BY DREW TERRY Northwest Arkansas Times
Posted on Sunday, September 7, 2003
The Razorback faithful once again converged in Fayetteville Saturday, after travelling to the University of Arkansas' 2003 season opener against the University of Tulsa.
Before the game got under way at Reynolds Razorback Stadium, scores of fans patronized local restaurants, unaware of the newly approved smoking ban set to go into effect Feb. 1 in most Fayetteville public places, excluding tobacco retail outlets and bars.
The reactions of visiting Razorback fans were as mixed as those of Fayetteville residents during the months of debates.
Vernon McClain of North Little Rock has made the drive up Interstates 40 and 540 for the past five years to watch Razorback home games. He spent Saturday afternoon in Big Daddy's watching football and eating before the evening's kick off.
McClain, a smoker, said he would seriously rethink his pregame plans once the smoking ban goes into effect. "I think restaurants ought to have the right to choose," he said. "It's the owners' right to choose whether there should be smoking in their restaurants, and it's the customers ' choice of whether they want to go to a smoking establishment."
Instead of eating at a restaurant before games, McClain said he may opt to tailgate so he can smoke.
McClain's and other smokers' absence from restaurants next year would be a comfort to Tulsa resident Len Ballard, who was at Big Daddy's with his nephew and their wives.
Ballard said he refuses to eat at establishments lacking no-smoking sections and prefers eateries with a blanket no-smoking policy. "(The ban) sounds like a good idea to me," he said. "A person should be able to go enjoy a meal without smelling someone else's smoke. It only takes about an hour to go somewhere and eat, and smokers can wait that long."
The Fayetteville City Council, with a 5-3 vote, on Tuesday became the first governing body in Arkansas to ban smoking.
Members of Free Choice Fayetteville, a group opposing the ban, had 31 days since the vote to collect about 3,000 signatures, or 15 percent of the number of citizens who were eligible to vote in the 2000 general election, to send the issue to a public vote.
City Attorney Kit Williams was quoted in the Northwest Arkansas Times Wednesday saying an election likely would take place in December or January if the signatures are successfully collected.
Cassy Lacy of Jonesboro had no problems with the ban, but believed the public would vote against the ban because of the kind of city Fayetteville is. "There's too many people who enjoy smoking," she said. "When you're in a bar, it kind of goes hand-in-hand with drinking." Lacy, a former smoker, was at the Ozark Brewing Company Saturday with her friends, Jesse and Becky Westbrook, both of Jonesboro. The group has traveled to Fayetteville for the past 30 years to watch football games.
Jesse Westbrook said he is both a smoker and a supporter of the ban. "I think there's no problem with [the smoking ban]," he said. "It's nothing for somebody to go outside and smoke."
Terry Milligan of Little Rock said tailgating for Fayetteville games will be more probable if the ban is enacted. "I don't like to go anywhere if you can't at least smoke in the bar area," he said.
Milligan's girlfriend, Kristen Flynn, doesn't smoke, but she said forcing smokers outdoors to take puffs will create unforeseen problems.
The ban could create a litter problem with the amount of cigarette butts being thrown into the streets and sidewalks, Flynn said. "And the people who don't like smoke with have to walk by it outside to get in the restaurants."
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