Tupelo council members Tuesday night unanimously voted in favor of a smoking ban, which would affect city restaurants, bars, retail establishments, sports facilities and other public places.
The decision also made Tupelo the second city in Mississippi to pass such a ban.
The ordinance will allow smoking as long as the individual is at least 25 feet away from the front entrance of a business and 10 feet away from private exits. An exception in the ban allows up to 20 percent of all Tupelo hotel rooms to permit smoking.
‘¿I think it will be very positive. All the research has been very positive,’¿ Tupelo Councilwoman at Large Doyce Deas said. ‘¿I think a week after it’¿s implemented, people will forget about it.’¿
Advocates for the ban appealed to the council for months about the dangers of secondhand smoke. Citizens for a Smoke-free Tupelo, a group led by lawyer Barry Walker, collected petitions containing more than 3,000 signatures in support of the ban. The signatures, however, represent less than one-tenth of the city’¿s population.
‘¿I think if you were able to take a scientific poll, you’¿d find, especially in the city, the percentage of non-smokers is about what it is across the rest of the country,’¿ Walker said. ‘¿About three-fourths do not smoke. And those people want to have a smoke-free environment.’¿
Entrepreneur Mike Sanford commutes back and forth to Tupelo from New Albany, spending five days a week in the city. He said he believes Tupelo is doing it because the town is trying to be progressive.
‘¿They’¿re playing catch-up. Starkville did it, and now Tupelo thinks, ‘¿Oh, we’¿re the big city. Let’¿s jump on board and do it,’¿’¿ Sanford said. ‘¿[The ban] is a small form of prohibition.’¿
Sanford said he goes places where patrons can’¿t smoke, and that doesn’¿t bother him. The City Council is treating secondhand smoke like it kills more people than alcohol, he said.
‘¿They’¿re not going to shut down a bar because alcohol is legal. If I’¿m driving home late at night, 90 percent of those people leaving the bar are probably inebriated and driving drunk,’¿ Sanford said. ‘¿They could kill me on my way home. But [the City Council is] not going to ban alcohol because it brings too much revenue into the city.’¿
Some local establishments believe the new ban will hurt their business. Many of Starkville’¿s restaurants have seen changes in its business since instituting its citywide ban more than three months ago.
‘¿Our sales are down from last year, but our food sales are on the same line as they were before the smoking ban,’¿ Cotton District Grill assistant manager Josh Ard said. ‘¿[The ban’¿s] not something we wanted to see because we run a business and we’¿re being told what we can and can’¿t do.’¿
Ard said the restaurant’¿s bar and late night sales have decreased because the Grill doesn’¿t have outdoor smoking areas like other venues, such as Dave’¿s Darkhorse Tavern.
‘¿Our dinners are better, though. There are people coming in because there isn’¿t any smoking,’¿ he said.
The Tupelo ban states that violators will be fined up to $50 for the first offense and no more than $250 for subsequent offenses. Business owners who fail to comply with the ban face initial fines of $100, not to exceed $200 for a second violation within a year.
The new ordinance doesn’¿t take effect for 30 days, giving businesses and others a chance to put up signs to enforce the new regulations.
With Tupelo, Starkville and Mantachie being the only smoke-free cities in the state, Walker said he believes more will start implementing similar bans.
‘¿Starkville was a huge inspiration to us as soon as we solved the feasibility of it,’¿ Walker said. ‘¿I think we’¿re gonna look back from this a year from now and say it’¿s one of the best things we could do for our city.’¿