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Smoking Ban Comes Home to Roost in Mass
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Staff writer
DANVERS — Summer's a time when families head to Goodies Ice Cream in Danvers Square, sit outside and enjoy a tasty treat.
It's also a time when tempers flare between those eating ice cream and those smoking cigars and cigarettes next door in front of Cigars "R" Us.
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That awkward dynamic is exactly what state Rep. Ted Speliotis is trying to address with a bill that would ban smoking within 25 feet of doors and windows of public buildings, including offices, restaurants and bars.
"The real issue is the ability for people to walk on by and not be harassed by smoke," the Danvers Democrat said.
He said Goodies did not lobby for the legislation, but Danvers Square has seen a resurgence of small restaurants over the past few years, and the smoke shop is the only place where smokers congregate.
"People have been complaining and people have asked for help," Speliotis said, "and my constituents have asked for help in this matter."
Not everyone is buying it.
"I think it's not right," said Cigars "R" Us customer Maurizio Cotti of Topsfield. "You can't smoke inside, you can't smoke outside. Why sell cigarettes? ... Where are you going to smoke, in the middle of the street?"
At Goodies with her 31âÑ2-year-old niece, Emily, Goddard said she could sympathize, though she supports the ban.
"I was a smoker at one point," she said. "You hate to have people feel like a leper, but you should also be respectful because people don't want to breathe it in. It's dangerous."
Smoke and ire
Cotti said he doesn't understand why an ice cream shop and a smoke shop should be at odds.
"I'm from Italy. Everyone smokes," Cotti said. "I don't see the problem."
The two businesses have had a less-than-sweet coexistence for about 21âÑ2 years. At times, the police have stepped in.
Not only does the ice cream shop's owner and patrons complain about the smoke, as recently as two weeks ago, the smoke shop's owner complained about the volume of the music the ice cream shop plays out its front window, said police Sgt. Robert Bettencourt said.
The owner of Goodies, John Palmisano, and one of the owners of Cigars "R" Us, Frank Ciampa, declined to comment on Speliotis' bill or their relationship with one another in a spirit of easing tensions.
The smokers must stand outside because of town health regulations. In 2007, the cigar shop unsuccessfully asked the Board of Health to waive its indoor smoking rules, saying the winter was killing business. The board rejected its pleas, and a few months later, Town Meeting shot down an outdoor smoking ban similar to one Speliotis is proposing statewide.
The problem is shops line both sides of Danvers Square, and some say there are few places where you could smoke if the ban were enacted.
"I don't think you have any space in the square that is 25 feet" away from another door, said Bettencourt, who heads up the department's community policing efforts and routinely deals with downtown business owners. "You would have to smoke while walking in the crosswalk."
Bettencourt said the proximity of the ice cream and cigar shops sends a mixed message to kids. He tells students about the dangers of tobacco and secondhand smoke in DARE classes.
"I think its a bad combination of having the two next to each other," Bettencourt said.
The bill does not ban outdoor smoking altogether in the square, Speliotis said.
"It's not banning people walking from smoking," he said.
"It's the way our culture is progressing, we are becoming a more smoke-free society and culture," said C.R. Lyons, chairman of the Downtown Improvement Committee, who said the business group has not taken a stand on the bill.
A resident whose wife has severe asthma, Town Meeting member John Zavaglia was the driving force behind the bill. He's the one who tried to get Town Meeting to ban outdoor smoking two years ago.
"Smoke all you want, but smoke 25 feet from entrances at supermarkets, eating establishments and other public entrances," Zavaglia said in an e-mail.
The bill's other proponent is Nick Pasciuto, who owns the buildings on either side of the cigar shop and Giogi Salon at 42 Maple St.
"I think it's a good idea," Pasciuto said about the ban. "I smoke myself, and I don't think it's a good idea they sit there and smoke and bother patrons. Goodies loses a lot of business." His hair clients also complain about the smoke.
Another neighbor, Irtan Bleta, who owns I Pazzi, the Italian restaurant at 50 Maple St., said he's a smoker and has no problem with the cigar shop, although his predecessor did, according to Speliotis.
Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or eforman@salemnews.com.
