Bars, smokers particularly dissatisfied with smoking ban during cold winter months

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Mount Pleasant smokers are feeling the cold more than their nicotine-free counterparts this season.

Since the May 2010 enactment of Michigan’s Smoke Free Air law, which made it illegal to smoke inside restaurants and bars, smokers have been forced to either wait to leave or light up on the sidewalks of the establishments. In the cold winter months, this has made getting a nicotine fix very unpleasant for some.

“There’s a percentage of people that stay home now because it’s too cold,” said Melissa Gross, a bartender at Rubbles Bar, 112 W. Michigan. “I would if I smoked.”

Alison Foster, a bartender at Marty’s Bar, 123 S. Main St., said a couple of regulars and the owner’s brother helped build what they call the “Smoke Shack” or the “Butt Hutt” just behind the bar. The wooden shed has a heater for smokers to stay warm inside while they light up.

“The heat might not be much, but it’s better than standing outside,” said Mount Pleasant resident Sharon Biernacki. “Since they built this, we’ve started coming here.”

Foster said business has dropped about 25 percent for Marty’s since the ban. Regulars like to smoke and drink hand-in-hand, she said, and if they can no longer do that at the bar, they will stay at home where they can. She said the smoke shack has not brought their revenue up, but it has kept some regulars from leaving.

“I have friends who bartend, and they said business definitely has gone down for them,” said Jenna Roberts of Mount Pleasant. “If a bar lets you smoke somewhere, they’re going to get a bigger crowd because Michigan has so many smokers.”

Saginaw graduate student Thomas Wheatley said he only smokes occasionally. He said the ban has not affected his habit, but understands that his smoking friends are upset by it. The decision to force smokers outside into the cold should have been voted on, he said.

“It’s kind of like a punishment,” he said. “It feels like it should be left up to the bars.”

Mount Pleasant resident and smoker Tim Gaul said he strongly disagrees with the ban. Gaul said bars are expected to have smokers, and to ban it for places where both food and children are not even served is wrong.

“I can see with restaurants and people not wanting to bring their kids in, but what about places like Rubbles where they don’t serve food?” Gaul said. “They shouldn’t dictate the smoking issue on that.”