The Galveston County Daily News

Roger Day, 62, is a daily customer at T-Bone Tom’s on state Highway 146.

In the front pocket of his comfortably worn T-shirt he keeps a pair of reading glasses, and pack of Marlboro reds cigarettes.

Ask him what he thinks about a proposed smoking ban for the city and he’s quick to answer: That’s trampling on his basic rights. “I hate to see the government imposing its will on the people,” he said.

Kemah Mayor Bill King said he and other council members are considering a smoking ban, but are waiting to see if neighboring Houston takes the move first. The item has been on the city council agenda twice, deferred both times while Kemah waits on its huge neighbor to the north.

Galveston’s city council has also discussed the possibility, although only informally, said Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas.

“Do I believe it will come up before council at some point in the future? The answer is yes, I do,” she said. “I believe we will wait until Houston passes theirs so that we have a policy we can look at and make it applicable to Galveston.”

For a town such as Kemah, a ban on restaurant smoking could make a big difference. Although only about 2,300 residents live in the waterfront village, about 30 restaurants operate there.

Anna Harden, who manages T-Bone Tom’s, said she won’t run out in the streets opposing the ban, but she’s not too happy about the idea.

“If it was a state thing, I think it would make more sense,” she said. “Considering we are in Galveston County, I don’t see why we have to see what Houston does.”

Officials with Laundry’s Restaurants, which owns a majority of Kemah’s eateries, said they would be OK with the proposed ban, as long as it mimicked Houston’s.

Last month, Houston Mayor Bill White announced that he was drafting an ordinance to ban smoking in restaurants, but not bars. White said he hoped to have it before the city council by the end of the year. King said Kemah would consider a smoking ban at that time.

“I feel like we need to follow Houston’s lead on this,” he said. “The thing you don’t want to do is create a difference in jurisdictions. Once Houston adopts theirs, I am going to propose adopting exactly what Houston adopted.”

Once those two cities pass bans, King said, he sees the movement spreading.

“I think once Houston and Kemah adopt it, it will be easier for other people to adopt it,” he said.

Restaurant associations often claim that the laws will hurt business, but health advocates say it will save lives.

Houston’s ban is considered less strict than some because it would still allow smoking in bars. Even some smokers aren’t that opposed to the idea.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Jack Mithcell, while putting out his after-lunch cigarette at T-Bone Tom’s on Friday. “I wouldn’t have a problem; you just go outside.”

Day said he just returned from Florida, and it was awful. He said the only place you could smoke was in bars. Being a nondrinker made it hard.

But Day said he’s not so sure he would give up T-Bone Tom’s if the ban did go into place. He goes there six days a week and has been doing so for the past 25 years.

The restaurant has an outdoor eating area, but he doesn’t like that option either. “Let the nonsmokers sit outside,” he said.