By Erin Meyer, Daily Reporter
emeyer@greenfieldreporter.com
GREENFIELD - The countdown to a smoke-free Hancock County has begun.
Monday's vote by the county commissioners to approve a wide-ranging nosmoking ordinance will take a while to be fully felt in places where employees and patrons can freely light up. By law, the ordinance must be advertised in the newspaper. After that, it won't take effect for 90 days, meaning bars, private clubs and restaurants outside Greenfield that allow smoking will be able to keep doing so through the winter.
And hopes that opponents may have of launching a fight to repeal the measure may be slim: One of two new commissioners who will take office in January, Tom Stevens, says he probably would vote in favor of the ordinance.
That means the 2-1 majority in favor of the ordinance appears repeal-proof.
That will cheer supporters of the measure, who praised the commissioners Monday for taking an important stand to protect public health.
With Commissioner Brian Kleiman dissenting, commissioners Jack Heiden and Derek Towle voted to crack down on smoking in public by passing one of the most comprehensive bans in the state.
The ordinance bans smoking in all workplaces, restaurants, clubs and bars in both incorporated and unincorporated areas of Hancock County.
Before casting their votes, the commissioners heard testimony from both sides of the issue.
"Secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in nonsmokers; that's indisputable," said Dr. Robert Klinestiver, a pulmonary specialist at Hancock Regional Hospital.
By comparing the number of heart attack patients admitted to the hospital in 2005 and 2007, he offered evidence that Greenfield's smoking ban has made an impact on public health.
"Thirteen fewer citizens were admitted to the hospital for heart attacks," Klinestiver said. "The ban in Greenfield... has saved lives."
Greenfield's ban took effect in early 2006 and will be superceded by the countywide law.
The debate covered more than the public health issue: Discussion also centered on whether the ban would cause business owners to lose clientele. Critics said they would. Kleiman took a different tack in suggesting that a ban isn't really necessary.
"I'll go back to my laws of economics," Kleiman said. "If nobody will patronize (the business), it will not exist."
Jude Feicht, owner of Mad Dogs Pizza, said her business has actually increased since the self-imposed smoking ban went into effect in her restaurant four years ago.
"A very poignant moment in my life was when (my husband, who was a smoker) was dying and he was sitting on the couch and he said, 'I caused this,"' Feicht said.
Two of the ban's opponents who ran for county commissioner earlier this year charged that local government was overstepping its bounds.
"What happened here today is another example of socialism," said Tom Lake, after the question had been settled.
Lake is a local business owner and president of the Coalition for Citizen's Rights.
The group was at the forefront of opposition to Greenfield's smoking ban before it passed.