?Fitchburg Update
Fitchburg City Council OKs Citywide Smoking Ban
Several Businesses To Get Exemption Until 2011
March 28, 2007
FITCHBURG, Wis. — Another Wisconsin city is going smoke-free.
The Fitchburg City Council has approved an ordinance banning smoking in indoor public places. It takes effect in April of next year.
Some businesses will be exempt until April 2011. This was the second time the city council had considered the smoking ban proposal.
Backers of the ban said that the proposal approved by the council was being called a “compromise” by aldermen, WISC-TV reported.
The ban gives an exemption for two small taverns in the city, Monkeyshines and Schneids, the smoking area in the Ten Pin Alley Bowling Center and the city’s one cigar bar until 2011.
Fitchburg Mayor Tom Clauder said that the ban is good public health policy.
The measure passed the council by a 7-1 margin. Alderman Jason Williams cast the only vote against the ordinance. He said that the ban isn’t a local issue and he supports a statewide smoking ban.
Fitchburg is the fourth Wisconsin city with such a smoking ban, WISC-TV reported.
Fitchburg smoking ban aired again
Council to vote tonight on ordinance
Council to vote tonight on ordinance
March 27, 2007
By Bill Novak
By Bill Novak
FITCHBURG – Anti-smoking advocates plan to pack City Hall tonight as the City Council votes on whether to make Fitchburg the fourth city in Wisconsin to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and other public places.
The current version of the “Smoke-Free Fitchburg” ordinance is a milder version of last July’s ordinance, voted down 5-2 by the council. Under the new plan, the smoking ban wouldn’t take effect until sometime in 2008, and three existing establishments, Ten Pin Alley bowling center, Monkeyshines tavern and Schneid’s Sports Bar & Grill, would be exempt from the ban until Jan. 1, 2011.
Hemingway’s cigar bar would also be exempt from the ban, which would allow cigarette, pipe and cigar smoking. Madison’s smoking ban exempts the Maduro cigar bar, but only allows cigars and pipes to be smoked, not cigarettes.
Mayor Tom Clauder said in an article in Isthmus three weeks ago that he supports the modified ordinance but would have vetoed the original one.
Ald. Steve Arnold, original sponsor of the anti-smoking ordinance, wasn’t thrilled with the new version, but said it’s the one most likely to get approved by the council.
“This (the milder smoking ban) is not what the people are asking for,” Arnold said. “There is no benefit until 2008, no immediate benefit to our citizens.”
Arnold and the anti-smoking group Smoke-Free Fitchburg got close to 800 signatures on a petition supporting a tougher ban with no exemptions and more immediate implementation.
Madison and Appleton are the only cities in Wisconsin with smoking bans in all public places, including taverns. Oshkosh has an ordinance that permits smoking in bars but not in restaurants.
Fitchburg City Administrator Tony Roach doesn’t have a vote in tonight’s council action, but he told The Capital Times there’s a “better than 50-50 chance” the ordinance will be approved tonight if it’s not drastically changed by amendments from alders.
The ordinance went before the city’s Community and Economic Development Committee last week but wasn’t voted on by the committee; the Public Safety and Human Services committee will take it up at 6:30 tonight before the full council considers the ordinance during its regular meeting at 7:30 in City Hall, 5520 Lacy Road.
“It’s going to be close,” Roach said. “There will probably be some technical changes, such as maybe extending the implementation date. The public will be involved in the debate, so I expect a long input session.”
Arnold said it wasn’t fair to the public to have exemptions to the ordinance, which would allow a small number of existing establishments continue to allow for smokers for another four years.
“The only reason I can see for bowling alleys and bars to be exempt for four years is so they can continue to make as much money as possible before they shut down,” Arnold said. “It’s not the ban that puts old traditional taverns out of business, it’s science and attitudes that are doing it. People don’t want to calculate where they can go to avoid tobacco smoke.”
If the smoking ban passes tonight with exemptions and a long lead-in to implementation, Arnold said it won’t be the end of it, not if Smoke-Free Fitchburg has any say.
“We’ll be back with new amendments later this spring if this weaker ordinance passes or if it doesn’t pass,” he said.
E-mail: bnovak@madison.com
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