As of October 1, 2005, many businesses in our area will be going smoke-free, while others will be utilizing a separate, completely enclosed room just for smoking.

Twenty two counties in West Virginia have already adopted similar legislation.

Now there are no ifs, ands or butts about it: Wood, Pleasants, Wirt, Ritchie, Roane and Calhoun Counties will soon be going smoke free.

"The seat belt law was not a popular law, but people realized laws were saved. Usually there's some grumbling the first couple of months and then people just comply and life goes on," Carrie Brainard with the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department says.

The July 2005 decision by the Health Department was not a popular one for many local business owners.

At the Mountaineer Family Restaurant, owner Dave Short claims he has already seen a 25 percent decrease in business due to the Corridor D Project.

"I went from being the first restaurant off the interstate to now the last and on a dead end street," Short explains.

Now he fears what could happen if he denied many of his loyal customers their right to smoke, so he's delaying the inevitable (a smoke-free Parkersburg in 2008) by
constructing a smoking room.

The Health Department requires the smoking section in restaurants to have a partisan that extends from the ceiling to the floor and also a separate ventilation system for heating and cooling.

And though this project at Mountaineer Family Restaurant is costing him thousands of dollars, Mr. Short believes he'll come out ahead in the end.

"If we can entice more smokers to come out and eat, then it's going to be good for us. Plus, in three years whenever there's non-smoking all over, I'll be able to use that section as a banquet room."

But many other business owners cannot afford to construct a "smoking room."

"Buffalo Wild Wings is a family restaurant. We have decided to go all non-smoking as of October 1st," General Manager Trudy Brown says.

Brown adds it was not an easy decision.

They could've chosen to be considered a bar: have smoking until 2008, but not let allow anyone in under 18.

Or a restaurant and just go smoke free now.

They, like many other similar establishments chose the latter.

"A lot of our customers are unhappy with it, but they say they will step outside to smoke," Browns says.

It’s a practice that will soon become the norm.

Sanitarians for the Health Department will be enforcing the new law. Those businesses that do not comply will first be given a warning and then a judge will decide the penalty after that.