Gulf Shores is considering a ban on smoking in public places. They've taken the usual step of asking restaurateurs and bar owners what they think about it.
The standard answer from these establishments is a general concern that people will take their business to more smoker-friendly communities. Business will be lost.
What they will ultimately find is that the die-hard smokers will be replaced by non-smoking people who would not have otherwise visited their establishment. Insurance and upkeep costs decrease. Overall, the impact is increased profitability due to level, and even sometimes increased revenue, and lower costs to do business.
Input sought on proposed smoking ban
City officials want to hear from restaurateurs, public
GULF SHORES -- In advance of a proposed ban on smoking in public places and restaurants, city officials want to hear from those affected, particularly restaurateurs.To that end, the City Council will hold an hour-long public meeting on the matter at 4 p.m. Oct. 23.
In August, Foley approved an ordinance that prohibits smoking in most places open to the general public -- with bars being the exception -- by Nov. 5. And Fairhope did the same a week later with its own tobacco ban that goes into effect Nov. 20.
Like Gulf Shores, Orange Beach is also working on a smoke-free law, aiming to have it in place by the start of next year.
City officials from Gulf Shores and Orange Beach have said their laws will mirror each other and not stray far from rules enacted by Foley and Fairhope.
That said, the beach cities have some issues to work out, including what to do about the public beach and whether to ban smoking outright in restaurants or to let owners determine whether they want to be a smoking or nonsmoking establishment.
At the Gulf Shores City Council's Oct. 2 work session, discussions revolved around whether to mandate that all restaurants go smoke free or let owners decide to go one way or another. The old system of restaurants that offer smoking and nonsmoking sections is unlikely to last, city officials said.
"Some towns have taken the position where the business person has to make the decision: you're either a smoking establishment or you're a nonsmoking establishment," Councilwoman Carolyn Doughty said. "You couldn't just do smoking areas, you had to do one way or another."
Councilman Robert Craft, who attended a meeting of the Orange Beach City Council last month, told his Gulf Shores colleagues that most of the discussion there revolved around enforcement issues and intricacies in how the rules would affect certain establishments that have patios or separate levels dedicated to their bars.
Craft said that most business owners, of which he is one, won't be too concerned with banning smoking from their establishments.
"When the surgeon general declared second-hand smoke as a health hazard, then all of us that have employees that we put into that environment and make them go there are exposed," he said.
As far as public buildings, most of which are already smoke free, and parks, the city is leaning toward banning smoking outright.
"On city property," Mayor G.W. "Billy" Duke III said, "I'd just as soon not have it."
Enforcing smoking rules would be far easier if there was simply no smoking on city property, rather than trying to set aside certain areas for smokers, Police Chief Arthur Bourne said.
"Any type of ordinance where you're trying to dictate to people what they can and can't do in regard to their own health is tough," Bourne said. "From our standpoint, it'd probably be easier just to have no smoking, period."
City officials acknowledged that any smoking rules would be difficult to enforce on the public beach and they said they weren't sure what to do about such areas.