NKY town could soon vote to restrict where people can smoke

DAYTON, Ky. (WXIX) - The Dayton City Council is set to vote on an ordinance in September that would ban people from smoking in public places. That ordinance is receiving mixed feedback.

The Rose Room is one of Dayton’s oldest establishments. The owner of the business, Patricia Flynn, said a restriction on public smoking in the city would hurt her bar.

Flynn says the bar serves around 50 customers a day, and of that number, 40 to 45 customers come in just to smoke cigarettes and enjoy a drink.

“I didn’t find out about it until after they had a first meeting that they were going to pass an ordinance,” said Flynn. “Well, I get the public places like the courthouse and stuff like that, but then it pertained to the bars.”

She says smoking in restaurants and bars has never been a problem before, so why try to implement a new law now?

“I just feel like that should be the business owner’s choice,” Flynn explained. “If people don’t want to come into your establishment because of smoking, post a sign on the door to let them know this is a smoking establishment.”

Dayton Mayor Ben Baker said the proposed smoking ordinance came out of a discussion on healthy workplaces.

“We originally were reached out to by the Dayton Independent Schools who asked us to look at an ordinance that would keep a healthy workplace for our employees,” said Mayor Baker. “So, we looked at some different ordinances around the state and presented it to our council to see if this was something they wanted to adopt.”

Mayor Baker said they did a poll throughout Northern Kentucky and found around 85 percent of voters are in favor of banning smoking in public places.

Flynn says this new ordinance isn’t good for the city.

“It would close our doors,” said Flynn. “You figure we bring in $140 a night? Well, you can almost guarantee that $130 of that are from people that smoke.”

The final vote on the ordinance will take place at next month’s council meeting on Sept. 6.

In a recent study from the University of Kentucky, the Commonwealth ranks as the second highest state for residents who smoke, right behind West Virginia.

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