With just a few days left before a new state law requires them to enforce a smoking ban, numerous New Jersey bars are looking for ways to get around it.
Some are building decks and patios and assuming smokers can go outside. Others are adding awnings over open areas to protect smoking customers from rain. A few are even buying standup ashtrays that are three feet tall.
And all but a few are hoping a federal judge in Trenton will overturn the ban because it exempts Atlantic City's casinos. According to the tavern owners, it is unconstitutional to provide that exemption for casinos but not for bars.
The New Jersey Smokefree Air Act, signed by new Gov. Jon Corzine, bans smoking in restaurants, bars, private office buildings, and other indoor places. It becomes law on April 15 if the legal challenge by the New Jersey Restaurant Association, plus other pro-smoking forces, fails.
Advocates consider passage important because of the known dangers of secondhand smoke plus the fact that New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the Union.
Nearly a dozen other states, including nearby New York and Connecticut to the north and Delaware to the south, have enacted similar bans without much rancor -- and with much praise from bartenders, servers and others freed from inhaling their patrons' smoke.
Enforcement of the New Jersey law will fall to local health officials, but penalties carry some punch: fines of $250 to $1,000 for violations.
Finding and punishing smokers and bar owners who break the law won't be easy, according to Sparta-based Ralph D'Aries, treasurer of the New Jersey Health Officers Association.
"Obviously, it's going to be a challenge," he admitted. "I don't see us going in there as the smoke police. I see us going and saying, 'Here's the law. We're here to educate you. This is a plus for you and your employees.' I'm not looking to go out there and issue summonses."
In response to the law, at least one patio bar will open early this year. Gregory's Restaurant and Bar of Somers Point plans to open April 15, the date the law takes effect, instead of the usual Memorial Day weekend.
Owner Greg Gregory has purchased a pair of propane heaters for smokers who would otherwise be left outside in the cold.
Other bar owners aren't sure what to do.
"I hear a lot of questions," said Deborah Dowdell, executive director of the New Jersey Restaurant Association. "Thousands of small businesses don't know what to do."
Manhattan bar owners who expressed similar concerns before the New York ban went into effect found their fears unfounded. In fact, business improved because nonsmokers suddenly became new customers, replacing the diehard smokers who stayed home. After all, smokers couldn't take their business to another bar because the ban was universal.
Legislation to strip New Jersey casinos of their smoking exemption, already under discussion in Trenton, would be speeded up if the judge agrees that the new law is unconstitutional. That decision will come on April 13.
