County bans smoking — in a year

Daily Herald

March 15, 2006

By Joseph Ryan and Dave Orrick

One year from today, bars and restaurants across a spattering of Cook County suburbs will have to ban smoking under a proposal that won approval this afternoon.

The Cook County Board, voting 13 to 3, OK’d a sweeping smoking ban that forces villages such as Barrington, Rolling Meadows, Palatine, Prospect Heights, Streamwood and Wheeling to prevent smoking in restaurants, bars and bowling alleys, and other public establishments, like bingo parlors.

However, several large communities that currently have their own smoking rules – no matter how lax – will be exempt under the plan. Those suburbs include Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove, Elgin and Des Plaines.

The ban affects only suburbs that have no rules on the books to regulate smoking. The smoking ban first hit the public radar Tuesday, months after Chicago passed its own similar ban.

Proponents say the plan will save the health of restaurant and bar workers and patrons. But many of those businesses have said they fear loosing smoking customers to towns and counties that lack such bans.

Wednesday afternoon, the proponents clearly won out even as many suburban leaders that now face the ban cried foul for steamrolling their local authority.

“Cook County has always seemed somewhat dictatorial,” said Hanover Park Deputy Village President Robert Packham. “The board obviously will be discussing this.”

Hanover Park, which once considered a ban only to later drop the idea, will now be split about in half by the new law between Cook and DuPage counties. Barrington is in a similar situation.

The ban-slapped suburbs still have the option to approve less restrictive smoking rules and exempt themselves from the county’s new law. But the move turns the table in the yearslong debate, and will likely push several suburbs into a prolonged debate on what the businesses and residents want.

Some residents and community leaders will push to keep the fresh air.

“This is a move in the right direction,” said Palatine Village President Rita Mullins, who has advocated smoking restrictions to the opposition of some trustees.

Also under the ban, smokers will not be allowed within 15 feet of building doors or windows. Smoking in hotels will be allowed, but only if less than 25 percent of rooms are designated for smokers.

Clubs such as the VFW and Elks will be allowed to continue smoking in their bars and halls.

Fines range from less than $100 for smokers to as much as $2,500 for establishments that repeatedly fail to enforce the rules.

On Monday, a county board committee approved a version of the ban that would have taken effect as early as May 23. However, the implementation date was extended Wednesday under pressure from several members, including Carl Hansen, a Mount Prospect Republican.

The proposal was spearheaded by Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat. Board president John Stroger, who remained hospitalized following a stroke Tuesday, was supportive of the plan.

Copyright 2006, Paddock Publications, Inc.

< Back