Light up, or snuff out?

PALMER — Voters will have a chance Oct. 2 to overrule the city council when it comes to rules allowing smoking in bars.

“I think Palmer is kind of a leader in the Valley and I think this is an exciting thing to take us into the 21st century here,” said David Cheezem, owner of Fireside Books and head of the committee that successfully submitted a petition to place a smoking ban on the ballot.

“As a businessman myself, I’ve always felt that good business is healthy business and that’s what this is about, it’s about creating a level playing field for people who create a healthy environment for their employees and their customers, especially their employees who don’t have as much choice in the matter,” Cheezem said.

In October 2011, Palmer City Council took up the issue and declined, in a tight 4-3 decision, to force bars that still allow smoking to go smoke-free.

Some council members said the state should make the decision to go smoke free and thus avoid the situation where bars outside of the city that allow smoking have a competitive advantage over bars inside city limits.

“I do support a smoke-free environment,” councilman Brad Hanson said at the time. “I do also support a level playing field.”

Bar owners that allow smoking offered plenty of testimony as well. Some cited the competitive disadvantage.

Others cited a philosophical opposition to government imposing these kinds of regulations on business.

Mostly, though, they were worried about a drop in business. Some said they’d tried smoke-free nights and saw business plummet.

Cheezem said he believes evidence shows quite the opposite is true.

“Like in Anchorage, people fight it real hard, but then when it happens they see their business gets better because there are people coming out of the woodwork, customers they didn’t know they could have who show up because it’s a safe place to go,” Cheezem said.

Since the Palmer measure failed at the city council level, at least two more Valley watering holes have voluntarily opted to become smoke-free, including the Palmer Elk’s Lodge and Tailgater’s in Wasilla.

Cheezem said he thinks that’s just the way things are going in Alaska and nationwide.

“There’s a huge up-swelling for it and I think it’s OK that the city council didn’t pass it, but it’s good to let the people of Palmer have a chance to weigh in on it,” he said.

And, though those opposed to the change brought plenty of people to the city council meetings, so did those in favor of the move.

“I think this is going to win,” Cheezem said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.