Grand Forks Update
SMOKING BAN: Some businesses hurt
It’s been a year since the Grand Forks smoke ban passed, and local businesses that were expecting a negative impact on revenue say numbers have gone down because if it.
The smoking ban, a less stringent version of a similar state law, says enclosed areas of most public places and places of employment must be smoke-free. Exceptions to the rule are hotels, bars, and bars attached to bowling alleys.
Bingo Palace in Grand Forks, for instance, has experienced a 95 percent decrease in net income since the smoke ban was adopted last Aug. 1, said Ron Gibbens, president of the North Dakota Association for the Disabled.
NDAD a nonprofit organization for people with disabilities owns Bingo Palace and two other bingo halls, one each in Minot and Williston, N.D.
The Minot parlor, where there’s a smoking ban, is down 48 percent. The income difference between the two bingo halls is mainly based on Grand Forks’ proximity to smoke-friendly establishments in East Grand Forks, Gibbens said.
NDAD is responding to the decrease in revenue by cutting down programs and trimming down operating expenses, he said.
Gibbens said he’s lobbying legislators for a tax break to counteract the loss of income.
He said he’s heard of a movement to introduce a statewide version of the smoking ban in the 2007 legislative session that would include bars in the list of smoke-free places.
The movement found renewed energy in a report from the U.S. Surgeon General issued in June stating the dangers of secondhand smoke and confirming there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Sen. Ralph Kilzer, R-Bismarck, main sponsor of the state’s anti-smoking bill in 2005, said anti-smoking groups have discussed a bill to include bars, but he does not know if one will be introduced.
Josh Gilleland, owner of Gilly’s Bar and Grill in downtown Grand Forks, says the smoking has had a positive impact on his business because it draws clients out of nonsmoking restaurants and into his establishment, which serves alcohol and starting next week will feature a complete lunch menu and gambling tables.
“You’ve got restaurants that are doing a phenomenal amount of business in the bar end of it, so it helps us level the playing field,” he said.
Gilleland, who owned a bar in Fargo and has been in the industry for nine years, said he’s also learned of a statewide movement of organizations that want to get a complete smoking ban. He says such measure would work only if it’s implemented in Minnesota and North Dakota.
“Unless they do it mutually with their neighboring states, it’s definitely going to be a detriment to border cities such as Grand Forks and Fargo,” Gilleland said.
He said when the 2 a.m. bar closing law went into effect in Minnesota, it adversely affected bars in the Fargo side of the state border.
“I have friends that own bars that went down 60 percent in sales because of it,” Gilleland said. “I think that you’d find the same type of thing happening if it doesn’t happen equally across the border.”
Jeannie’s Restaurant, a 24-hour family restaurant on South Washington Street, gained a few new customers after it became a smoke-free restaurant, but sales have decreased considerably because of the ban, said Manager Kris Nelson.
“It’s hurt us big time,” she said. “Especially in the 2 to 10 p.m. shift.”
Nelson says she tells her customers to feel free to go smoke outside the restaurant’s main entrance, where they’ll find a park bench and an oversized ash tray.
“This is a family restaurant,” she said. “We’ll hold the table for them.”
Originally written By Elisa L. Rineheart
