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Middletown lodge receives the most complaints related to Ohio's smoking ban
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Sunday, December 23, 2007
When it comes to collecting smoking complaints, no place in Ohio comes close to the Loyal Order of Moose Lodge 501 in Middletown.
Through November, the huge private club was the target of 183 complaints from disgruntled members. No other single establishment in the state comes close to that number. The smoking complaint runner-up is an Eagles lodge in Toledo that has collected 108.
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"We've got to be setting some kind of a record or something," said Jerry Gabbard, the Middletown Moose lodge administrator. "Well, we're the biggest lodge in the state, and I guess you just get more complaints the bigger you are."
Gabbard, a smoker, says the lodge no longer allows smoking inside, but complaint data from the Ohio Department of Health show that the club provoked 59 complaints in November alone.
"You got those people out there, I guess," he said.
Jeff Agnew, chief of environmental services for the Butler County Health Department, said he's been out to inspect the lodge several times and has found violations twice. That means the lodge is currently facing a $100 fine, he said, but they've asked for an administrative review that will delay the final disposition.
"A lot of these operations wait till they get to the fine stage before they stop," Agnew said.
Agnew was skeptical that the lodge was no longer allowing smoking.
"We're still getting complaints," he said. "They can say they're enforcing it now, but further investigations will prove that out."
Agnew said the flood of complaints that some private clubs get are a result of internal disagreement among the members.
"They've been outvoted by the others who do like to smoke, and so they're retaliating by making these complaints," he said. "That's my opinion, but I think it's pretty right."
Private clubs are among the state's worst offenders, according to a Dayton Daily News analysis of the state smoking complaint data. Of the top 10 targets of smoking complaints in the state, eight are private clubs. In addition, complaints called in by members against Moose and Eagles lodges, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion and Amvets posts account for almost a quarter of the 19,182 phoned in statewide through November.
That's what's been happening at VFW Post 2800 on Highridge Avenue in Dayton. The post has provoked 43 complaints to rank 17th in the state.
Rick Younce, manager of the post near Smithville Road and Watervliet Street, admitted the place has got "a bunch of them."
"To be truthful with you, we're still smoking," Younce said. "If you don't, you ruin your business."
Younce said he's got "about three" members who keep complaining. "They're non-smokers and they say it's against the law, it's against the law, it's against the law," Younce said. "Well, there's a law against drinking and driving, and yet people do it every day. This is one law they oughta say, that's a goofy law and let it slide."
So far, Younce said, they've only gotten a warning, and the post is not planning to make any changes.
But that could change, he admitted.
"When we have to pay a big fine," he said, "then we'll see what happens."
