The City of Kosciusko is considering amending its current smoking ordinance to allow for a new cigar business to open up shop. Owner of Spring Street Cigars John Higgins addressed the Board of Aldermen at its recent March 15 meeting, requesting a change to the city’s smoking ordinance in hopes that Higgins could bring his cigar business to Kosciusko. The aldermen will vote on the proposal at its April 4 meeting.
Currently, the ordinance prohibits smoking in enclosed public places including galleries, libraries, and museums; areas available to and customarily used by the general public in businesses and nonprofit entities patronized by the public, including but not limited to banks, laundromats, professional offices, and retail service establishments; bars; bingo facilities; childcare and adult day care facilities; convention facilities; private and public education facilities; elevators; gaming facilities; healthcare facilities; hotels and motels, including at least 60 percent of rooms that are rented to guests; lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in multiple-unit residential facilities; polling places; private clubs being used for a function to which the general public is invited; public transportation facilities, including buses and taxicabs; restaurants; retail stores; rooms, chambers, places of meeting or public assembly, including school buildings; service lines; shopping malls; sports arenas; and theaters.
Exemptions to the smoking ordinance include motels — which are allowed to have 40 percent of rooms where smoking is permissible — and private residences.
The proposed language reads, “Smoking lounges engaged in the sale and use of cigars and/or pipes that are located within a stand-alone building that allows commercial uses. Buildings that physically adjoin adjacent buildings but are located on a separate legal lot shall be considered stand-alone if physically separated by a firewall or some other impenetrable physical boundary. Areas with a building that are separated by a Condo Declaration are not considered stand-alone.”
Kyle said he is in favor of the city being smoke-free but added that people who wish to go to the cigar lounge will go with the intent to be around smoke.
“I am 100 percent smoke-free. I support that a million times. I mean, you never think of how nice it is going into a restaurant not having smoke all around you until you go somewhere where it doesn't have that. I support that 100 percent,” said Kyle. “With this, they're asking for an exception so they can have a smoking lounge, and I'm fine with that and the fact that if you go there to smoke, you're going with the intention. This is not invading somebody else's airspace or your privacy not to be around smoke. This is a facility where if you go there, you know you’re going because you want to smoke a cigar.”
The business plans to locate in the building near the President’s Inn that was formerly occupied by Jordan’s Law Office. Kyle said the company plans to use humidifiers and an air filtration system to filter the smoke.
In addition to smoking lounges, the cigar shop also plans to create a regional warehouse to service their locations.
Higgins said he is excited to potentially do business in Kosciusko, and he would like to focus on being involved in the downtown scene.
“We have a tremendous premium cigar retail business in Northern Mississippi. We are anxious to expand into central and southern Mississippi, and we would like to use Kosciusko as our regional distribution center,” said Higgins. “In addition to that, we want to have a small retail store in the front of the building. We definitely want to come downtown because we believe in supporting downtowns in small town Mississippi locations, and this is a great location for us in Kosciusko.”
Based in Tupelo, Spring Street Cigars is the largest premium cigar store in the state. The company was founded in 2014 and currently has five locations in Tupelo, Oxford, Booneville, Southaven, and Starkville. Other than Kosciusko, two new locations are also being built in Meridian and Olive Branch.
According to information provided to the city by Spring Street Cigars, the company will focus on premium, hand-rolled cigars, pipes, and pipe tobacco. Public and private smoking lounges will be provided along with private memberships and premium cigar educational events and promotions.
