Take your butts outside

Reaction on Front Street to the arrival of smokefree bars is mixed, and frequently impassioned.

"It sucks," said Marie Peterson, a bartender in the Montana Bar.

"It's been just fine," said Teddi English in Alley's Palace. She is the daughter of the owner, Pam Alley, and the granddaughter of the founder, Ted Alley.

"It sucks," stated the bartender in the Stockman, Todd Twitchell.

The exemption granted to bars under the 2005 Montana Clean Indoor Air Act has finally expired. Oct. 1 was the day that required all enclosed public places and workplaces in Montana to be smokefree. Restaurants, stores, offices, buses, schools and government buildings have already come under the rule. Bars were the last public places left for smoking.

Last Thursday the ashtrays were removed and no-smoking signs went up. The patrons had all been discussing the rule anyway so they were well aware. They have to take it outside to light up. But they don't have to like it. Preventing cancer and heart attacks and saving money are not topics of discussion. Individual rights are.

At Alley's Palace, there was room in the vacant lot alongside the building to build what they plainly call a Butt Hutt for their smokers. They re-opened an old outside door and constructed a 12 by 12-foot room with a big opening for outside air, as required. So far, it's still just particle board walls, one standing ashtray and a green plastic booth seat, but it's early days yet. It was just constructed last week. They plan to have benches and outdoor ashtrays.

Teddi English said they have had to remind some people to go out there for their smoke.

"They had to get used to it," she said. "Business has been the same, if not better."

English said people take a break, leave their drink on the bar, go have a cigarette and mingle.

"They like that, mingling," she said.

One man smoking in the hut Friday said darkly that it's "incrementalism."
"They're taking away our rights," he said.

English said it was nice to get the bar clean. A lot of places are repainting now, she said.

Building something that met regulations was a challenge, because no one really knows what they are. There is confusion about a door directly into the bar from the smoke shack, about the requirement for outside air, and about any distance requirement from the building the bar is in. English said she called everyone from the county sanitarian, Cam Shipp, to the local investigator for the state Gambling Control Division, Bob West.

"They have as little information as I do," she said. "The Clean Air Act lady said not to spend a lot of money - the rules may change in a year. I did my best to comply with the law."

Paul Monson's Montana Bar, just a couple of doors away, is in the middle of the block. There is no place to build a smoke shack, so his smoking customers have to go out the front door to the sidewalk or out back to the alley. And just about all of his customers are smokers.

"I have a lot of smoking customers," Monson said. "They're not happy about it. It's affected my business quite a bit. I've lost a few poker machine players too."

He said the customers who sit in "Cadillac Corner," the ones who used to come in and visit all night, who smoked, drank and spent a bunch of money, can't do that any more.

"They have one beer and leave. They're going to go home."

Monson said he has talked the situation over with a poker machine vendor and the word is that the smoking ban will hurt gambling and bar income by 20 to 25 percent. He has been in the tavern business for 30 years, and was a beer distributor for 25 years, so he feels he has a lot of knowledge about the bar and tavern industry.

He predicts that the smoking ban will hurt the state of Montana by causing a big drop in gambling and liquor revenues.

"They'll see it next quarter," he said. "If Montana loses 15 percent of its gambling revenue, it's going to be in the millions. People are going to the Indian casinos. You can smoke there. People in Billings can jump on the plane to Las Vegas. Gamblers are nervous. They like to smoke.

"It's unfair. I hate to have a really respectable person watching the ball game and I tell him he has to go sit in a tool shed. The laws are closing in on everybody. Next thing they'll come down on is loud music - rock bands. What would you do if they said rock bands in bars have to turn their music down? They're taking a lot of rights away slow but sure."

Marie Peterson, who was passing by, added her opinion.

"Non-smoking sucks," she said firmly. "It's no good. I've been a bartender for 27 years. I never smoked but it's no good."

"They say it's good for people's health," Monson said.

"What health?" Peterson shot back. "I haven't had anybody in here who doesn't smoke. Maybe two people."

The consensus was pretty much the same over at the Stockman.
"When I drink, I like to smoke," said a woman.

"I think it's a very biased law myself," said Rocky Christinson. "If you want a smoking bar, you should be able to go. It's a one-way opinionated deal. The Montana Tavern Association should have lobbied more. It's another one of our freedoms they're taking away."

"I like it," said a woman a couple of stools down at the bar. "The air is nice in here."

Jay Long was philosophical about the whole thing.

"I think it's just all right," he said peacefully, "till it gets 40 below. For the people who work in here, it's not bad. Everybody's adapting all right. Change is tough. That's the way the world is."

David Lee said he hasn't smoked in 15 years and he is OK with the ban. He doesn't have to wash his clothes every night when he gets home.

His wife, Carol, doesn't smoke either, but she doesn't care if other people do.
"I'm here to socialize and be with my friends," she said. "My opinion is children under 18 aren't supposed to be in a bar anyway. If someone doesn't want to be around smoking, why should they come in? Give smokers their smoker's rights besides in their own home."

"I lost the happy hour crowd," said bartender Todd Twitchell. "Some customers don't come in any more. I'm a 'bar' bar. Other places are bar-restaurants. It's killing me."

He said his customers can take drinks outside when they smoke because they have a patio license, but when it's cold outside they will be in trouble. A couple of his customers are stubborn people; they will drink at home where they can smoke. He knows one guy who is remodeling his basement into a home version of a bar with a pool table and everything.

He said we need to have a referendum and have smoking bars. The Hangar and the Cottonwood were non-smoking before, so people could go there if they wanted to.

"What is the state of Montana going to do with the revenue loss?" he asked. "There is going to be a loss of jobs when bars shut down."

Cam Shipp, the Valley County sanitarian, represents the state of Montana when it comes to enforcing the new ban. He said his enforcement will be based on complaints, and he will take action if he sees something during regular sanitation inspections. So far, he has received no complaints.
Only one or two bar owners have contacted him about smoke shack regulations and what he calls the law's "funky definitions." Each owner has a thought on how to manage smoking. Each county could have a minimum setback or distance away from the building to smoke, but Valley County has none.

"It's going to be interesting," Shipp said. "This is the first time the state has implemented something this big statewide. There will be all sorts of things tried where they can smoke. Will there ever be a smoking room inside? I don't know. Right now the enclosed room definition doesn't allow smoking inside. It requires outside air.

"I feel the majority of establishments will be in compliance."