Friday, November 14, 2008
June Vaughn, right, and her neighbor, Beverly Wooten, play bingo Thursday night at the Firefighter's Local No. 77. Next Thursday will be the last time the AFL-CIO Community Services and Downtown Sertoma host bingo because of a decline in attendance.
A smoking ban has played a part in the ending of a weekly bingo game at the Firefighter's Local No. 77 union hall.
Two Downtown St. Joseph nonprofit organizations will stop sponsoring bingo next week, citing a sharp decline in charitable gambling revenues following the smoking ban. The AFL-CIO Community Services and Downtown Sertoma will end support for the once-profitable Thursday night bingo.
The trouble began in February, when the firefighters' union made the controversial decision to make the hall smoke free.
By summer, some angered smokers began returning - but, by then, high gas prices had already thinned bingo attendance. When the economy began to tank in August, the nonprofit sponsors began registering regular weekly losses.
"It's just been one thing after another, and it has just piled up," said Penny Adams, co-director of the AFL-CIO.
The AFL-CIO, which has sponsored bingo at the hall since 1983, will be the hardest hit by the bingo revenue loss. Bingo profits built the nonprofit's facility in 2000 and have continuously padded the small agency's emergency fund, Ms. Adams said.
The effect could hit as soon as Christmas, when the community services agency hosts its annual sponsorship for low-income families.
"We're all a little bit nervous that we might have people who might not get gifts this year," Ms. Adams said.
Sertoma, which supports community organizations such as a camp for deaf children, also has scaled back but is looking for alternative fundraising ways. "As an organization, we'd like to see smoking returned," president Tim Squires said.
The firefighters' union said the smoking ban will stay despite its effect on bingo, which has been hosted at the hall for more than 20 years.
Travis Owens, president of Firefighters Local No. 77, said not smoking is a healthier lifestyle and the cost of smoking is too much on hall maintenance and the bodies of firefighters who volunteer their time at the hall.
"We're subjected to smoke in our jobs, and we don't want it on us there too," Mr. Owens said.
Currently, bingo takes place three nights a week. Only one night is sponsored by a group other than the firefighters. Monday night's bingo is hosted by the St. Joseph Youth Soccer Club. Unless smoking is re-instated, some former bingo regulars say revenues will continue to decrease.
"Nobody ever stands up for our rights," said smoker Lora Maddox, who stopped going to bingo after the ban went into effect in February.
Ahmad Safi can be reached at ahmadsafi@npgco.com.
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rush620 says...
It is a shame that Bingo is ending. I understand that the smoking ban is keeping some away, but I would think that the organizers could build in some "break time" that the smokers could go outside and puff and then come back in and continue. I think it is relatively short sided for Mr. Owens to state that smoking is an unhealthy lifestyle and they don't want to promote it. What will be going on in the hall without the Bingo people and what will replace the revenue that Bingo has brought in all these years? I wonder if they will be taking up a "no alchohol" presence as that is also an unhealthy lifestyle and considerably more dangerous as I have been to MANY New Years Eve parties at the Firefighters Hall where alchohol is quite abundant. Though I am not a smoker and the smoking ban will have no effect on me one way or the other I do feel it is a shame that the revenue will be lost. And as for the statement in the article about "smokers rights" smoking is not a right it is a choice.
November 14, 2008 at 7 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
halfemptynest says...
Here's the deal, smoking makes you sick and your secondhand smoke makes other people sick AND it makes everything STINK! My husband would come home from volunteering his time at that filthy stinking hole and he would stink so horribly it would make me sick because the smoke was so concentrated. So they did the healthy thing and established no smoking rules (and they even held a gathering and handed out nicorette and tried to get people to get hypnosis to stop smoking, but hardly anyone came). The smokers whined and moaned and threatened to picket city hall to protect their rights, but that building is privately owned by the union-it is NOT a city facility, so the smokers have NO RIGHTS in a building they don't own and that the city does not own. It is irresponsible journalism to print that comment and not go on to state the facts-typical News Press rabble rousing!
And Mr. Rush620, I know for a fact that you have not been to a New Years Eve party for several years, because they have not held one for several years, so you have not been in the building since the smoking ban started. It is a much nicer cleaner place to hold fundraising (and bingo is fundraising plain & simple) and union meetings. And there ARE smoking breaks and a smoking area outside for the people who hang on to their nasty unhealthy habits. And they even put in a nice concrete bench which an unruly former customer immediately broke in half.
Smokers have rights only up to the end of their own nose, then the rights of non smokers and people who don't want to stink or die kick in. I personally hate smoking and cigarettes and pray for the day when all smokers have to smoke only in a closed up building they own and nowhere else. Then not only will the rest of us not be subjected to the smoke, but also the cigarette butts they throw down, the cigarette packages they throw out the windows and their stinking persons that reek of stale nasty cigarette smoke.
So great, make smoking the issue and make the organizations that have bingo suffer. You are simply making the people that they help with their fundraising suffer-the kids who play soccer, the firefighters museum, and the groups that the firefighters and all the other organizations supported.
November 14, 2008 at 8:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
comment says...
Good! I don't like smoking or bingo either one. Now they just need to get rid of the casino.
November 14, 2008 at 8:56 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
suzyQ says...
Rush - I couldn't agree more. Smoking is NOT a right, but a choice.
Smokers are free to get up and leave and go put another nail in their coffin anytime they please, but it is NOT your right to force your smoke on me! My child has asthma and we constantly have avoid places/restaurants that don't have good ventilation. I can't count the times we have had to actually get up and either forgo out meal out, or simply take it as take out. We shouldn't have to because of someone elses smoking desire and non-etiquette. I am not saying you can't smoke, just either outside or in the privacy of your own home or car. Although I must admit I cringe when I see someone puffing away while driving, and through the smoke haze I see a little kid stuffed in their carseat...imagining how awful it must be to be subject to that without choice.
I think the break time that Rush has suggested is more than fair, and a workable solution. Maybe add an extra break in there instead of just one. The only other thing I could think of is to have a "smoker side" but I don't think that would solve the maintenence issues or even if there is a ventilation system.
Like Rush, I hate to see Bingo ending. I had never gone in the past 15 years or so, but actually once I heard the smoking ban was in force, I have gone 3-4 times this year. If it returns, I won't...but I also understand smokers are the biggest customers too. Why is that I wonder?
November 14, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
halfemptynest says...
Also, they spent 10s of thousands of dollars on a ventilation system. It could not handle the chain smoking of these addictive personality people. Nothing can except the outdoors and giant fans and then you would still be blowing smoke at other people!!
November 14, 2008 at 9:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
suzyQ says...
halfemptynest - so tell us how you really feel, ;-) I am just kidding you because you said alot of things I wanted to say but didn't. I hate smoking. I hate the stink, I hate all the butts tossed out and about that you throw out still lit of your car window to hit my car, I hate having to come home from being around someone smoking in public and wash my clothes, take a shower to get it out of my hair. I even went to a cafe last Saturday and unfortunately the smoking stench got into my jacket, and the rest of the day out doing errands, I found myself apologizing to a few people about the smell and "explaining" the smoke stench didn't come from me personally. It causes me migraines and irritated sinuses everytime I am around it. It pretty much throws my child into an asthma flare and like I stated before we have to leave places for when we encounter rude smokers. I understand it may be tough to quit, and I can even get that some of you WANT (for the life of me I cant understand) but I can acknowledge that some of you just plain and simply enjoy smoking, but how you can rationalize forcing your bad habit and ill-health effects on others, including loved ones, around you? How can you justify smoking through a pregnancy? Forcing your kids to inhale it, a spouse watching you die with lung cancer or some other smoking-related health issues. How??? I guess it must be an addiction that I simply can't comprehend. Some smokers who do not respect others in this day and age of knowledge of its ill effects are just plain rude and selfish! (please note that I did not say all smokers, for those of you who take great pains to restrain yourselves until the privacy of your own home, etc) I CAN'T WAIT FOR AN ENTIRE CITY-WIDE PUBLIC SMOKING BAN IN ST JOSEPH!!!
....and another thing, you guys stink...if you think you can smoke and hide the stench, you are wrong, you REEK big time!
I commend though those of you who did take them up on smoking cessation tools, and I do commend those who are trying to quit, I am referring to smokers who just don't give a hoot and are disrespectful smokers and force secondhand smoke on others.
November 14, 2008 at 9:46 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rush620 says...
I agree with all of you and you are right halfempty, I have not been to a New Years Eve party out there for 4 or 5 years, and alot of things have changed. I agree with the smoking ban because of all of the maintainence issues you spoke of, all I was trying to say (however poorly)was I hope that some type of activity can take the place of Bingo as I know that it has had big revenue in the past. I have a child who has chronic ear infections that are aggrivated by cigarette smoke and I also am very frustrated by some smokers inconsiderate behavior and piggish ways. The article failed to mention the ways that the hall has tried to accomodate the smokers as well as the destruction of the building and the grounds due to the inconsiderate behavior of some. I too am ready for the city wide smoking ban!
November 14, 2008 at 10:36 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
wr49tm says...
Fast food restaurants aside, I encourage citizens to patronize the following non-smoking restaurants:
Bandana's
Barbosa's
Bob Evans
Cheddars
Cici's
Fugi's
La Dolce Vita
Olive Garden
Panera Bread
Rib Crib
Ryan's
Hunan
The Pizza Shop
Nelly's
My family rarely, if ever, supports other restaurants that allow smoking in them. I think our citizens are ready for a city-wide smoking ban in public establishments. Our children deserve it.
November 14, 2008 at 10:58 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
suzyQ says...
...and everyone can sit back and choke on the smoke. Cool.
November 14, 2008 at 4:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bs64507 says...
I smoke. It's my fault that the organizations that rely on the funds that bingo brought in no longer have them. There it's said.
Now, stop and think. A city wide ban would include bars, which are privately owned. Restaurant's, which are privately owned, most at least. Some are owned by publicly traded corportations. If a ban goes into effect, doesn't that infringe upon the right of the bar owner to do what they wish in their own establishment? If they wish to allow smoking in their bar, isn't that their choice? If you wish to go a bar that is non-smoking, that is your choice. But, don't enforce your preference on someone else. We have enough of that already. What right does one person, or group of people have to push their choices on someone else?
God Bless America,
God Save the Republic.
November 14, 2008 at 5:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
barneybad66 says...
As far as comparing smoking to drinking,,I can sit in a restaurant next to someone drinking a beer and I'm not affected by that person, can't say that for those nasty ass smokers sitting next to me blowing smoke away from themslves towards me because it bothers THEM! Maryville has it right no smoking in any bars and restaurant, maybe St Joe will follow suit one day.
November 14, 2008 at 6:39 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lb says...
I respect all of you people that despite smoking, dislike the smell of smoke, etc. I am with you!
But, please put all that aside for a moment and think about this: Smoking is an addiction...a TERRIBLE addiction. Most of these people are "addicted" to smoking. Get ready for this: It is a drug...a drug that is HARDER to quit than heroin. Yes, it is proven to be true.
Yes, it is so hard to understand why is it too hard just to not smoke?! Just quit, right? Wrong. The only reason why we don't understand is because we have not been there. We don't know what it is like to be "addicted" to smoking...just as we don't understand what it is like to be addicted to drinking...We don't understand what it is like to be addicted to food...No empathy here. But, I do have some sympathy for most of these people...these smokers...
Now, I am certainly not making any excuses. There are some smokers out there that do not respect non-smokers, children, and themselves. I agree. I don't have any respect for smokers that smoke in a car full of children...None!!! I also agree that you should never smoke if you are pregnant. I totally agree with you all!!
But, I am careful on what I say to most of the smokers. Believe it or not, I know SO MANY people that do smoke, and they REALLY want to quit. A lot of them cannot afford the great meds out there that can help them to stop smoking (Chantix is one of them...which is not covered by most insurances...and lots of BAD side effects for sure...). These smokers that I know are truly wonderful people with great education, careers, etc.
Anyway, in conclusion, yes, smoking is SO bad for all of us. But, I do sympathize with some of the smokers that really try to quit, but they cannot. Or they cannot afford it right now.
Smokers, if you are trying to quit...Good luck. :)
Respectfully yours,
Lb
November 14, 2008 at 7:11 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lb says...
P.S. SuzyQ...we both said the same thing again! :)
November 14, 2008 at 7:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
lb says...
Um, Crow...we all have a weakness...We are all weak-minded people in some way or another.
November 14, 2008 at 9:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Trixie says...
You know, it is a classic sign of insecurity when people are compelled to find something about others that allows them to look down and feel better-than-thou.
This must be a very insecure town since so many of its residents are soooo judgemental. But that's OK, I accept you just the way you are ;-) . . . and I'm a non-smoker.
November 15, 2008 at 8 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
StJoeMoe says...
Non-smokers are also free to not go where people smoke -
I quit years after smoking for decades and I avoid places that allow it -
It sounds like the Bingo Hall had a majority of smokers, majority rules -
Whatever, you know, this country is more about restrictions than freedoms anymore.....
No way there could be two rooms, a smoking and a non-smoking, oh no.....
Lots of options, in a perfect world, no one would smoke.
This world is far from perfect.....
And the country is falling apart, and I point some blame at the control freaks who want to control everyone.
November 15, 2008 at 8 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
halfemptynest says...
No Stjoemoe, majority does NOT rule when you are talking about a privately owned business. The owners rule. The firefighters own their bingo hall and decided it was too costly to allow smoking-it was taking a toll on the volunteers who endured it while VOLUNTEERING their time for no personal gain. Also it was impossible to keep clean.
November 15, 2008 at 4:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )