Smoking Ban Still Burning

council members on Tuesday backed a proposed citywide ban on smoking in retail establishments.

City staff brought the idea before the council because businesses in other cities have set up smoking lounges using an exemption in the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act that permits tobacco stores to allow sampling of their products.

“Sampling’s turning into people hanging out all day,” said City Manager
Mike Mornson.

By the mayor’s count, Hopkins has just one store that sells tobacco exclusively. All others sell groceries or other goods with the tobacco and so are already barred from allowing smoking.

Said Assistant City Manager Jim Genellie: “We haven’t had any problem with this.”

Yet Mornson, who experienced “two to four” incidents of businesses opening smoking lounges at his prior job with St. Anthony, worried that smoking lounges could still come to Hopkins.

That doesn’t mean the city is necessarily opposed to smoking lounges, Genellie said. But if someone wants to do that, they should come before the city and make their case instead of using an exemption to the Minnesota Clean Air Act, he added.

Because state law requires the city to give notice prior to any changes to its tobacco ordinance, the City Council will formally take up the issue at its Nov. 15 meeting.