No more blowing smoke

Smoke won’t get in your eyes anymore, at least not in public places and workplaces.

North Bay officially went smoke free in the wee hours of Thursday morning, with the new smoking bylaw coming into effect at 12:01, no ifs, ands or butts about it.

Patrons at Partners Billiards and Bowling were certainly made aware of the fact just moments before midnight.

“If you want to have a cigarette now’s the time to have it,” Partners co-owner Bonnie Zufelt told New Year’s Eve partiers, “because after twelve you won’t be able to.”

She then dropped a cigarette on the floor and symbolically crushed it with her black Doc Marten boot.

Historic moment
There was no rush among smokers in the place to put out their cigarettes, particularly since there were no Smoke Police lurking in the shadows.

Ironically the rock song Smoking in the Boys Room blared out
as the moment of truth approached.

Partners property manager Dennis Mong then told the group it was about to share in an historic moment.

“So just remember where you were when you had to butt out,” Mong said.

Zufelt hopes they’ll continue returning to that same spot, in spite of the new bylaw.

“We have no choice but to abide by the law, and I think it’s going to hurt business, and we’re going to have to come up with some new ideas to bring people in,” Zufelt said.

“We aren’t any different than any other area that has gone smoke-free. And the impact initially is 30 per cent. So we’re going to have to be inventive.”

Partners will be setting up a table tennis league, in addition to its billiards and bowling leagues, as a way of attracting and retaining clientelle.

Click on the photo gallery link below to see pictures of some Partners regulars sharing their last puffs of 2003 with baytoday.ca.