Proposed ban ignites debate among local bar owners, residents

PALMER — A bid to make Palmer smoke-free could make it the first city in the Mat-Su Borough to ban smoking in public places.

The ordinance would prohibit smoking in all indoor work places and places of employment within city limits to reduce health risks from secondhand smoke inhaled by people who don’t smoke cigarettes.

Palmer City Council has scheduled a public hearing on the ordinance on Sept. 13. The ordinance was introduced at a packed city council meeting Tuesday night.

There are 10 smoke-free communities around Alaska, including Nome, Juneau and Anchorage, where numerous bars and restaurants fell under a 2007 law.

But in Palmer, just four businesses — all bars — would fall under the city’s prohibition: Klondike Mike’s Dance Hall and Saloon, the Moose Head Saloon, Palmer Bar and the Caboose Lounge inside the Valley Hotel.

Palmer Moose Lodge would fall under the ordinance. The Palmer Elks Lodge, which sits outside city limits just off Bogard Road, would not.

Because the Mat-Su Borough lacks health regulatory powers, any establishments outside city limits could allow smoking even if Palmer and other cities approve a smoke-free ordinance. Only a statewide smoking law would address those areas.

Smokers could just drive a few more miles outside city limits to Del Rois in the Butte, Four Corners Lounge on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway or Fishhook Bar on Palmer-Fishhook Road, Palmer Bar owner Mary Lou Coddington told the council.

“It’s going to hurt our business, it’s going to hurt yours,” she said, referring to what she’d expect to be a dip in tax revenues to the city.

A number of bar patrons and representatives called the ordinance an attack on smokers’ rights, but also a case of government going too far, especially since so few places in Palmer allow smoking anyway.

Richard Best, Palmer’s deputy mayor, noted there are plenty of smoke-free public places in town to get a meal and a beer or glass of wine — Pizza Athena, Peking Garden, Turkey Red, Rusty’s at Dahlia Street, La Fiesta — but only four or five public places where you can “have a beer and a cigarette,” Best said in an interview Wednesday.

“My problem is these businesses have been smoking for years,” he said. “Nobody goes and gets a job there without knowing they’re smoking.”

Other council members, however, have a different view on the smoke-free campaign. Palmer City Council members Kevin Brown and Kathrine Vanover requested the ordinance be placed before the council. Mayor DeLena Johnson favors adoption.

The smoke-free workplace ordinance first came before the council on Aug. 9, when the Greater Palmer Chamber of Commerce presented a resolution in favor of it. An email survey shows that 84 percent of roughly 100 chamber members responding support going smoke-free, according to information provided by Becky Stoppa, communications director and tobacco prevention and control coordinator for Alaska Family Services Inc. The nonprofit agency supports the ordinance.

Other supporters include the Mat-Su Health Foundation and Breathe Free Mat-Su, a coalition of local businesses and organizations that favors smoke-free policies.

“It’s the No. 1 issue we need to address to make Mat-Su residents measurably healthier,” said Sharon Scott, program officer for the Mat-Su Health Foundation, the charitable arm of Mat-Su Regional Medical Center.

Backers say the smoke-free ordinance would protect nonsmoking patrons and employees from the health risks associated with secondhand smoke while bringing in new, nonsmoking clientele.

Roughly one-third of Mat-Su residents smoke, according to Stoppa. That means another two-thirds don’t smoke and might start going to previously smoky restaurants if the prohibition passes.

Smoke-free businesses report the effect on their bottom line as either neutral or positive, Stoppa said during a break Tuesday night. Several Mat-Su bars have voluntarily banned smoking, including Palmer’s Colony Inn, the Windbreak Café in Wasilla and Rumrunners at the Mat-Su Resort.

“By allowing smoking, they’re hanging out a ‘closed for business’ sign for nonsmokers,” she said.

Colony Inn owner Janet Kincaid decided to go smoke-free after she finished a remodel, but has wanted to make the place nonsmoking for years after watching her late husband, Larry, suffer the effects of emphysema, though she doesn’t blame his illness on smoking.

Kincaid used to own the Valley Hotel, which went smoke-free in 1999. Few people complained, more came in and the change cut down on table-carving and mess from younger smokers lingering over their meals, she said.

One Palmer bar owner who also owns an Anchorage bar, however, said he took a financial hit after the Anchorage Assembly passed the municipality’s smoke-free ordinance in 2007.

“I’ve been down this road before,” Chrix Cox, owner of Klondike Mike’s and Carousel Lounge in Anchorage, told the council Tuesday. “It hurts jobs, it hurts business dollars and it’s not fair.”

Cox by phone provided estimates that the smoking ban has cost him $35,000. A big share of that is cigarette sales from machines, which are down by 50 percent. Indirectly, Cox said, he’s also seen a drop in overall revenue.

Representatives of the Moose Head Saloon also voiced their opposition to the ban, saying the bar was basically smoke-free. Most bars install ventilation devices to clear smoke.

Janet Kincaid’s daughter Michelle owns the fourth bar, the Caboose, with David Kloep through Valley Hotel Inc.

Kincaid and Kloep say they can understand the arguments made on both sides of the smoking-ban issue because they run a smoke-free restaurant and the bar, where people come to smoke and eat. They describe their stance on the proposed ordinance as neutral.

Under the ban, smokers must stay at least 20 feet away from bar entrances and 50 feet from hospitals and medical clinics. Owners must post no-smoking signs, report violations and cannot discriminate against an employee who reports a violation. Fines for violators range from $100 to $500. Business owners could face fines of up to $1,000.

City council will hold a public hearing on the ordinance at 7 p.m., Sept. 13 at Palmer City Hall, 231 W. Evergreen Ave.

To view the proposed ordinance, visit tinyurl.com/3bm5y6j.