City ban on smoking likely dead

Last modified: Friday, September 26, 2008 9:05 PM CDT

City ban on smoking likely dead

A ban on workplace smoking in Chippewa Falls has been forcefully snuffed out.

As it did in June, the city’s Transportation Committee on Wednesday voted to wait until the state first takes action on a ban.

But this time it appears there is a majority of the seven member City Council that opposes a ban.

On Wednesday, all three committee members, Susan Zukowski, Jack Covill and Brian Flynn, voted to wait for state action. They agreed a local smoking ban would cause economic hardship to city businesses at a time the economy is struggling.

“Every bar owner in Chippewa looks at this as an attack on their business,” Covill said.

The committee members would likely be joined by another council member, Jason Anderson.

That’s important, because in June on a 4-3 vote the council rejected the committee’s first recommendation to wait for state action. But voting in the majority then was Greg Hoffman, a council member who was later appointed mayor when Dan Hedrington resigned.

Zukowski was appointed by the council to take Hoffman’s 7th Ward council seat.

Anderson, who is not a member of the committee, said if a local ban was approved, smokers would go to bars in neighboring areas without a ban.

“I don’t know if banning it in a local municipality as small as ours will be of any significance health-wise,” Anderson said.

Flynn said everyone agrees that smoking is bad for people, but added, “To me, there needs to be a uniform law.”

The city of Eau Claire began a workplace smoking ban, which includes taverns, on July 1.

Covill said he contacted the Eau Claire Tavern League, which had polled 48 restaurants and taverns over the effect of the smoking ban. According to Covill, they reported an average loss of 30 to 45 percent of business.

One tavern owner looking to retire had thought he would sell his property for $500,000.

“Now he doesn’t think he’ll get more than $100,000,” he said.

Zukowski suggested a possibility would be for the city to hold a referendum on the smoking issue during the November election. Anderson said there would be a cost with a referendum, and that public officials are elected to make decisions.

Anderson read an email from council member Robert Hoekstra, who was unable to attend the meeting. Hoekstra said the public should have been given an advanced notice of the committee’s smoking ban discussion, and that health care professionals should have been part of that discussion.

Hoekstra, a former member of the committee, in June voted against waiting for state to take action on a ban.

The committee’s recommendation will go before the council for a vote Tuesday, Oct. 7.

In other action, the committee voted 3-0 to allow Cathy Coyle to go through the city’s permit process if she wants to continue to sell plants on curb of the boulevard of her residence at 45 E. Birch St.