By JASON MICHAEL WHITE, Daily Journal staff writer
Whether you will be able to smoke at your favorite bar in Greenwood depends on if it’s technically a bar at all.
The city council has given preliminary approval to a smoking ban for restaurants and workplaces in the city. It does not include bars.
What is unclear is which bars can continue letting customers light up. The ban does not define what a bar is, council member Ron Deer said.
This has some tavern operators concerned about whether the ordinance will snub out their consumers’ cigarettes.
A bar is a place where the serving of food is “incidental” to the consumption of alcohol, according to the proposed smoking ban. The ordinance needs to define incidental, Deer said.
Some cities with smoking bans list a percentage to define a bar. For example, a city might say a business’s sales must be 75 percent alcohol to qualify as a bar, and anything less would make the establishment a restaurant, Deer said.
He said he is not advocating a particular percentage; he just wants to make sure the difference between a bar and restaurant is well defined. He said he plans to push for a clearer definition of bar when the proposal comes up for a second and final vote.
Local tavern owners, even those not affected by the ordinance, are concerned that Greenwood’s ordinance is the first step toward banning smoking in bars too, said Jim Johnson, owner of That Place in Greenwood bar and restaurant.
He said he expects the council to consider another ban in a few years to restrict smoking in bars.
“If tobacco is that bad, let’s outlaw it,” he said.
About 80 percent of That Place’s customers smoke, Johnson said. People who go there know smoking is inside, and if consumers don’t like it, they don’t have to go in, he said.
“No one is forcing them to come into my bar,” he said.
Tim Couch, manager at the Blind Pig bar in Greenwood, worries that the smoking ban will cut down on the number of customers because many like to go out to eat, sit down and smoke.
Some patrons would stop going to bars if smoking were banned, he said.
Greenwood City Council members meet Feb. 20 and are expected to give the smoking ban a final vote.
Deer said he is considering asking that a vote on the ordinance be delayed so county government officials can be consulted to see what their plans are in regard to a countywide ban on smoking in restaurants and workplaces.
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