Bowlers next for ban?

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Eddie Chappell didn’t give much thought to the cigarette smoke when he took his first job in the bowling business. A college kid in Provo, Utah, he worked as a pin chaser. He loved the game. He loved the people. He found his path, and it brought him to Twin Falls.

He ran the Bowladrome for 40 years, working seven days a week, 16 hours a day, he said.

“I was … sort of unaware to what was happening (to me),” the 67-year-old said recently. “Then I was diagnosed with bladder cancer three to four years ago. A doctor in Twin Falls assured me that if I had not been in secondhand smoke all my life, that would not have happened.”

When he heard two state lawmakers are now proposing to ban smoking in bowling alleys, he said that’s a good idea.

“(Smokers) have a right to smoke, but not to inflict it on other people,” he said.

Sen. Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, and Rep. Bob Ring, R-Caldwell, are planning to introduce a bill that would ban smoking in bowling alleys, extending a statewide prohibition on puffing in public places, which Hill won in 2004.

In that legislation, Hill opted to leave bowling alleys out, wagering it would be easier to fend off opposition if his bill was crafted more narrowly to apply to businesses such as restaurants.

With the law more than a year old, Hill and Ring now aim to oust smokers from one of their final refuges. Bowling alleys are among the few spots in Idaho that haven’t been required to designate special areas for people to light up.

Hill isn’t counting on a fight. For his 2004 bill, members of the state House and Senate voted nearly two to one in favor of the ban.

Bars would still be exempt from the smoking ban under the latest proposal.

At Bowladrome, smoking is allowed except during high-school bowling and junior leagues, said Dennis Seckel, who bought the bowling alley from Chappell in August. He’s already watched tournament organizers wrestle with the issue and stepped in at one senior tournament, banning smoking because of an uproar by bowlers who thought it was supposed to be a non-smoking event.

“I get it from both ends,” he said. Smokers want to have a place to go; others tell him a ban will bring in more business.

“I personally don’t care one way or the other,” said Seckel, who smokes only an occasional cigar. “I don’t know how that will affect the business.”

Joe McClure, who with his wife, Kathy, owns Magic Bowl in Twin Falls, said a smoking ban might be good for the industry.

“We feel like there are a lot of people quitting bowling because of the smoke,” he said.

Proprietors want to avoid smoking-related lawsuits and need to run businesses that are safe and attractive for young bowlers, an important customer base, he said. Magic Bowl prohibits smoking during youth events, and on Sundays without tournaments, it hosts smoke-free open bowling.

Some bowling alleys have voluntarily chosen to ban smoking.

Sunset Bowling Center in Coeur d’Alene went smoke-free on July 1, 2003, to attract more families. Bowl-Ero Lanes in Idaho Falls and Teton Lanes in Rexburg also are smoke-free. In some cases, the no-smoking policy has actually helped business.

“Families can bring their kids in and they don’t go home smelling like smoke,” said Sharon Howe, manager of Bowl-Ero Lanes. “It’s been great for us.”

Other alleys, such as Skyline Lanes in Idaho Falls and Blackfoot’s two bowling alleys, Starlite Lanes and Pindale Lanes, allow smoking.

Kevin Macfee, one of Pindale Lanes’ owners, figures patrons would put up with a ban if it’s enacted, much the same as Idaho residents have adjusted to the restaurant smoking ban.

“It would be positive and negative,” said Macfee. “We’d probably lose some and pick up others.”