The agency saddled with enforcing New York State's unenforceable and widely reviled smoking ban has chosen an unlikely target for its inadequate resources -- a grandmother's three-chair beauty shop in LaSalle.
Niagara County Health Department inspectors raided Salon Donna Marie twice in the last month, threatening the longtime proprietor with fines that could put her out of business after more than 40 years.
A health inspector first visited Donna Earp's shop on Aug. 22, acting on one of the anonymous complaints that comprise the foundation of Niagara County's enforcement strategy.
Another came calling last Thursday, again following up on a tip from an unnamed snitch.
Earp said none of the older women who make up her base of regular customers was smoking when the inspector arrived.
"She asked if I had allowed anyone to smoke in my shop," Earp said. "I could have lied. I said there were some ladies in here smoking, but not when she was here. She wrote me up anyway." Inspector Michelle Donovan issued Earp a written warning that read, "failure to comply with this 'Notice to Discontinue Violations' may result in a FORMAL HEARING and FINES under the New York State Clean Indoor Air Act."
Earp said she never received one of the packets explaining the ban sent out by the state to other affected businesses, like bars and restaurants, and so didn't think it applied to her.
"I never imagined that they meant beauty shops, too," Earp said.
Earp said she caters to a mostly older clientele, about one in 10 of whom smoke.
"Some of these ladies have been coming here for 30 or 40 years," said Earp, who operated her salon at Pine Avenue and Seventh Street until moving to LaSalle almost three years ago. "They like to sit and have a cup of coffee, smoke a cigarette and talk to the other ladies."
Not that the place is a smoke-filled room. Longtime regular Marcia Mays, a non-smoker, said she's never noticed anyone smoking during her weekly visits over the years. Salon Donna Marie's lone employee, Pat Shira -- whose health the ban's supporters allegedly hope to protect -- said the occasional smoking customer doesn't bother her.
Earp said forcing her smoking customers, especially the older ones, out onto the sidewalk isn't practical.
"You're not going to put a table out there and make them go outside in the heat, or in the winter," Earp said. "Some have walkers, and some have canes."
A smoker herself, Earp said she resents being told what she can do inside her own business.
"We have to stand outside like a bunch of slobs," Earp said. "I think it makes us look unprofessional. And when winter comes, what do they want us to do?"
Earp was told Friday by Health Department officials that she won't be fined yet, but must prohibit smoking and even remove antique brass ashtrays from her shop to avoid future penalties.
Earp's most recent warning came days after the New York Post reported that a statewide poll revealed the depth and breadth of the ban's unpopularity. Almost 68 percent of New Yorkers surveyed by McLaughlin & Associates said the nation's harshest smoking prohibition goes too far, and a similar number called on state lawmakers to modify the law to allow smoking in some restaurants and taverns.
In perhaps the most surprising aspect of the poll results, 62 percent of non-smokers agreed that the law is too strict.
Rather than doing their jobs -- carrying out the wishes of their constituents -- state officials spent last week scheming to make up the millions of dollars in tax and liquor-license revenues sure to be lost due to the ban. Their target -- untaxed cigarette and gasoline sales on Native American reservations.
Gov. George Pataki and his predecessor, Mario Cuomo, have tried and failed repeatedly to collect taxes from reservation smoke shops. Pataki's last attempt, in 1997, led to violence on Seneca Nation land, including protests that shut down a portion of the New York State Thruway.
Pataki's renewed effort could be particularly untimely for Niagara Falls. The state tax department proposed to start collecting taxes on sales to non-Native Americans on Dec. 1, shortly before the Seneca Gaming Corp. is scheduled to make its first payments to the state and city. Seneca leaders have vowed to fight any tax-collection efforts, and withholding casino revenues -- expected to exceed $9 million to the city alone -- could be a powerful bargaining chip.
Politics and finances aside, Earp called the smoking ban a blatant example of government gone wild.
"Pretty soon, they're going to tell you when you can have sex and when you can't," she said. "They've gone overboard on this."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | September 16 2003 |