Smokers face ban on Jan. 2

Publication Date: 2009-12-01

• Author:GREG KATSKI
• Publication:Washington (NC) Daily News

A.G. Swanner said he's willing to do whatever it takes to keep his bar, The Rebel, a smoker-friendly place. That, essentially, means he will have to make it a nonprofit corporation.

"If it comes to that, that's what we'll do," The Rebel's longtime owner and Washington resident said.

On Jan. 2, a North Carolina state law prohibiting smoking in certain public places and certain places of employment, most notably restaurants and bars, takes effect. Exempt from the nonsmoking law are private clubs, defined by the state's General Assembly as a country club or an organization that maintains selective members, is operated by the membership, does not provide food or lodging for pay to anyone who is not a member or a member's guest and is either incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under state law or is tax-exempt under federal law.

Ann Houston Staples, director of public education and communications for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said there has been some confusion about what establishments are considered private clubs under the new state law.

"It's very well-defined in the law what they mean by a private club. It's not hard to understand," she said. "Just because your (establishment) is considered a private club under ABC laws, that does not mean it's considered one under smoking laws."...