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KANSAS VFW POST CAUGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF SMOKING

DEBATE -- "We're already tired of going to Oklahoma to

gamble. We have to go down there to smoke now too?"

 

 

Story here... http://www.derbydailyrep.com/
articles/2007/02/09/news/news2.txt

Story below:

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Citizens divided over smoking

By Julie Anderson

The smoking issue remains a hot topic among citizens in Derby.

While one group, Derby Community Coalition Promoting Healthy Choices, is out putting up signs and handing out information on the benefits of a clean air ordinance, others are passing around a petition to not ban smoking in businesses.

Members of the coalition have been out distributing literature door-to-door for two weeks, trying to education people on the issue.

On Jan. 27 and Feb. 3, members went door-to-door, delivering approximately 2,500 flyers to Derby residents.

Derek Smith, with the coalition, feels this has been successful.

“From what I’ve heard, is that once word got out there were street signs, they got a lot of calls yesterday (Wednesday),” Smith said.

He said they want to do as much as they can to ensure the community knows what is going on.

The information tells that the Derby City Council will be discussing the ordinance Tuesday at their meeting and of ways to support a clean air ordinance. The coalition suggests people call the mayor, council members or the city manager to give their input.

Not everyone agrees with this.

“I think the city council’s attempt to regulate anything that’s legal in a business like smoking or dancing is a power grab that they are not entitled to make,” Don Kohl, VFW member, said.

“If patrons want to attend those places, they can.”

“To really get down to brass tacks, I think the city should get out of this and quit worrying about smoking and get down to real issues, like where we will get water in 20 years,” Bill Gott, VFW member, said.

“Why don’t they worry about things that are important?”

“We’re just basically trying to educate the public as much as possible,” Smith said.

“If you want to really get serious about things you have to go on a grassroots level and that’s about as grass roots as you can get, going door to door.”

Then on Feb. 3, the coalition also met with Sen. Donald Betts during his visit to the Derby Public Library. Betts is a supporter of Senate Bill 37, which is the bill that has been introduced for the state of Kansas to go smoke-free.

He is a strong supporter of communities going smoke-free and gave his support to the coalition.

One concerned citizen spoke at the last Derby City Council meeting.

Vicki Walton said she and her husband are in favor of a clean air ordinance.

“I am speaking tonight as a concerned citizen of Derby,” she said.

“After sitting quietly at the Jan. 9 meeting I feel compelled to speak tonight.”

She said there had been a request for not all of the coalition members to speak at the last meeting.

She also felt their presence at the meeting had been ignored by the media.

“The paper suggests the majority don’t care,” she said. “Trust me, we care.”

She also didn’t agree with what the VFW canteen manager had said at the last meeting.

“My father would never have stepped foot into the Derby VFW,” she said, adding that she and her husband also won’t go to the VFW because of the smoke.

“I can understand people don’t want to be around second-hand smoke and they don’t want to smoke around their babies,” David Moss, a VFW member and non-smoker, said. “But we’re a free country and these guys here (at the VFW) are veterans.

“I used to smoke,” he said. “If it bothers me, I leave.”

Derby VFW Commander Ken Clark said a lot of their members are also members of the American Legion, so his feeling is they might drive the extra mile to the Legion, where they can smoke.

Walton said the VFW national commander has challenged posts to become more family friendly and people need to believe it is more than just a bar.

The national commander also said that 20 percent of those at the VFW smoke.

“The VFW’s future rests with attracting new members who want to believe that the VFW is more than just a bar,” she said of what the commander had stated.

But, that is not the case in Derby.

“During the day 80 percent of the people smoke,” Clark said.

He disagreed that making the VFW smoke free would encourage more families to attend their post.

“Here, it’s an older crowd and a few bring their families in here,” he said.

He said they should look at the mean age of a crowd.

“We encourage families to come in and we have some come in,” he said.

“I hope all businesses embrace the clean air ordinance as a way to expand business,” Walton said. “Every individual has the right to breath clean air. We deserve no less.”

Despite the fact that he longer smokes, Moss still chooses smoking sections in restaurants.

“In restaurants, I take the smoking area because usually there are not kids there,” he said.

“We don’t need the city to dictate how businesses conduct business,” Don Kohl, VFW member and non-smoker, said. “They’re a bunch of busy bodies that want to be nannies.”

The coalition sees no alternative.

When Smith spoke at the last council meeting, he informed the council of their actions and voiced an opinion on which ordinance they prefer.

“The coalition would obviously prefer to do it as quickly as possible,” he said.

“If extending that date would help businesses to formulate a business plan around that and help surrounding communities to go through the process, we would embrace that.”

They did want something that has substance to it.

“We didn’t set out to damage business or anything like that,” he said.

Gott said if the Derby VFW is non-smoking, he will go elsewhere, such as to Haysville or Mulvane.

“We’re already tired of going to Oklahoma to gamble,” Stan Kirby, VFW member, said. “We have to go down there to smoke now too?”

“You go into a bar to get away from kids to smoke and drink,” Micky Spiegel, VFW member, said. “I think there’s a time and place for things like that.”

“It should be up to the business establishment whether you can smoke or not,” Gott said. “If they (businesses) don’t want smoking and you want to smoke, don’t go there.

“If they do (ban smoking), they should ban the sale of smoking tobacco in Derby.”

There are several options the council is looking at for a smoking ban.

Smith said they feel the contingency plan doesn’t have substance.

“It’s been a great experience seeing people on each side of the issue working together,” he said.

Smith feels at the very least, the council will pass a contingency plan, which means Derby will wait for Wichita to pass a similar ordinance.

“Even that will help other communities considering that (a ban),” he said.

However, others are working to prevent the ban.

The Shop, a Derby bar, has been circulating petitions around town against the ban.

“We’ve got quite a few of them filled up,” Tammy McCord, bartender at The Shop, said.

They have between six and 12 pages full of signatures.

The issue is an important one to their business.

“We want to be smoking,” McCord said.

She thinks the ban will hurt them.

“They’ll go somewhere else,” she said of her smoking customers.

She wants more than just her business to be abe to allow smoking.

“I think they should leave it alone,” McCord said. “I don’t think they should ban smoking.”

She said they have plans to present the petition at the next council meeting.

“It boils my blood to have spent a career in the military to find a handful of people who want to tell us how to spend our lives,” Kohl, retired chief master sergeant, said.

“It’s a principal thing to me. The pipsqueaks at city hall have no business telling businesses what they can do.

“I have spent a career in the military defending the right of people to conduct themselves legally,” he said.

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Larry Scott  --