By Whitney L. Allen, Hendricks County Flyer
AVON - Unless it's more than 50 feet away from a building or in a private bar or club, smoking is now a thing of the past here.
The Avon Town Council began considering a smoking ban last spring and after some tweaking, eventually settled on the terminology for an ordinance, which went into effect Sept. 1.
"We'll be going out around town to check everything out," said Avon Town Manager Tom Klein. "We mailed out (the guidelines) and hand delivered a packet to businesses."
The ban is taking smoking out of all enclosed workplaces except bars, retail tobacco stores, and private clubs. Outdoor places of employment are also excluded.
Another key point of the smoking ban states that smoking is also prohibited within 50 feet from an enclosed area where smoking is prohibited to ensure that smoke does not enter into smoke free areas.
"A lot of people had questions about not smoking 50 feet from a building," Klein said. "They would ask 'how do we measure that?' Well, it's just going to be common sense. If you need to ask people to take a few steps away from the building, then do that. You aren't going to have to draw a huge circle around your building."
Klein said the ban even extends to people in their vehicles.
"Some businesses asked if people could smoke in their cars within 50 feet of the building," he said. "Well, no. The point of that is so smoke does not get into a smoke-free area. If someone is smoking in their car close to the building, when they get out it could still drift in."
Although private clubs and bars are excluded from the smoking ban, restaurants still serving minors cannot allow smoking in the bar of their establishment. Papa Joe's Junior in Avon is one of the family restaurants that will no longer be able to offer a smoking section in its bar.
"It will effect us (a lot)," Manager Jill Schulze said. "We have a lot of smoking customers. Over time, it will really hurt our sales. I think people should be able to make their own choice. We did keep it contained in the bar area, and even if people chose to sit in the bar, they knew there was smoking in there."
Even though some businesses may disagree with the ban, if they don't comply, there will be big consequences. According to the ordinance, "a person that owns, manages, or operates a facility that qualifies as smoke free and fails to comply may be fined $100 for a first violation, $200 for a second violation within a year, and $500 for each additional violation in a year." Individuals who do not follow the ordinance can be fined up to $50 per violation.
"We can fine the business and we can fine the person," Klein said. "For the first couple of months, we will allow for the transition, but our fines are going to be based on complaints. If there are complaints about a certain business, we will go out and take care of it."
A similar but even stricter smoking ban is in the works for the town of Plainfield. The proposal, which will go into effect Jan. 1, 2007, if passed as is, would not allow smoking in any work area including bars and private clubs.
Business owners in the area are somewhat divided on the proposal.
Chris Kuhn, owner of Timothy's Pub in Plainfield, said it would certainly hurt business there.
"I'm a smoker myself, and I could definitely say 90 percent of my patrons are smokers," he said. "I would hate for a smoking ban to include bars. I hate to see the government telling you what you can and can't do in your business."
Dama Johnson, general manager of Plainfield Steak n' Shake said going non-smoking could help her restaurant.
"If I could go all non-smoking, that would be better, especially all day on Sundays," she said. "But it could really go either way."