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Last updated 11:43 am CT September 02, 2010.
Some Bars Letting People Light Up Inside
"The way I look at it, you have to do what you have to do, and if you want to smoke you smoke, and if you can't you go outside or you go where you can," said Vest.
The bar promotes its smoke free environment. But says business has dropped off since the ban went into effect. The reason: not everyone makes smokers go outside. We decided to see if that's the case, I walked into five different bars in Herrin and despite no smoking signs in many of them I found people lighting up inside each one.
None of the bar owners who allowed smoking wanted to go on camera, but off camera one of them told me that he was essentially forced into that decision, asking "if 80 percent of your customers smoke and are willing to go somewhere else, what would you do?"
But Teddy's owner Bill Sizemore says that's not an option. Instead he'll continue to follow the law and hope the city will enforce it.
"We're gonna hold our ground, I've got faith in the government and the process and I think that good things will eventually come around," said Sizemore, "we'd just like the law to be on the same equal playing field."
The Herrin City Council is expected to discuss a new smoking ordinance at its next meeting on September 14th.
By Ryan Kruger
rkruger@wsiltv.com
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