Bar could get burned over ban

LINCOLN - Sylvester’s Bar and Lounge of Broken Bow, Neb., remained a haven for smokers long after a statewide smoking ban took effect.

Owner Henry “Fred” Schumacher let patrons continue lighting up even after he was fined $500 for three citations.

But the repeat violations of the ban could prove more costly to the bar’s longtime owner.

The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission heard testimony Wednesday about whether to renew the bar’s liquor license in light of those violations.

Assistant Attorney General Milissa Johnson-Wiles argued that the license should be denied because Schumacher’s actions showed a “complete disregard for the law.”

“This was a continual, intentional and pervasive effort on the part of Henry Schumacher and Sylvester’s to, basically, ignore the law,” she said.

Schumacher’s attorney, James Moylan, countered that Schumacher had “a little problem with smoking” but met all the qualifications for a liquor license.

Moylan said his client told him that “taming smokers in that part of the country was as difficult as taming broncos’’ at the Burwell rodeo.

Nebraska’s smoking ban took effect on June 1 last year. Johnson-Wiles said the first complaint about smoking at Sylvester’s was made four days later.

The smoking continued until state officials sought an injunction against the bar in January.

Affidavits presented by the state show that Broken Bow police officers and bar patrons reported seeing smokers in Sylvester’s as recently as Jan. 4.

Some of the affidavits said that, when patrons complained, either Schumacher or his employees told them the smoking ban didn’t apply there. One patron reported that she was told the bar owner allowed smoking and he would just pay the fine if cited.

Schumacher denied Wednesday that he or his employees had said the ban didn’t apply. But he admitted violations at his bar.

He said smoking ended there when Custer County District Judge Karin Noakes issued a temporary injunction Feb. 4.

“There is no more smoking there now,” he testified, adding that he plans to build an outdoor smoking area this summer.

Schumacher declined to comment after the hearing.

The injunction was made permanent April 1 under the terms of an agreement between Schumacher and the state. The agreement is separate from the liquor commission’s proceedings.

Commission members agreed to decide the case at their June meeting.

Chairman Bob Logsdon of Lincoln was willing to renew the license with the provision that it be revoked for any further violation of the smoking ban.

But the two other members said they were struggling over the egregious violations of the smoking ban and over Schumacher ignoring state law.

“Does the offense rise to the level of cancellation?” asked Commissioner Bob Batt of Omaha.

Contact the writer:

402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com

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