Local News:

Smoking ban gets unlikely support
Bar owners are behind measure that offers fewer exemptions
indystar.com

There are some bars you can smoke in and some you cannot. The bars that allow smoking are always packed. Looks like the bar owners are concerned that the free market ideals aren’t working out like they planned.

A group called Save Indianapolis Bars plans to lobby council members to minimize exemptions so private clubs and other competitors don’t gain a leg up. It counts about 1,300 bar owners, employees and patrons as members.

Two years ago, the group took out radio ads opposing an expansion of Marion County’s 2005 smoke-free law. But many bar owners now see the writing on the wall.

“What we’re looking at is trying to get them to not play favorites,” said Brad Klopfenstein, the group’s spokesman and managing partner of Claude & Annie’s on the Far Westside.

“If it’s a health issue that they’re concerned about,” he added, “exempting anybody pretty much says that it’s not a health issue.”

Some bar owners are preparing for “a horrible 2012,” Klopfenstein said, with the smoking ban expected to cause lost business and, in some cases, bars to close.

Anti-smoking advocacy group Smoke Free Indy, which backs only the comprehensive plan so far, estimates 370 bars and other establishments still allow smoking. Most likely would be covered under an expanded ban.