Subject: Theater Night Update 3-2-08
Hello Everyone,
Mark passed your e-mail's on to me. I am Sheila Kromer, my husband and I own Barnacle's Resort on Mille Lacs. The smoking ban has hurt us and that is why I looked into theatre performances. I've known about this exemption since they introduced it into the bill during conference committee, I was there when they did it at the Capitol. I was looking for a lawyer to interpret this exemption for me when I was hooked up with Mark Benjamin. You see, he was looking for 3 months for a bar to do it but all the ones he approached were afraid. My loss in business was more than enough to overcome any fears.
Basically, this is how it works. You must put up posters and pass out playbills (Mark sent these to you). Any customer can be a performer but you must be able to tell the performers from the non-performers. To do this, we had buttons made up that said "Act Now!" That way, if asked by local law enforcement we would be able to distinguish. According to the law, performers can smoke. Our whole bar is the stage and anyone that wants to be a performer can be ...they just have to purchase a button. Any one that smokes and is NOT a performer MUST put their cigarette out.
We purchase our buttons through Tammi (T&T Designs), her number is 1-218-326-1355 and they cost 0.75 each. You can call her anytime and she ships the buttons out right away. She has had many orders. Once our customers purchase a button, they can use it on any theatre night and do not have to purchase another one.
It has helped our business tremendously. Lisa (in Hill City- Mike's Uptown) has tripled her business on a Saturday night. The Rock Night Club (in the cities) had their 1st theatre night a week ago Tuesday and they had 400 people compared to their normal 200 people on Tuesdays. The Rock Night Club is now having theatre performances every day of the week from 11AM TO 2AM. Some bars on the Iron Range are also having theirs daily. We have ours on Friday & Saturday nights and have done it for 4 weekends now.
The first night we did it, earlier in the day we called our local law enforcement and told them we were having a theatre performance and they may get calls cause their might be smoking. The city attorneys (Aitkin) checked out the law and said as long as we had our posters (stating there would be smoking) and the playbills then we would be within the law and good to go. We did have a complaint the first night, so the sheriff came out and checked us out (he asked for a playbill) and then said have a good night and left with a smile on his face. By law they are required to come out when they have a complaint. It was no big deal.
To date No citations have been issued to anyone. There are some "scare" tactics going on from some area's such as Moorhead & Albert Lea but Mark has confronted these and we haven't heard anything since. Overall, theater nights have been and are continuing to be a great success. I'm sure you have read articles and seen news reports about "plugging" the loop hole....first of all it is not a loophole but a legal exemption. Secondly, they cannot legally "plug" the so called loophole without first opening the statute...and to open the statute gives us our foot in the door. We have legislators standing by with amendents as soon as they open that door. We have a very close eye on what the legislators are doing at the Capitol. It would be very helpful for us for all of you to call or e-mail your legislators...if you don not know who they are send me an e-mail and I'll find out and let you know. Also, get your customers to e-mail or call....it is VERY important!! We only lost last years vote for exemptions by ~ 4 vots or so....if they wouldn't have had the vote on opening fishing weekend...the ending may have been different.
Please visit the http://freedomtoact.com/. This website is run by Greg Lang and we try to post all of our information here. Playbills are posted, listing of bars, video's, articles, etc....
Greg has taken up our cause and believes in our fight...so please e-mail (on his website) and thank him for all his hard work and efforts. He has been just tremendous!! On his website, make sure you click on the following 2 links (lots more information):
http://freedomtoact.blogspot.com/
Minnesota smoking ban theater
Mark Benjamin is a true hero and has taken on this cause because it is right. I cannot say enough good things about Mark! His message is (and rightly so)...public health includes social and economic health! Mark has done numerous radio, paper and tv interviews. They include KSTP, WCCO, Kare 11, WDAY AM Radio (Fargo), radio station in England, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's "As It Happens" show, Don Shelby AM 830, Willie & Jay AM 1500, Joe Soucharey AM 1500, KFAN, KQRS, KTLK, radio station in Iowa, Pioneer Press, Star & Trib, Duluth News, Nitetimes magazine, Minnesota Lawyer, etc....
He has been very busy and there are more on the docket. The http://freedomtoact.com/. website includes a lot of his work...so please check it out and pass it along.
Just a few comments below to enjoy!
Ann Lake Bar & Grill just started their performances and it went well. They will be doing repeats 7 days a week...4pm to close. No complaints and no police showed up.
Mike's Uptown (Hill city) had the mayor kick off their performance.
Old Clover Inn (White Bear Lake) started their performances last weekend and are planning on going to daily & nightly performances. Their first theater night was the best night they had in 3 months.
From Mark Benjamin:
Here's a story from my own backyard, complete with video:http://www.northstarmedia.net/star/STARHome/5731AAEF-0BB6-4639-AEAA-4827C923FF5F.html
Glad things went well at Smitty's Border Bar last night for your first Theater Night there.
> Hey Mark great job, thanks alot for all your help. What a ride we are on, i really appreciate all you and Sheila have done! Take care. Thanks again. Lisa at mike's in Hill City.
> Mark & Sheila -> > Everything went well. 400 People came out to our debut of "Before the > Ban." This was a great event and a great story in the paper. The > response was overwellming from our "performers" as they wish to come > out and "act" again soon. We have also already today been contact by > the Milacs Press and the Star Tribune. We will be having another > performance next Tuesday for sure.
MARK- GOT THE OK FROM VIRGINIA'S CITY ATTORNEY TODAY. WE ARE HAVING NIGHTLY PERFORMANCES STARTING THURSDAY, FEB 21. THANKS FOR THE HELP.
Sheila,
I wanted to thank you for your effort and diligence in fighting the smoking ban. I'm very happy that you and Mr. Benjamin are able to offer these "performances", and I'm hoping that at some point, my wife and I will be able to attend. I'm curious, do a lot of non-smokers come to these events? I know there are a lot of non-smokers who think the smoking ban is rediculous, so I would suspect that there are some who show up for these performances.
Anyway, I wanted to drop a note with my support, and hope there are many bars that pick up on this idea!
Shawn Gertken
Rochester, MN
If complaints are called in to the Law Enforcement in Ramsey County their response has been : There is nothing they can do if the proper posters & playbills are in place advising there might be smoking.
That's all for now. Please feel free to e-mail or call me. We are all in this together! Mark and I thank all of you for your courage and standing up to those legislators who are quoted in the Pioneer Press (3-28-07) as saying, "the cost of losing some smoker-dependent bars is worth the health care savings from reducing second hand smoke". We of coarse, disagree with this statement. Especially in light of the most recent study that indicates smoker's health care costs are less than that for healthy people. Remember....public health includes social and economic health!
Sheila Kromer
651-426-8743
sheiladk@comcast.net
Mark Benjamin
markbenjamin@msn.com
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