After a heated debate Wednesday night among some Government of the Student Body members, students, faculty and members of the Ames community, GSB decided to postpone the vote on two Ames smoking-ban resolutions until all members of the senate have a final draft of the official bill being reviewed by the city council.

The senate voted to postpone the resolutions – one pro-ban and one anti-ban – because it still hasn’t seen exactly what institutions the ban will affect. The city council decided Tuesday night that the bill the council will vote on will apply to restaurants, bars and bowling alleys.

GSB plans to submit whichever bill it passes to the city council to show what they support.

Alex Olson, off campus, said his vote wouldn’t fairly represent his constituents if he hadn’t presented them with all of the information on the ban.

“Until I have a final draft of the legislation, and I know all of the details, I can’t represent my constituents,” Olson said. “Some people may support the ban in restaurants that serve food, but they may not support it for the bars. They need to be aware of all the facts.”

The senate reached the decision to push back the voting on these resolutions, but only after hearing the arguments of both supporters and opponents of the ban.

Chandra Linley, ISU representative to the Ames Tobacco Task Force, said smoking in Ames is a public-health issue.

“You have to look at this as a public-health issue because of the harms of secondhand smoke,” said Linley, senior in community health education.

Associate Professor of Economics Herman Quirmbach, Ames city councilman, said he has pulled conclusions from legitimate studies that show there is absolutely no economic impact in other cities across United States that enforce smoking bans in restaurants and bars.

Andrew White, owner of Sips and Paddy’s, 124 Welch Ave., and the Tip Top Lounge, 201 E. Lincoln Way, said there would be a decline in the amount of business in Ames’ bars.

“It’s not a statewide ban like in California, so my customers can shoot over to Nevada or some other town,” White said. “This will put the Tip Top Lounge out of business. If . between 80 and 90 percent of your business are smokers, and you lose half of those, you’re out of business. I urge you to read what you are signing before you actually sign it. City council members are trying to influence you by reading stats out of books, but I’m the one that’s out there living this.”

Peter Sherman, owner of Boheme, 2900 West St., said the ban treats smokers like second-class citizens. He also said Ames bars were not informed they would be included in the ban.

“It’s back-room politics,” said Sherman, associate professor of statistics and aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics. “There was never a meeting between Ames bar owners and the Ames City Council to discuss this topic.”

Michael Schaefer, author of the pro-ban resolution, said the city council and GSB should not try to pull this entire ban together in a hurry.

“We need to take baby steps forward,” he said. “It might be a bit rushed if we were to include bars in the ban at this point.”