Petitioners Hope Third Time is The Charm In St. Joseph, Mo.

After a pair of previous petitions to appeal the smoking ban in St. Joseph, Mo. were denied because of a lack of valid signatures, The Petitioners’ Committee for Fairness in St. Joseph is hoping that the third time will be the charm.

The group needs to deliver 2,568 verifiable signatures in order to have the city council to begin the appeal process. In the first attempt in February, bar owner Steve Peterman and his assistants only managed to collect only 1,759 signatures. The group then withdrew a request for the council to review a petition earlier this month after falling short by just under 400 signatures on a second attempt.

St. Joseph approved a smoking ban ordinance on an April 2014 ballot with nearly 53% of the voters in favor of it. The ban went into effect that June after a judge rejected an injunction as part of a civil suit brought by Peterman over an exemption granted to a casino. The ban prohibits all indoor smoking except on the gambling floor of the St. Jo Frontier Casino, in 10 percent of hotel rooms and in private clubs, but only when employees are not present. Violators can be hit with a fine of $100 for the first instance, $200 for the second violation and up to $500 per subsequent violation within a one-year term.

St. Joseph is located in northwest Missouri and has a population just under 80,000.

Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, the G-League's Valley Suns, and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.