It started in northeastern Minnesota when Moose Lake city councilors passed an ordinance banning smoking in restaurants.

Neighboring Cloquet and Duluth followed suit, but Carlton changed its mind. Now, Hutchinson is eyeing some type of smoking ban.

While smokers are a minority nationwide, so are restaurants in southwest Minnesota that ban smoking. And as various nonsmoking advocacy groups push for bans, business owners balk at alienating smoking customers.

About 23.5 percent of adults smoke, according to figures from the Center for Disease Control. Among youths ages 12 to 17, 18.9 percent in rural areas smoke, 11 percent in cities and 15.9 percent in suburbs.

Hutchinson's Mayor Marlin Torgerson broached the topic at a council meeting after a restaurant owner questioned whether smoking in restaurants was a good idea, City Administrator Gary Plotz said.

"He got hundreds of calls, and it just kind of mushroomed from there," Plotz said.

Hutchinson restaurant owners met recently with a council member about voluntarily setting one, or two common smoke-free weekdays, Plotz said.

Meanwhile, a citizen group is considering drafting a petition for a public vote to ban smoking in any establishment serving food, including bowling alleys and veterans' clubs.

Such a broad ban worries some people in town. The Hutch Bowl already is smoke free on Sundays, and owner Gail Plaisance, along with representatives of veterans organizations, said they face loosing lucrative convention business under such a proposal.

Going smoke free in Moose Lake restaurants was relatively straightforward because all eateries are strictly restaurants, said David Talbot, Moose Lake city administrator. Bars and bowling alleys that also serve food present greater difficulties.

After some consideration, Carlton deferred any smoking ban to the Minnesota State Legislature, City Clerk/Treasurer Lynn Habhegger said.

"It's quite controversial, and in small cities like ours we just don't have the financial and personnel wherewithal to fight that battle," Habhegger said. "The enforcement issues are another big one."

Benson City Manager Rob Wolfington views the issue similarly.

"That's the direction our society is going, and I suspect in time it will get there. But I just don't think we want to be on the bloody edge of change," Wolfington said.

Duffy's Bar & Grill in Benson tested smokers' tolerance for a ban, said Sandy Duffy, part owner/manager.

"My husband started something about six months ago. It wasn't a smokeless bar, it was a smoke less bar," Duffy said. "In the afternoon he started giving people grief about it, and they took it very seriously. It didn't work."

After Duluth adopted its smoke-free ordinance, citizens collected enough signatures for a Nov. 6 referendum in part on whether to continue or abolish the ban, said Mary Chapman, a city clerical worker. The ordinance basically bans smoking in rooms where youths under age 18 are permitted, although business operators may apply for an exemption based on proven financial losses. Enforcement rests on owners.

"We have some restaurants that are refusing to go along with it," Chapman said. "A lot of people are choosing to go across the bridge, or up into the Proctor, or Hermantown areas to do their dining out, or their bowling, or their playing pool, and, so therefore, Duluth owners are losing business."

Amy Dispanet, part owner of the Magnolia Steak House and Lounge in Luverne sees major problems with enforcement of any smoking ordinance.

"I don't feel that I need to be legislated to baby-sit adults, and that's what it would come down to," Dispanet said. "Police have far more serious things to deal with."

The restaurant, but not the lounge, went nonsmoking in April, although it is enforced strictly on weekends only, Dispanet said.

"Even smokers and people who accompany smokers appreciate it," Dispanet said. "If they sit down to a nice steak and a nice glass of wine, it's nice to have a large room that's not (filled with smoke)."

However, she objects to banning cigarettes in restaurant lounges and bars.

"A lot of people who don't smoke on a regular basis will smoke if they're having a drink on a weekend," Dispanet said. "It's probably the only cigarette that they have in a month and a half. I don't think you can tell people not to do that. If it's just a mom and pop bar that has a pizza oven, I can't imagine that that would qualify. If they're going to be that strict, then it's going to get ugly. But I would like to see better ventilation in a lot of places."

A smoking ban is not slated for Luverne, said City Clerk Marianne Perkins.

In a survey by the Marshall Tobacco Coalition, of 129 people polled, 50 percent favored smoke-free bars and restaurants; 31 percent favored a ban in restaurants only and 19 percent favored no ordinance. Coalition Coordinator Pat Mellenthin said results also show people overestimate the extent of lost revenue for businesses and the number of smokers in the community.

"What stands out in our minds is there's a lot of misconceptions," Mellenthin said.

However, Marshall's council isn't entertaining plans to adopt a smoke-free ordinance, City Administrator Michael Johnson said.

Neither is New Ulm's council, City Manager Brian Gramentz said.

Dave Berg, owner of the Ulmer Café in New Ulm said he expects a state, or federal smoking ban in restaurants sometime down the road, but until then, he intends to retain his smoking section.

"There's bigger things to make an issue of than a little bit of smoke," Berg said.

About 85 percent of customers at the Kaiserhoff in New Ulm request nonsmoking, but over the recent Octoberfest weekends, many who asked for nonsmoking seating opted for smoking booths in the bar when told there was a waiting list for the main dining area, said Denise Borson, assistant manager.

"Maybe it's a matter of how hungry you are," Borson said.

About 60 percent of customers at Chumly's Burger & Brew in Redwood Falls light up after dinner, said part owner Ron Vagle. A ban would hurt his business, but not as much as if it was strictly a bar.

"I always felt that that's part of going to the bars," Vagle said. "If there's liquor, there's cigarettes, too."

Karen Erpestad, owner of Paradise Alley in Heron Lake estimates 25 percent of her bowlers are nonsmokers. A separate nonsmoking room serves as a dining area.

"I'm not one; my husband is. I can sure see the nonsmoker's point of view," Erpestad said. "But when 75 percent of your customers are smokers, it's going to be pretty tough to do it any different."

The day smoking is banned in Dawson is the day she skips work, joked Becky Ucker, head waitress at the Swedish Inn.

"Seriously though, we just have one table that is for smoking, and then there's the employee table," Ucker said. "We have our dice shakers and some little old ladies that come in and smoke, and they sit back there. When the dice guys come, there's been up to 12 on (the table)."

Some diners who arrive separately sit at the table together in order to smoke, Ucker said.

A good share of Stacey Porter's clientele at the Daily Grind & Tobacco Pouch in Willmar smoke, since he also sells cigars and pipe tobacco in a small smoking room off to one side. He said a smoking ban would put a "kibosh" on his business.

"Once in a great while somebody might smell smoke, and they'll make a comment," Porter said. "A lot of coffee shops don't allow smoking."

LuLu Beans in Willmar is one of these shops, although smokers are welcome in summer to smoke outdoors on the patio, Cindy Swenson said.

"Definitely I alienated a segment of the population, but I get enough people who are willing to pay $3 for a cup of coffee who don't want smoke in their face," Swenson said.

Deidra Anderson also enforces a smoke-free policy at the Green Lake Emporium in Spicer, primarily because she also sells gift items.

"I just don't want smoke setting into the things I sell," Anderson said.

Business would barely change at the Panda House in Worthington if the city went smoke-free, said Fan Phomastry, a waitress.

"Most of our customers here are nonsmokers," Phomastry said. "Our percentage is very low."

(Nancy L. Torner formerly was a journalist with the Center for Rural and Regional Studies at Southwest Minnesota State University in Marshall. Terry Davis, staff writer with the Hutchinson Leader in Hutchinson, and Cindy Votruba and Rae Kruger, staff writers for the Independent in Marshall also contributed to this story.)