Reno Update
Restaurant owner unsure how new smoking ban would affect her business
3/24/2006
?
Bonda Young, a co-owner of Great Basin Brewery in Sparks, isn’t sure whether a smoking ban would hurt or help business, but she’s thought about making the establishment nonsmoking.
?
Bonda Young, a co-owner of Great Basin Brewery in Sparks, isn’t sure whether a smoking ban would hurt or help business, but she’s thought about making the establishment nonsmoking.
“We have a pretty good ventilation system, and it doesn’t bother most people that are in here,” Young, a nonsmoker, said. “It bothers me because I have to go behind the bar and I’m always talking to our customers and I go home smelling like smoke.”
The smoking section includes the bar and four tables. No smoking signs outside are beside the doors.
“We may lose a few smokers but we may gain of whole bunch more other customers.” she said. “You don’t really know until you try.”
Young said she has also thought about allowing smoking after the kitchen has closed at night.
“We have a lot of bands that play in the evenings,” she said. “Once the dinner crowd is done, I wouldn’t mind it turning into a smoking place.”
Ed Fisher of Reno said he regularly takes his 4-year-old son to bars in Truckee to watch Philadelphia Eagles games because smoking is banned in California public places.
“He likes the Eagles,” Fisher said. “If I want to watch a three-hour game, I can’t take him to a bar with smoking.”
Fisher sat with friends Thursday in the nonsmoking section of Great Basin Brewery. He said he would frequent more non-smoking businesses but didn’t support banning cigarette smoke from all restaurants.
“I think they should have some kind of disclosure,” he said. “A sign on the window or when you walk in (that says whether smoking is allowed).”
Fisher said he would be surprised if Nevada voters passed any bans on smoking.
“I honestly think this state can’t handle it,” said Fisher, who moved to Nevada six years ago from California.
John Ryan, of San Marino, Calif. was smoking with friends at the Great Basin bar. He said he smokes only on vacation.
“I actually agree with not allowing smoking in restaurants and just in general,” Ryan said. “I just do it socially for fun.”
John Whitaker of Reno, a nonsmoker, said he’s never noticed cigarette smoke when he sits in nonsmoking areas.
He called the proposed ban “draconian” and said he might avoid going to places where smoking was banned because he doesn’t like government intrusion.
Dave Flohr of Ladoga, Ind., a former smoker who quit two years ago, was with Ryan and Whitaker.
“The reality is we are becoming a smoke-free society,” Flohr said. “However, the establishment should have that choice, and as you walk in, you should know if it’s (nonsmoking) or not.”
Nonsmoker Jesse Lindstrom of Lockwood sat with friends in the smoking section.
“People do what they have to do,” Lindstrom said. “It’s not that bad of a habit, so I don’t think we should legislate, period.”
Lindstrom, a member of the Nevada Air National Guard who returned from Iraq earlier this week, said he didn’t mind smoking in restaurants or bars.
“That’s what they have a no-smoking section for,” he said.
November measure would stop gamblers from smoking
Jan 10, 2006
This November, Nevadans will head to the polls, and will decide if smoking be allowed in public places.
The measure is named as Initiative Petition 1. If the measure passes it will make it illegal to light up in public places like restaurants and bars that serve food, but not in casino gaming areas. It would also make it illegal to smoke in grocery and convenience stores.
Those who own the slots fear that if customers can’t smoke they won’t play. Lobbyist Peter Kruger says, “A business should be able to succeed or fail based on what they choose as a management style as a business practice and so that’s why we are absolutely opposed to initiative petition one.”
The American Cancer Society thinks it’s a necessary move. Buffy Martin says “We know that 2nd hand smoke is not just a nuisance. That it is deadly to people and so we want to make measures like other states and other countries in our world have done to protect public health by limiting exposure to second hand smoke.”
?
?
?
