Cigar smokers could breathe easy after the Madison City Council voted ‘yes' to a smoking ban exemption Tuesday for Maduro, 117 E. Main St. The exemption will only allow cigars and pipe smoking in bars that show at least 10 percent of income from such tobacco products.The City Council noted Maduro is the only bar to meet this requirement, and its cigar bar exemption may take effect late April. Other bars have until April 14 to apply for the same exemption.Brian Haltimer, owner of Maduro, said a decline in business has put him in a position to close. He said the enjoyment of a cigar was different from cigarette smoking. People come to his bar to smoke a cigar, regardless of whether they drink,\ he said. ""They want a haven where they can enjoy it."" ""It does not give us, as a cigar bar, an advantage,"" Haltimer said of the amendment. ""We still won't allow cigarettes to be smoked.""Gary Poulson of the Tobacco Free Dane County Coalition spoke against the amendment. He clarified his concern was secondhand smoke, which he said is more potent from cigars.Maduro bartender David Willborn told the council he was a non-smoker, but worked because of Maduro's atmosphere. He said he chose to work there because he likes to ""impart his knowledge of Scotch and beer to the customer.""
""Getting a position at Maduro was a dream come true,"" Willborn said.Poulson said he was disappointed the exemption passed, arguing other bars could take advantage of a cigar exemption. Whether cigars or cigarettes are smoked can only be enforced under continual police supervision, he said.Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, was concerned the exemption would be a ""slippery slope,"" allowing for further exemptions and holes in the smoking ban.Ald. Austin King, District 8, voted in favor of the smoking ban. But he supported the exemption because he said it made sense to allow Maduro to stay in business. ""The exemption will make [the ban] more politically viable in the long term,"" he said. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he was defending a failing business in his district, reminding the council that Maduro is the last cigar bar in Madison, the other having recently folded. Exempting cigar smoking does not make cigarette smokers automatically take up cigars, he said.""This ordinance is not a repeal on the smoking ban,"" Verveer said. ""The main issue was to keep the only cigar bar in my district open.""
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