Happy ending to rancor in Bangor:
A loud disagreement over cigar smoke creeping into the next-door pizza parlor has ended peacefully in Bangor, Maine.

Spanky’s Pizza owner Philip Nadeau complained bitterly of smoke from the adjacent, newly-opened Cigar & Smoke Shoppe on Main Street, saying it impacted his staff and his customers. “I made a stink because on a scale of 1 to 10, it was a 12.”

For smokeshop owner Frank Coglitore, the question was why was smoke seeping into the pizzeria? After investigating the flow of air inside the shop, Coglitore discovered “The hallway that brings you down into the basement was not finished,” according to a story in the Bangor Daily News. “It was exposed. It had one sheet of Sheetrock. We filled in all the cracks, and insulated everything … to button it up.”

That and a rearrangement of the exhaust fan system that redirected the smoke from the shop seems to have ended the problem. Although there is apparently some residual smell of cigars, Nadeau said “Right now everything seems to be fine. As long as it stays that way, I’ll be satisfied. I’m just glad it got resolved.”

For Coglitore and Maine smokers, that’s a good thing. His shop, opened in October, was exempted from the state’s indoor smoking ban and is the only smoking lounge in the area. The store stocks more than 200 varieties of cigars.

SCHIP override vote now scheduled for January:
The latest from Chris McCalla, legislative director of the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Retailers Association on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program legislation and its enormous increase in the Federal tax cap on cigars:

“As you know, the President vetoed the current SCHIP legislation on December 12. The House leadership has scheduled a vote for January 23 to attempt to override that veto. It appears that the House will not be able to muster the 2/3 vote necessary to override the veto.

“Late last week there was talk regarding a short term extension of the current SCHIP program through March 31, 2008. However, on December 17, negotiators agreed to extend the current SCHIP program through March 31, 2009 with a small increase in funding necessary for the states to maintain their current enrollment through that date. There will be no increase in tobacco taxes to fund that modest increase.

“While it is always possible that Democrats will introduce another SCHIP bill in 2008 to force Republicans to vote on the issue, it now appears likely that the issue will be pushed into 2009.”

That’s good news, provided that the Republicans in the House maintain their opposition to the dramatic tax increases included in the current SCHIP legislation.
~ Rich Perelman

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