News

Smoking room in Lincoln is oddity for Nebraska

Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Lincoln Journal-Star

Mike Crook and Thanh Thai sit at a table, talking and smoking -- Crook a cigar, Thai a pipe -- in what looks like an ordinary room at the new Lincoln Race Course.

It looks like an ordinary room: four walls, carpeted floor, television screens lining the walls, big windows on the south wall looking out over an open field that someday will be a race track.

But it isn’t ordinary, because it is illegal to smoke in any ordinary room in a business in Nebraska.

And this is a business: Winner’s Circle Sports Bar and Grill, a full-service restaurant, sports bar, simulcasting center and keno parlor.

It opened in September, replacing horse-racing facilities at the former State Fair Park.

General Manager Christy Harris calls the space the indoor/outdoor room.

It’s indoors, because it looks and feels much like the sports bar next door.

It’s outdoors because it meets the standard set in state law for outdoor smoking areas: 20 percent of the wall space must be open to the outdoors.

A careful look reveals that the walls on three sides do not meet the ceiling. Several feet of air space is disguised by heavy wood trim and TVs on the inside and hidden by overhanging eaves on the outside.

The state and local health departments looked at the plans before it was built in southwest Lincoln. The local Health Department has also physically inspected the room, and it does meet the 20 percent requirement, said Chris Schroeder, local air quality program supervisor.

The room also has what Harris calls an eco-friendly air system, which pushes indoor air from nearby enclosed rooms into the smoking room, forcing smoky air out over the walls.

Schroeder calls it active ventilation. It’s not required under law, but, theoretically, it should help force smoke outdoors, he said.

Two long, silver radiant heaters on the ceiling keep the room warm, and screens along the open area between the wall and roof keep out birds and bugs.

The room was built for those who like to enjoy a cigar, pipe or cigarette with their beer, their meal, their friends.

It is intended to make smokers feel included and welcome, said Harris, who is not a smoker.

Not everyone is enamored with the room.

The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department has gotten complaints from concerned citizens and other bar owners who think the Race Course is getting away with something and violating the Clean Indoor Air Act, Schroeder said.

It's not, he said, but it is advertised as an indoor smoking room, which creates complaints.

“We don’t like how they are advertising it, but we can’t regulate that,” Schroeder said.

The room is one of three in the state; two are in Omaha bars, Harris said.

The Lincoln smoking room has a better ventilation system, she said, and she expects it to be even more popular in the next few months when it is too cold to sit at outdoor cafes in the winter weather.

http://journalstar.com/business/local/smoking-room-in-lincoln-is-oddity-for-nebraska/article_5b51fecd-65da-536b-90be-f94c9ed00bed.html

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