Smokers Raise Stink Over Potential Ban Customers Would Filter Away To Idaho, Business Owners Say

If smoking is banned in Spokane County restaurants, Portland resident Cletus Troendle would puff his way to the border.

So would fellow truck driver Tony Marzillo, Bill and Jennie Todd of Florida, Joanne and Scott Creaser of Wisconsin and a table full of other smokers and truckers who ate breakfast and blew smoke at The Broadway Truck Stop Tuesday morning.

They’d head for Idaho, where they could smoke with abandon.

“The thing about driving a truck is, most of us smoke,” said Troendle, who skipped coffee for a cup of hot chocolate. “If I couldn’t smoke, I wouldn’t be here. It’s one of my last bad habits.”

Truckers such as Troendle were a big reason that about 25 restaurant representatives met in the back of The Broadway Truck Stop Tuesday. They held a press conference in the nonsmoking section to denounce the smoking ban sought by the Spokane County Health District.

If adopted, the ban aimed at protecting people from second-hand smoke would be the strictest non-smoking law in the state.

Restaurant owners, led by the Spokane Restaurant and Hospitality Association, are collecting money and signatures on petitions to fight the health district. The association has received about $500 so far and a two-inch stack of petitions with hundreds of signatures.

Restaurant advocates argue that a ban would violate private property rights, smoker’s rights and the democratic process. They said a ban would hurt restaurant business and could prevent conventions from coming to town.

“It’s a simple issue,” said Stuart Ellison, the restaurant division manager for The Broadway Truck Stop, 6606 E. Broadway. “This place is about 12 miles from the Idaho border. Ask any one of our customers here who smoke, where they will eat and fuel up if a smoking ban goes into effect.”

“I guess to Idaho,” said Jennie Todd, smoking a Salem 100.

“Just across the border - they got a Flying J there,” said Scott Creaser, who doesn’t smoke. “Stand across the border and flick your ashes into Washington.”

Health officer John Beare, the county’s top health official, cannot implement a ban unless smoking is deemed a medical emergency - a classification usually reserved for epidemics.

He’s expected to announce whether he will seek to declare such an emergency at the County Health Board meeting at 1:30 p.m. Thursday at health district offices.

Beare indicated in the beginning of December that he had second thoughts about whether he had the authority to snuff out smoking in restaurants.

Geneva Ward, president of the Spokane Restaurant and Hospitality Association, said the association believes the county might back down. Still, members are prepared.

“We are not letting down our guard,” Ward said. “We are not giving up the fight.”

Neither is the health district, said Linda Jackson, who supervises district tobacco programs.

“The health district is by no means backing off against the smoking ban,” she said.

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