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Middleton smoking ban OK'd, will start next March
MIDDLETON -- Middleton is going smoke-free.
Before a packed audience, the Middleton City Council voted 6-2 Tuesday night to ban all indoor public smoking beginning March 15, 2009.
Alds. Jon DiPiazza and Hans Hilbert dissented.
The move extends the city's ban on smoking in restaurants, in place since 1996, to include all workplaces, taverns and public buildings.
A public building is defined as everything from apartment building lobbies and common hallways to nursing homes to private residences being used for child care, adult day care or health care. Outdoor theaters and sports arena seating are also considered public spaces and fall under the ban.
Smoking-designated hotel rooms and retail tobacco stores are excluded.
Hilbert tried to get taverns excluded, but could not muster the needed votes.
The date was a compromise, allowing six additional months from an originally proposed September 2008 start. Additionally, an earlier proposal that prohibited smoking within 20 feet of any building entrance was changed to 15 feet from a primary entrance and three feet from a secondary entrance.
James "Moose" Werner, co-owner of Club Tavern, 1915 Branch St., said after the meeting that huge challenges lie ahead for him.
Up to 70 percent of his customers are smokers, Werner estimated.
"We need to sit down and come up with a new business plan. My business just changed," Werner said. "I just told 60 to 70 percent of my customers to go home, we don't want you."
Whether he has a future remains to be seen, Werner said.
"The good business owners will survive," Werner said. "I'll find out if I'm a good one."
Ron Biendseil, a member of the citizens group Smoke Free Middleton, said he was "very happy" with the vote and with the public turnout for an hour-long hearing that preceded it.
About 70 people filled the audience. Of those, 39 either spoke or registered in favor for the ban. Ten either spoke or registered in opposition.
Biendseil further handed the council a petition with 450 signatures in support of the ban and said a recent phone survey found about 1,000 people were in favor of it.
"What we saw tonight was representative democracy at its finest," Biendseil said.
In addition to local business owners, anti-smoking advocates and citizens, the meeting drew a host of state-level advocates including Barb Mercer, president of the Tavern League of Wisconsin; Dr. Neil Jain, chairman of the Wisconsin Asthma Coalition; and Donna Wininsky, president-elect of Smoke Free Wisconsin.
Gary Paulson, president of the Tobacco Free Dane County Coalition, and Dick Lyshek, president of the Dane County Tavern League, also spoke.
Lyshek, who owns both the Bristled Boar Saloon & Grill at 2611 Branch St. in Middleton and Bull Feathers bar in downtown Madison, said there's a "50-50 chance that this ordinance will bankrupt my business."
Bull Feathers, he said, has been devastated by Madison's smoking ban.
In a lengthy written statement, Hilbert argued that while ban proponents say they seek to protect the health of employees exposed to tobacco smoke, not one local bartender has asked for the change.
In fact, Hilbert said, it's not the bartenders, but other city residents and non-city residents, who want the city to use its police powers to control the behavior of adults engaging in a legal activity. Businesses should be allowed to decide on their own whether to prohibit smoking, Hilbert said.
But Ald. James Wexler called the council's action a "logical extension" of the city's existing ban on smoking in restaurants.
And Wexler said it is part of a greater trend.
"Other communities in Dane County are doing this. We are not the first," Wexler said.
Last month, Monona passed a public and workplace smoking ban that will go into effect June 1, 2009. Others across the state have taken similar blanket action to ban all public smoking, include Appleton, Eau Claire, Fitchburg, Madison, Marshfield, Shorewood Hills and Shorewood. Several dozen other Wisconsin communities have less broad bans, with exceptions such as allowing smoking in taverns.
Additionally, a proposal to ban public smoking in Dane County towns is now pending before the Dane County Board.
File photo
Indoor public smoking is on the way out in Middleton.
