Dayton Business Journal - October 22th, 2004

Eugene Shaw noticed something missing from the bar at Beef O' Brady's Family Sports Pub: smoke.

"I'm thrilled," said Shaw, who stopped by the Centerville restaurant for a beer and fried mushrooms on a recent night. "If someone sits down next to me (at a bar) who smokes, I have to get up."

Beef O'Brady's, which opened last month as a smoke-free restaurant, is drawing the clientele who likely would support a smoking ban ordinance now before the Centerville City Council. The ordinance, introduced to council Oct. 18, could signal a resurgence in the smoking ban movement in Dayton, which hit a snag earlier this year when Dayton Mayor Rhine McLin said she would only support a ban on smoking in public places if the city's suburbs did as well.

" It's a big step for southwestern Ohio," said Tracey Carson, director of Smoke-Free Dayton, a group that organized last year to lobby for smoking bans in public places.

Centerville's ordinance is one of three smoking ordinances that Dayton-area officials, smoking ban foes and advocates are watching closely this fall. The other two laws catching their attention are in Columbus and Toledo, where city council-approved ordinances will go before the voters via referendums on the Nov. 2 ballot.

" I think they should do it, absolutely," said Matt Shipley, who left the Beef O'Brady's bar to smoke a cigarette outside on the patio.

" Yeah, it keeps me from smoking too much," chimed in his friend, Larry Shepherd, who also had stepped outside for a cigarette.

While smokers and nonsmokers at Beef O'Brady's are relishing a smoke-free environment, many of the bowlers next door at Centerville Lanes aren't as enthused.

" Bowling and beer go together, and smoking and drinking go together," said Russ Maiden, one of the owners. "We bowl a game, drink a beer and smoke a cigarette."

Maiden and his business partner, Ron Rentz, said they already have taken steps to make their bowling alley friendly to nonsmokers by making Monday league nights and Saturday's kids bowling hours smoke free. But they're down 30 bowlers on Monday nights from last year, Maiden said, a fact he attributes partly to going nonsmoking.

Beef O'Brady's owner, Bill DeFries, thought his bar revenue would be down because of his no-smoking policy; instead, it has exceeded his expectations by 7 percent.

" (Corporate) did advise me that my bar business would be affected because I was nonsmoking," DeFries said. "But what we didn't know was that it would be in a positive way."

Carson said the fate of the Columbus and Toledo ordinances could affect the movement toward a ban in the Dayton area, including Centerville.

" It would have an impact because elected officials are watching how the voters vote," she said.

Columbus residents will vote on a measure to repeal the city's smoking ban. Columbus City Council approved the no-smoking ordinance in June, but it has yet to go into effect. In Toledo, voters can vote to revise their city's smoking ordinance to allow smoking in bars, bowling alleys, bingo halls and restaurants with nine or fewer employees. The ordinance, passed by Toledo City Council in 2003, bans smoking in all public places.

More than 1,800 municipalities in the United States have local laws that restrict where smoking is allowed, according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation. Ten states have laws that require either workplaces or restaurants, or both, to be 100 percent smoke free. Locally, the city of Troy has considered a smoking ordinance.

Ron Tinnerman, a Centerville native and owner of Centerville-based Tinnerman Insurance, said he hopes the ordinance, if passed, will encourage surrounding communities to pick up the issue. Tinnerman volunteered to push the smoking ban in Centerville after McLin said she would consider a smoking ban in Dayton only if the city's suburbs also enacted the laws.

" This is our hope that it's something council will act on and pass quickly and the issue can move on to the areas and spread," Tinnerman said.

Tinnerman said Centerville has an opportunity to be a regional leader in the smoking ordinance movement.

" If somebody is going to lead on this issue, why not us?" he said.

Many opponents of Centerville's ordinance are most riled about the idea of Centerville being the only Dayton-area city with a ban. Washington Township, which has its own restaurants, bars and bowling alleys to offer, is only minutes from Centerville.

" I don't think Centerville should go out on their own. I think they are going to chase business out of the city," said Terry Adkins, partner in the Thirsty Dog Grille and Brewery in Centerville. "If they want to be part of a consortium ... then it would be a valid experiment."

Adkins, a nonsmoker, said he thinks people should have the right to make their own decision. While he's unsure what effect a ban would have on his business, he said he knows many of his patrons oppose a no-smoking ordinance. Several bartenders and regular patrons of the Alex Bell Road brewery started a petition opposing a ban several months ago. They collected a couple hundred signatures, he said.

Rentz and Maiden said they fear losing bowlers to Poelking South, a Washington Township bowling alley twice the size of Centerville Lanes. Maiden said he would like to see an ordinance that has an exception for establishments like his that make only a small amount of their money from food sales.

But Dr. Paul Greshman, a Centerville council member who has championed the ordinance, said making exemptions could weaken the supporters' case that it is for public health.

"It leaves us open to questions about why we were really doing it if we make exceptions," Greshman said.

Smoke-Free Dayton has a list of about 200 individuals, businesses, churches and other organizations that support smoking ordinances, Carson said.

Some restaurants, such as Beef O'Brady's, voluntarily have gone smoke-free.

Dewey's Pizza, on Brown Street in Dayton, also doesn't allow smoking.

" I just don't think smoke and food go together," said Andrew DeWitt, who owns the Cincinnati-based restaurant chain.

But DeWitt said he also doesn't believe the government should dictate whether business owners can allow smoking.

" I think it should be choice," he said.

DeFries said his experience with Beef O'Brady's is showing him that customers are making the choice to go to establishments that are smoke-free. In fact, he believes he's carved out a niche for nonsmokers.

" If all the other restaurants are forced to go nonsmoking it would affect my business in a negative way," said DeFries. "But that's OK because I think it's the right thing to do."

Tracy Kershaw-Staley, DBJ Staff Reporter

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