The controversy fails to clear as smokers and nonsmokers air their views on the first night of the statewide smoking ban.

09:08 AM EST on Wednesday, March 2, 2005

BY CATHLEEN F. CROWLEY
Journal Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE -- A middle-aged man in a baseball cap walked into Foley's Pub at the corner of Academy and Chalkstone last night and sat at the end of the glossy wooden bar. He placed his hands on the bar top, and that's when bartender Kathy Simoneau noticed the cigarette butt between his fingers.

"Get outta here," she said in a familiar tone and pointed to the door.

He slid off the chair and left.

Last night, the statewide smoking ban took effect, but the smoke and controversy still haven't settled. The ban, which was approved by the General Assembly in June and signed into law by Governor Carcieri, prohibits smoking in public places including Little League fields, restaurants and bars.

Two fliers taped to Foley's door reminded customers of the new law. Inside, the ashtrays were removed from the tables and bar top, which looked strangely bare. A thin scent of stale cigarette smoke still clung to the air.

Even the workers at Foley's disagree about whether the ban is good.

"I think we should have had the right to vote," said Simoneau, as she stood at the bar eating a dinner of hamburger patties and mashed potatoes. Simoneau, who has black, spiky hair, has tended bar there for two years. "I'm a smoker, and it doesn't bother me."

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

On the first night of the state's smoking ban, Kathy Simoneau, a bartender at Foley's Pub in Providence, had to remind at least one patron to smoke his cigarette outside.

But Jerry Lanoue walked out of the kitchen wearing his white cook's apron to say that he was thrilled.

"Why should I get lung cancer from someone else smoking?" he asked. "They'll get used to it."

Lanoue's brother owns the restaurant and bar. Their father and brother, both of whom smoked, died of lung cancer.

Carlos Rodas sat at one of Foley's tables with a pack of Marlboros resting on top of a newspaper.

Rodas said that he'll get used to smoking outside. He spent time in California and adjusted to the smoke-free bars there.

"California was OK because the weather was good, but here you have to freeze to smoke," he noted.

He likes the cozy atmosphere at Foley's and he stops there a few times a week after work for beer and a smoke.

Lanoue is worried that his other smoking customers won't come anymore. The wooden chairs along the bar were largely empty last night. He wondered if the smokers went around the corner to the Veterans of Foreign War post or Kilkenney's Tap, a small neighborhood bar, which are both exempt from the smoking ban until Oct. 1, 2006, which is 19 months away.

"It's not fair that they get another year. They are no different than us," he said.

Class C and D businesses are temporarily exempt from the ban. The exempted facilities must have 10 or fewer employees, and the Class D bars cannot be for-profit establishments.

The ban does not apply to Newport Grand, Lincoln Park and cigar and smoking bars.

There were no more smokers than usual at Kilkenney's, which is tucked between houses at the corner of Andem and Bergen streets.

The bar has three TVs, a pool table and last night, customers played cards in one corner.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

Jerry Lanoue, a cook at Foley's Pub, and brother of Richard Lanoue who owns the Providence establishment, takes a break last night to watch TV. Jerry Lanoue is in favor of the smoking ban.

Charles Mishchler sat at the bar with his friend Steve Deutsche. Both men live in the neighborhood. Mishchler, a nonsmoker, and Deutsche, had a good-natured argument about the ban.

"Smokers have rights, too," Deutsche said.

"Twenty years ago we didn't know what smoking did to you," Mishchler countered. "Now we know what it does to you and to other people who breathe it."

Mishchler said his mother died of emphysema and his father has the same disease. Both were smokers.

Bartender Amy Songen hopes that local smokers don't flock to Kilkenney's for a place to light up. As it is, the bar's two mechanical "smoke eaters" can't keep up with the haze of smoke on a busy night.

"It's awful," said Songen. "It burns my nose, my throat is scratchy, my eyes itch and burn and I sneeze."

Both Songen and Foley's Lanoue said they won't have a sense about the ban's effect on business until Friday. That's when people get their paychecks and head to the bars for a beer and a smoke, or not.

Digutal Extra: Recap Journal coverage on the smoking ban, browse a Q&A on the law, and share comments on how it will affect your going-out habits, at:

http://projo.com/extra/2005/smokingban/