Businesses in Osage Beach to decide on smoking ban

Osage Beach hasn't adopted a public indoor smoking ban, but some of the city's restauranteurs are instituting their own smoke free policy. The owners of the City Grill and Blue Room became the latest to declare their restaurant smoke free and will adopt the self-imposed ban once a remodeling project is finished this spring.

"It's going to happen regardless. There's going to be a statewide ban at some point," City Grill co-owner Joey Homm said.

Major cities like Kansas City, St. Louis, Springfield and Jefferson City have adopted bans of smoking in restaurants. In Osage Beach, the Board of Aldermen debated a public smoking ban in the summer of 2011, but has not taken any action on the proposal since August.

The Homm family has owned restaurants at Lake of the Ozarks since it opened Jo Jo's in 1952. The family opened City Grill in 2003. After experimenting with non-smoking nights in the Blue Room nightclub on Wednesday nights, the family voted to go smoke free this spring.

"It was a family decision. We all agreed that we are in favor of going non-smoking. Not only for personal health reasons, but because so many customers come through the front door and the sense and the smell of the smoke drives them away from our place," Homm said.

In an effort to balance business decisions and keeping customers happy, contractors will build an outdoor smoking patio on to the restaurant. The patio will have 20-25 seats, propane heaters and outdoor televisions.
"We're not turning our backs on our smoking clientele, because we know that they're out there. We want to be proactive in trying to keep them with us," Homm said.

City Grill joins Osage Beach restaurants such as J. Bruner's, Half Sauced BBQ, the Cozy Cafe and Hideout Bar and Grill in going smoke free.

Debate over an all out smoking ban in Osage Beach died away in August because aldermen grappled with the question of whether or not banning smoking in restaurants infringed on the rights of the individual business owner.

“It’s a business owner’s decision, period,” Alderman Steve Kahrs said in August. “I feel that the government sticking its long arms into private business takes away liberties.”

The Osage Beach Board of Aldermen could pursue other smoking regulations such as creating a ballot issue that would allow voters to decide on a ban, regulating ventilation and enclosures in restaurant smoking sections, or impose a smoking ban on non-bar businesses.

In a community survey taken in 2011, 68 percent of the 1,509 respondents said hey would support an indoor smoking ban in Osage Beach bars.

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Businesses in Osage Beach to decide on smoking ban