Some local businesses still struggle with smoking ban
Report shows charitable gambling loss in millions
by Laura Adelmann
Dakota County Tribune
Billy Shimkus of Farmington gets ready to light a cigarette, sitting outside a restaurant where he sells pull tabs. - Photo by Laura Adelmann
Three years later, the effects of the statewide smoking ban are still being felt by some local businesses.
“The ban made everything slow. With the economy and everything, it’s been terrible,”said J’s Family Restaurant owner Don Lemke.
He has owned the Burnsville restaurant for over 20 years, and said regular customers who smoked have stopped coming in; non-smokers have not picked up the slack.
Sales there were down 20 percent after the ban, and haven’t increased, Lemke added.
“We’re at the bare minimum, just staying alive,” he said.
The restaurant, located in a strip mall off of Cliff Road on the Eagan/Burnsville border, doesn’t have a patio for smokers to step out and light up.
Instead, they gather in the parking lot behind the restaurant, he said.
Workers at the Valley Lounge Bar in Eagan have also noticed significant changes in business since the smoking ban was implemented.
The day manager, who didn’t want her name used, said customers have changed both how often they come to the bar and the length of time they stay.
“It’s quite substantial the number of people who used to come in here and stay longer. Now they have one or two (drinks) and leave so they can go home and smoke,” she said.
Smoking customers who do stay long enough to crave a cigarette congregate by the bar’s front door to light up.
“Before the smoking ban, they were allowed to bring their drinks out there. As soon as they put the laws into effect … they pulled that option,” she said, describing the new laws as anti-American.
“The law should have let the owners choose if they wanted to be a smoking establishment or not. Don’t tell us what we can or cannot do,” she said.
When first implemented on Oct. 1, 2007, the smoking ban sparked opposition by some bar and restaurant owners, who began taking advantage of what they saw as a loophole in the law granting exemptions for theatrical performances.
In February 2008, more than 100 Minnesota bars began hosting “theater nights,” inviting patrons to put on improvisational plays and smoke in the establishment.
Many accepted the invitation, eagerly lighting up, and owners happily reported pre-ban profits.
The protest was short-lived, and courts eventually declared the events illegal.
“They claimed to be staging theater and smoking was part of the performance,” said John Olson, enforcement coordinator for the Indoor-Air Unit with the Minnesota Department of Health. “It was a production all right, but a production to allow smoking was the staged part. The purpose was not theater; that purpose was smoking.”
Initially, Olson said, there were complaints of smoking ban violations, but they came in far fewer numbers than expected.
In 2007, the department received 168 complaints; that number has continued to drop.
Last year, the department had 93 new complaints and issued eight penalties, of which all but two were forgiven.
From July 2009 through the end of June this year, complaints have fallen to 65, and two penalties were issued but ultimately forgiven.
Dakota County has also handled a handful of complaints, said Jon Springsted, environmental health specialist with the county.
He said this year there has been one complaint in a multi-housing complex.
“That’s what people don’t understand about this. Their neighbors can smoke on their balconies or outside the front door,” Springsted said.
The law does allow smoking in private vehicles and commercial trucks, outdoors and in hotel and motel rooms.
But some local hotels are having problems with guests violating their in-house regulations designating some rooms as smoke-free.
Anna Lemcke, front desk manager at the Burnsville Days Inn, said guests frequently violate the rules and smoke in non-smoking rooms.
“It’s horrible because it’s very tough to get the smoke out of curtains, carpeting and walls,” Lemcke said.
She added that guests who do violate the internal smoking ban are issued a fine of between $100 and $200.
And there is an effort under way in Dakota County – the “Smoke Free Lodging” campaign – that began in January.
Using a Tobacco-Free Communities Grant from the Minnesota Department of Health Office of Tobacco Prevention and Control, the Dakota County Public Health Department partnered with the Association for Nonsmokers-MN to increase the availability of smoke-free hotels in Dakota County.
Through the initiative, hotel owners and managers are educated about ways to transfer to a smoke-free establishment, and then promote it to customers.
Interested business owners are assisted in details such as setting a policy, the timeline for implementing it, and how guests will be notified.
A website, www.mnsmokefreehotels.org, has been established to offer information and assistance to business owners, as well as information to people who want to find smoke-free lodging.
While some business owners may be struggling under the ban, others are thriving.
Three Diamond Corporation sells pull tabs for legal gambling; their products are used in many Dakota County bars and restaurants as charity fundraisers.
Jon Latcham, owner of Three Diamond, said his company has picked up accounts of smaller legal gambling companies that have not been able to compete in today’s economic climate.
“This is the first time in years I’ve actually seen us picking up a lot of new business our competitors have lost,” he said.
A March 2008 study by the Minnesota Gambling Control Board found that once the smoking ban was in place charitable gambling gross receipts dropped almost 13 percent compared to the same period in the prior year.
“Beginning in October 2007, there is a clear delineation from the monthly gross receipts ‘pattern’ from the previous five years, indicating that the smoking ban appears to be a major factor in the decrease,” the study stated.
But Latcham added what the study also mentioned: That the smoking ban is just one of many factors, including the economy, taxes and regulations, that has led to some restaurants struggling or closing.
Latcham predicted that brighter days lie ahead.
“The smoking ban was a big shock and frustration for a lot of people … and for a while people were driving across the river to Wisconsin to go to the bars there,” he said. “Now that Wisconsin has a smoking ban too … are they going to start driving back over here? Because all they’re doing is wasting money on gas and being frustrated with the same situation.”
While some businesses may be struggling, many patrons, even smokers, appreciate the smoke-free atmosphere now in restaurants.
Becky Lawson, of Apple Valley, said she occasionally smokes, but supports the ban.
“I realize there are people that don’t want to have their clothes smelling like smoke and have to breathe in second-hand smoke,” she said.
Her friend Rose Brown, of Burnsville, agreed, noting that restaurant employees should not be forced to breathe in second-hand smoke.
“It’s good just for the health issues. So many of our medical problems often times stem from smoking,” Brown said.
Another smoker, Billy Shimkus of Farmington, said he opposes the ban from a business perspective.
He sells pull tabs in several Dakota County establishments, and said he’s lost many customers who didn’t go out anymore once the ban was in place.
Smoking and gambling go hand-in-hand, he said.
However, he appreciates how his clothes don’t have as strong of a smoky smell anymore, and enjoys sitting in a smoking area outside one of the restaurants where he works when he takes a cigarette break.
“It is nice going outside, they have a chair for me,” he said, adding, “I don’t enjoy it as much in the winter.
Laura Adelmann is at dceditor@frontiernet.net.
