Lawmakers vote down cigar-bar bill

Publication Date: 2007-05-02

• Author:Joe Hanel
• Publication:Durango (CO) Herald

Senators killed a cigar-bar bill Tuesday that they had resurrected only four days earlier.

The action means Orio's Roadhouse and similar taverns can continue to allow cigarette smoking for at least another year.

Cigar bars have taken a strange journey through the Legislature - a journey that started last year in Durango, when Orio's claimed a "cigar-bar exemption" to the state smoking ban.

Rep. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, introduced a bill to clarify that the exemption does not apply to bars that sell mostly cigarettes.

"My goal always was to give clarity to what passed a year ago. It's still very unclear," Roberts said.