Smoke free Illinois begins in 2008
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| Marc Basile, manager at Crown Lanes Centre, places ashtrays at the bar of the bowling alley in Princeton. Basile said they currently operate air purifiers whenever there is smoke in the building, but after Jan. 1, ashtrays will not be made available to the customers. (BCR photo/Jessica Gray) |
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On Jan. 1, restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and other workplaces across the county and the state of Illinois will become smoke free. Some businesses think their customers are happy about the change, while others are not too pleased about it.
The law states all indoor public places and places of employment will be smoke-free, including restaurants, bars, casinos, bowling alleys, offices and factories. The only exceptions to the law are private residences, as long as they are not used for business or open to the public and customers, retail tobacco stores in use prior to the passage of the legislation, certain private and semi-private nursing home rooms, and no more than 25 percent of hotel and motel rooms which can be used to service smoking customers.
At Country Kitchen in Princeton most customers have been coming through the door to learn there is no longer smoking and non-smoking sections since the restaurant went smoke free on Sept. 3.
“It was a corporate decision at all our 35 (franchise) locations,” said George Brooks, shift manager.
Brooks said they have franchises in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa.
“(The decision) started out being because of the law, but it turned into doing it for ourselves, and it’s worked out great,” he said.
Brooks said prior to the change, they found most customers asked for the non-smoking section of the restaurant anyway.
“When they found out we’re all non-smoking, it seems to make them pretty happy. We’ve had a couple of complaints, but we tell them there’s a bench outside if they choose to smoke there. That’s their option,” he said.
Brooks said it did not take a lot of work to switch over the restaurant to a nonsmoking establishment; they merely switched their smoking sign and began telling their customers about the change.
At the opposite end of town, at a type of business oftentimes synonymous with a cloud of smoke, a lone woman throws a bowling ball, loudly striking the pins. At an area overlooking the lanes, black ashtrays sit on tabletops. Crown Lanes Centre Manager Marc Basile said that’s soon to change.
“At the present moment when there is not a smoking law in effect, there are air cleaners running whenever there is smoke in the building. When there is, we will have no ashtrays in the building whatsoever,” he said.
Basile said they haven’t yet posted a sign indicating the facility will be smoke free but they will soon.
“The real heavy smokers don’t like it, but they’re going to deal with it. The (people) who are asthmatics or have a really high risk, I would think they like it, yes,” Basile said of the law.
Scott Dall, co-owner of the Princeton Inn, said his customers have made their opinion about the law pretty clear.
“Some people are for it; some people are against it. A lot of people are angered about the government coming in and telling you what you can and can’t do,” Dall said.
“Some have said they might just quit (smoking). Others have said they just won’t come in; it’s going to hurt, but I can’t tell you how much. The government subsidizes a lot, but they don’t give a heck about small businesses,” he added.
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