He said since most of his customers are smokers, it wasn’t a hard decision to put up a sign, to keep minors out. Now, he says other customers are coming in.
“I’ve seen new faces. They’re looked for other places to go,” said Payne.
“You come back in a couple of weeks, this place is going to be packed full at noon,” said smoker Frank Hamilton, who told NEWS 25 he comes in to The 8 Ball at least once a day.
Customers told us they like being able to smoke here. Some said it will be tough for the restaurant to serve families.
“It just keeps the kids out of coming in and eating with the parents. I came in here the other day and a family came in with a little girl and she had to sit in the car and eat her hamburger,” said customer, and long time smoker, Charles Neal.
Other restaurant owners have the same idea. Creative Catering & Cafe is right across the street from Owensboro Medical Health System. Smoking’s not allowed at the hospital and Charlie Feldpausch said his cafe was a safe haven for smokers.
“If we’d not allowed smoking, we’d have had to show down because they are 99% of our business,” said Feldpausch.
Owensboro police and the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office told NEWS 25 there was one complaint about smoking in a restaurant called in this week. Police said as long as these restaurant owners commit to serving adults only, there is no violation of the ordinance.
“The law was written that if you put up a sign saying no one under 18 is allowed, then they’re allowed to smoke in that business,” said Officer Jeff Arntz of the Owensboro Police Department.
Arntz said there’s no violation for restaurant owners if minors come in to their shops but they’re told to leave. He said if the minors are served, that’s when there would be a violation.
Legal advice snuffs out smoking ban exemption
Dec. 30, 2005
Associated Press
OWENSBORO, Ky. – A proposal to exempt some businesses from the newly approved smoking ban in Daviess County has been snuffed out.
Instead, some businesses may get a tax break, Judge-Executive Reid Haire said Thursday.
Daviess County approved a smoking ban on Dec. 16, making it the fourth place in a state known for tobacco production to prohibit people from lighting up. The ban prohibits smoking in any public establishment that is open to children under the age of 18. It is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
Haire said he decided not to introduce a hardship exemption for some locally owned businesses after talking with the county attorney.
“Bob Kirtley has advised against that and given me an opinion that it conflicts from a legal standpoint … with the smoking ordinance we did pass,” Haire said.
Kirtley said Thursday that any exemption would undercut the reason the smoking ban was created in the first place.
“That would be the legal issue: You’re cutting out the whole premise for the ordinance,” he said.
Now Haire is considering a proposal that would exempt some restaurants from county net profits taxes. The tax exemption would allow people to recoup from a loss of revenue if business declines because of the smoking ban, Haire said.
The county has a net profits tax of 0.5 percent, but it is only applied to businesses outside the city limits of Owensboro.
Commissioner Bruce Kunze said he would be willing to consider offering the tax break.
“It would be more equitable than trying to single out some businesses” and not others, he said.
Lexington was the first city in Kentucky to ban smoking in most indoor public places, with the city council passing its ordinance in July 2003. Attorneys argued the issue before the Kentucky Supreme Court, and opponents flooded City Hall with complaints before the ban took effect in April 2004.
Since then, Georgetown and Louisville have passed smoking bans.
Smoking ban compromise right step for now
Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Nov. 4 – The compromise smoking ordinance hammered out by Daviess Fiscal Court is less than the comprehensive ban we and many others want. It also fails to pass the consistency test, if indeed exposure to secondhand smoke is a serious health issue for everyone.
We believe it is, and the statistics back us up; 53,000 deaths a year in the United States — with 3,000 of them from lung cancer — are blamed on secondhand smoke. Protecting some people from secondhand smoke but not others, which the Fiscal Court compromise will do, is the definition of inconsistent.
All that said, however, we accept Daviess County Judge-Executive Reid Haire’s proposal because, quite simply, political realities were converging to eliminate the possibility of a smoking ban at all, much less one that will prohibit smoking in hundreds of buildings open to the public.
Haire’s proposal, which has the backing of two other Fiscal Court members, bans smoking in public areas of all buildings in Owensboro and Daviess County that admit people under the age of 18. The exception would be bars, and smoking would also continue to be permitted at businesses that are not open to the public or in areas of otherwise public buildings that are closed to the public, such as backshops and work areas.
The proposal amounts to a leap for Haire, who previously supported a smoking ban for only restaurants. We would have rather seen Haire join with county commissioners Jim Lambert and Bruce Kunze in support of a comprehensive ban, but the compromise is a good start and sets this community on a track to join other progressive communities that have slammed the door completely shut on secondhand smoke in public buildings.
The Owensboro City Commission can slam that door for the great majority of local public buildings by passing a stronger ban. The Daviess Fiscal Court ordinance will be countywide, but we see no real reason why a stronger city ordinance shouldn’t be considered. We agree with Owensboro Mayor Tom Watson that one ordinance for the entire county is ideal. But if the desire is to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke as much as possible within the current political environs, a comprehensive ban in the city and a somewhat weaker ban outside the city limits may be the best we can hope for. If that transpires, it will open the door to the county to someday, perhaps soon, match the city’s ordinance.
Smoking in public buildings already is on the way out in Owensboro and Daviess County. Nearly 50 Daviess County restaurants already are smoke-free, and many public buildings of all kinds have chosen to eliminate smoking. This latest smoking ordinance compromise, shortcomings and all, will accelerate that process.
Owensboro headed towards smoking ban in public businesses
October 29, 2005
OWENSBORO, Ky. – Owensboro could have a ban on smoking in most public businesses by January under a compromise ordinance agreed to last week, county officials said.
The proposed ordinance would prohibit smoking in public buildings that are open to people under 18 years old and block smoking in most public places, with the exception of bars. It would not prohibit smoking at businesses that are not open to the public, such as factories and shops.
Daviess County Judge-Executive Reid Haire said the ban is consistent with laws that prohibit the sale of tobacco products to minors. Haire had previously supported a ban that would only cover restaurants.
“The segment of our society that does not have the ability to choose are those under the age of 18,” Haire said. The ordinance covers restaurants and “any place where the public is invited to enter,” he said.
Haire said business owners can decide for themselves whether to let employees smoke in work places. The proposed ordinance will be introduced by mid-November will cover the entire county, including the city of Owensboro, Haire said.
The ordinance came about after County Commissioners Bruce Kunze and Jim Lambert favored an ordinance banning smoking in all businesses and public buildings, while Commissioner Mike Riney opposed any proposed smoking ban.
Lambert said Friday he would support the new proposal.
“That’s not the kind of proposal we would prefer, but it’s a compromise the three of us could agree to,” Lambert said.
Riney said the county should not regulate smoking because that is the job of the federal government.
“I still have the same feeling I’ve always had — it’s just not something local government should be regulating,” Riney said.
Lexington became the first city in Kentucky to ban smoking in most indoor public places more than a year ago. Attorneys argued the issue before the Kentucky Supreme Court, and opponents flooded City Hall with complaints.
Since then, Georgetown and Louisville have passed smoking bans. Louisville’s ban is set to begin Nov. 15.
