People Ban: WV Upshur County

Bar Owners Smokin’ Mad At Countywide Smoking Ban

March 19, 2007
J. Turchetta

In less than three months, all Upshur County bars and restaurants must be smoke free.?

BUCKHANNON- — Some bar owners in Upshur County are upset about a countywide ban on smoking recently passed by the Upshur-Buckhannon Health department.

Several bar owners said they will not comply with the ban when it goes into effect in a little less than three months. They say the ban violates their civil liberties.

Other restaurants say they don’t like the ban but will comply.

CJ Maggies restaurant and the Barnyard in downtown Buckhannon are both smoke free. The bar at CJ’s is not.

The concern with managers at CJ’s is that the smokers will go outside, smoking near the entrance and keeping other customers away.

At the Moose lodge, a private club, the manager said the ban needs to take into account places like his bar, that is for members only.

There are also some concerns over the details of the ban.

Rob Posey, the manager of the Moose Lodge, said he will also be contacting the American Civil Liberties U nion to see if the ban is a violation of civil liberties.

In the mean time, Posey said he will not comply with the ban.

In terms of enforcement for the ban, the county health officer cannot issue citations, but it can get help from the courts to help gain compliance.

Posey said he wants anyone concerned by the ban to put themselves on the agenda for next week’s County Commission meeting to voice their concerns.

---

Health Board Approves Smoking Ban
Businesses Have 90 Days To Comply

March 13, 2007
Story by Todd Faulkner

BUCKHANNON? — The Upshur-Buckhannon Board of Health has passed a county wide smoking ban. The board tabled the issue last year for further comment.

The ban now prohibits smoking in any public restaurant or bar. It passed Tuesday morning.

Health department members say it received comments for and against the ban.

Officials had planned to phase in the new ban over a one year period but Tuesday morning passed it immediately.

Local businesses have 90 days to comply.

---

Message: UPDATE: May 17, 2006
Upshur County, West Virginia

The Upshur County Health Dept.
has moved the day to vote on the SMOKING BAN from May 31 to May 30th…

AT THIS TIME WITHOUT ANY PUBLIC NOTIFICATIONS!!!

Upshur County
Health Department 15 North Locust Street Buckhannon, WV 26201
304-472-2810

---

4-17-06
BY BRIAN BERGSTROM/EDITOR

Opponents of a proposed health department ordinance that would ban smoking in bars met last Wednesday to voice their opinions about the measure and formulate a plan that they hope will cause the local board to defeat the policy when it comes up for a vote on May 31.

At times citing the West Virginia motto — Mountaineers are always free — while at others comparing the proposal to measures adopted in Nazi Germany, the themes prevailing at Wednesday’s meeting were personal liberty and industry overregulation.

Rob Posey, administrator of Moose Lodge, told the approximately 25 people gathered at his establishment that bars are already one of the most regulated industries in the state.

Citing the many agencies already involved in policing taverns, “We do not need any more regulations,” Posey said.

According to Posey, bars will likely lose patrons should the measure take effect, and any significant loss of customers could trickle down throughout the community. If places like the Moose are not able to stay open, Posey said all the different things they donate to — from Little League on up — will lose a valuable source of funding.

“If we’re not able to stay open, there’s going to be a lot of groups that won’t be able to do the things that we afford them,” Posey said.

The move is just the latest in a series of actions that have harmed local taverns, speakers said. They claim that overregulation by city and county government has taken a toll and suggested that the city police’s recent focus on DUI enforcement has scared patrons away.

“If the police worked as hard for the people as they did for getting grants, I think we’d be a lot better off,” Posey said.

“We’ve seen businesses leaving this county for years now, and most of it is because of overregulation,” added Jack Kapp, a citizen cornered about the smoking ban.

According to Posey, this isn’t the first time the world has seen a large-scale anti-tobacco movement.

“To me, this is a pretty fascist movement we’re looking at here,” Posey said. “Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking.”

Posey also touched on the millions of dollars West Virginia collects in tobacco taxes and from settlement payouts. According to Posey, the landslide of lawsuits had another important result.

“This movement is funded by the tobacco companies themselves,” Posey said. “We’re paying for it just by buying cigarettes. It’s a vicious cycle.”

But over and beyond the impact the measure would have on business, speakers also focused on the issue of personal liberty.
“The problem is the government intervention into something that’s on a small scale,” said Guy Howard, a citizen who said he attended the meeting because he is concerned about losing personal freedoms. “We do not need it. … People are losing their right of choice.”

“It comes down to courtesy,” Howard said. “It comes down to rights.”

“We are not totally against the smoking issue,” Posey added. “It’s all about the rights of the citizens as to what they want to do.”

Non-elected officials, he argued, should not be able to make such policies in the first place.

“We will not tolerate this,” Posey said. “We feel that bars are the last sanctuary for smokers. … If they take away smoking now, what will they take away next?”

Besides questioning the validity of the many studies on secondhand smoke, speakers also said people who don’t want to be around smokers have a simple choice — don’t go.
“We don’t have the right to go out and directly affect other people,” Kapp said. “But by going in [to a bar], you understand what you’re getting into.”

The public comment period on the proposal ended Friday, but those at the meeting are not going to let that stop them.
Among the options discussed to help battle the measure are a public information campaign that will involve weekly editorials to area newspapers and the formation of a lobbying group to help push the agenda of tavern owners at a local and state level.

Posey said that in the past, area bars were a significant factor in lobbying government.

“Back then, we were a pretty powerful force,” he said. “I believe we can be a powerful force again.

“The more [people] we can get on board with this, the more the health department will maybe listen to us,” Posey added.

3/31/2006
J. Turchetta

Times may be changing for people who stop by the neighborhood bar for a drink and a smoke in Upshur County.

Some proposed changes to Upshur County’s indoor smoking regulations could put an end to smoking in restaurants and bars.

The county has had an indoor air regulation since the early 1990s, but now it wants to close the loopholes in that regulation.

The proposal is already out for public comment in Upshur County.

If the proposal passes, it would go into effect for all restaurants and bars on January 1st 2008.

That will give the health department time to educate the businesses and the public about the restrictions.

The Harrison County Health Department is considering a similar measure.

The board of health there has tabled the issue and there’s no word on when a decision will be made.