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Clearing the Air

It’s 9:30 on a Monday night at the Bayside Tavern in Fish Creek, and nearly every stool in the bar is occupied. On many nights, that would mean the air would be full of smoke, but tonight, just two patrons light up.

After Independence Day, the ashtrays will be cleared, the smoke-eater hanging from the ceiling will be removed, and smokers will be forced to take the habit outside. That’s the day Wisconsin’s ban on smoking in public buildings takes effect. Veteran Bayside bartender Brandon Fabry says he’s looking forward to it.

“I still smoke, and I’m happy about it,” Fabry says. “I only smoke when I’m out or drinking, so I know I’ll smoke way less.”

Fabry said the buzz he hears from customers about the imminent ban is about 70 percent positive. Customers, he says, will adjust as they have everywhere else. What he worries about are the unintended problems that will arise.

“My number one concern is the ruckus out front and the ruckus out back,” he says, referring to the smokers who will now be forced to gather outside the bar’s entrances. “On Friday and Saturday nights, I can’t police the streets and the alley and watch the bar.”

Still, Fabry looks forward to the health benefits of a smoke-free workplace, hoping it alleviates the burning eyes, sneezing, and other issues that come with a job that immerses a server in a cloud of smoke for 8 – 10 hours at a time. The state of Wisconsin estimates the ban will help save over $400 million a year in health care costs.

At the Cornerstone Pub in Baileys Harbor, former owners Sandy and Richard Weisgerber took the bar smoke-free last November in anticipation of the new law.

“We remodeled and I cleaned the whole place, so I told my husband we might as well do it now, because I don’t want to have to clean the whole place again,” she explained.

The Weisgerbers are both smokers, but Sandy said the move was great for business. She started to see groups of older women come in that she hadn’t seen in years, and the response from customers was overwhelmingly positive.

“You lose a few, but you gain a few more,” she says.

Paul Salm bought the restaurant from the Weisgerbers in May. A non-smoker, Salm said he doesn’t think anyone would smoke if they ever looked at a bar’s furnace filter.

“I don’t know too many people who say, ‘Man, I didn’t smoke enough last night,’” he says.

But he has qualms with the government telling business owners that they have to do it, as does customer Craig Dicker. Dicker used to smoke, but as he devoured his lunch at the Cornerstone’s bar, he said he would choose a smoke-free environment over the alternative any day.

“I would certainly choose to go to a bar that was non-smoking,” he says, “but I think a bar owner should be able to make that choice on their own.”

Twenty-five year-old Ashley Denman shared the same mixed feelings. He smokes and says he goes out to the bars a couple times a week.

“I think it’s great,” he says. “I love going to dinner and not smelling a bunch of crap. But I think it should be up to the owner’s discretion, not enforced by the government. We keep having freedoms taken away, and this is another step.”

Like Fabry, he worries about the consequences of forcing more people outside.

“You’re going to see more noise complaints from neighbors with people outside,” he says. “And outside areas are going to be a lot dirtier. There will be a lot more cigarette butts in people’s gardens.”

Chris Niedzwiecki, known as Teflon to most, has worked at the Bayside for most of the last 24 years. He had written a reminder on his hand to pick up sand and buckets to put outside for the smokers.

“I expect a really messy sidewalk,” he said as he took a drag off his cigarette, one of the last he’ll smoke inside the Bayside. “People are going to want to go outside and smoke, and they’ll want to take their drink outside with them, which is illegal.”

He worries that smokers will toss butts near or into garbage or cardboard dumpsters too.

Few bartenders or patrons seem worried about a loss of business because of the ban. Salm says the year’s notice has given smokers time to get used the idea, and he thinks bar owners that really want to allow smoking will find ways to get around it.

Jay Gosser, President of the Green Bay chapter of the Wisconsin Restaurant Association (WRA), was having a beer with friends at the Bayside after a day at the association’s quarterly meetings held at the Landmark Resort. He said the WRA membership is pretty happy with the law.

“It puts everyone on a level playing field, instead of all these individual municipalities having their own ordinances where you have to go smoke-free in one town and not the other town next door,” he says. “And at the end of the day, nine out of ten people don’t smoke, so I think it’s a good move.”

New mother and former smoker Carina Helm said the ban will be good for families. In Door County, where many of the few restaurants open year ‘round are taverns or restaurants with bars, a family has few smoke-free options for a meal out.

“I definitely don’t like smelling like smoke when I go home,” Helm says. “Having a baby makes you think about how the smoke will affect him. You want to do the best you can for him.”

Weisgerber says that in recent years, she began to witness children making dining decisions for their parents based on smoke.

“Kids are being taught to make healthy choices in school now,” she says. “They would walk in and the kids would smell the smoke and make them leave. I think that’s a good sign.”