While it was the private club members that rallied for City Council to make them exempt from the no smoking ordinance, one organization chose to stick with the rules before the amendment.

Recently, the Knights of Columbus (KofC) overwhelmingly voted to keep the club smoke free, according to board of directors member Ken Stagge.

“All the members had a chance to vote if they wanted to keep the smoking ban or do away with it. They were told to give their opinions and they did. It passed with 93 percent in favor of leaving it smoke free,” Stagge said.

In November 2006, the City Council passed the ordinance forcing all clubs to eliminate smoke from their clubs. Stagge said despite the ban, the KofC put proactive ideas in motion to not get caught in the fallout.

“When they started talking about the ban, we jumped on it. We didn’t wait until two or three weeks before it started it,” Stagge said.

A particular concern for the KofC, he said, was losing revenue from it’s Sunday bingo games. Before the ban, Stagge and his brothers began asking “big bingo players” who attended games around the region how other cities and clubs handle the issue. This led to the development of more frequent intermissions. The bingo revenue, he noted, didn’t really fall off that much.

When the newly elected City Council implemented the exemption for private clubs in February, Stagge said there were echoes from members and players to stay the same.

“We did lose a few players that wanted to smoke,” Stagge said. “After they changed (the ordinance), a lot of people were asking me if we were going to keep it that way.”

He told them he would leave it up to the members, which he felt was the real issue for seeking the council to change the ordinance in the first place.

“The new council listened to what the people wanted. They allowed that flexibility. It makes people feel a lot better about it. Now members of the club are more free to chose what they want,” Stagge said.

The KofC, he said, had more than bingo games to consider when deciding whether to keep the smoking ban throughout the building. While the hall has been smoke free due to wedding reception rentals for a number of years, the bar has not been and in turn drew extra revenue into the club. Also, the KofC hosts a wide array of public functions, including its popular chicken dinners. When the votes went out, however, the members were not as willing to welcome smoke back into their establishment as other clubs. The secret ballot voting turned up a 43-3 margin in favor of the ban.

Stagge said it is not an issue of spiting other clubs that wish to allow smoking, rather an expression of the freedom to choose that the previous ordinance took away. Stagge, a former smoker, has noticed bingo players, members and guests in general like the new fresh air environment and so does he.

“I think it makes the club nicer with fresher air,” Stagge said. “People comment on it all the time. They like it smoke free. You can’t please everybody, but I think the general public is happier this way.”