CHARLESTON, W.Va. – With bottles of beer and cigarettes in hand, a group of Kanawha County bar owners vowed Monday to defy the county’s 2-month-old smoking ban and allow their customers to light up.
“We all need to stand together and let them smoke,” said Shila Pettry, owner of Dolly’s World bar in Pratt. “They can’t get us all at one time. We’re losing beaucoup money.”
About 45 bar owners and workers gathered at the Pour House Sports Bar in North Charleston on Monday afternoon to intensify their fight against the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department’s smoking ban, which took effect July 1.
Jean Angle, owner of the Pour House Sports Bar, told fellow bar owners to stick together in their fight against the smoking ban.
In addition to thumbing their noses at the regulations, bar owners are expected to file individual insurance claims against the Health Department, alleging the agency’s smoking ban has financially devastated their businesses.
Bar owners also pledged thousands of dollars that would be used to hire a lawyer, if they decide to file a class-action lawsuit against the Health Department.
“I want to battle,” several bar owners shouted out when asked whether they wanted to challenge the Health Department’s authority to regulate smoking.
Jean Angle, who owns the Pour House, said her video lottery sales at the bar dropped $7,000 in July.
“I say, “Let them smoke,’ ” said Angle. “If I have to pay $1,000, that’s better than losing $7,000 a month.”
Bars and gambling parlors face fines of up to $1,000, if found guilty of violating the smoking ban. The Health Department hasn’t fined a single business yet, but the agency has issued warning notices and planned to start enforcing the rules this month.
Filed under: Defiance, Heroes, Small Business Owners, economic impact
Everybody in bars needs to light up and ignore the smoking bans, if nobody obey’s the bans they can’t be enforced.Therefore the bans will eventually be dropped.Our freedoms will again be restored.