Mayor Lynn Spruill had not considered that Starkville could be home to a cigar shop and lounge until a business owner from Tupelo approached the city with the idea about a month ago.
“I think of those as much more focused (on) urban areas like New York or Chicago, and I didn’t realize they had them in other places in Mississippi,” Spruill said after Tuesday’s board of aldermen meeting.
Now that Spring Street Cigars owner John Higgins of Tupelo has made his case to both the public and city leaders, Spruill said she thinks the prospect of a downtown cigar lounge is “kind of cool,” and members of the board of aldermen agree.
“I think it sounds like a nice addition to downtown,” Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty said during the meeting.
The city will have to amend its anti-smoking ordinance, which bans indoor smoking at most public places, in order for Higgins to set up shop at the northwest corner of Main and Washington streets, the vacant former home of Mugshots Grill and Bar.
The current ordinance bans smoking of any kind in most public places but makes exceptions for private clubs, designated rooms in hotels or motels and stores that sell tobacco or electronic cigarettes and are “not adjoined or physically connected to another business or residence.”
The proposed ordinance change would add a smoking lounge — “which, as its primary business purpose, promotes the sale and use of tobacco-based cigars and/or hookahs on its premises” — to the list of exceptions, according to documents provided with the meeting agenda. These lounges would have to be located within standalone commercial buildings in the city’s leisure and entertainment district, which allows open containers of alcohol throughout most of downtown and the Cotton District.
Tuesday was the first of two required public hearings on the ordinance change. Aldermen can vote on the measure after the second scheduled hearing Dec. 15.
The board voted 3-3 in July, with Spruill breaking the tie in Ward 3 Alderman David Little’s absence, to create the temporary leisure and entertainment district in an attempt to bolster businesses that have struggled due to the COVID-19 pandemic limiting activity. The temporary district has no set expiration date, so the aldermen must take it up for another vote if they ever decide to discontinue it.
Higgins is a Mississippi State University alumnus and said he has always wanted to open a Spring Street Cigars location in Starkville. He opened the original location in Tupelo in 2014 and now has locations in Oxford and Booneville, as well as one set to open in Southaven in early 2021.
He told the board at the first public hearing for the proposed ordinance change that all kinds of cigarettes, including electronic ones, are not allowed in his stores and lounges.
“If you’re going to spend $15 for a cigar and spend an hour smoking it, you’re going to want a very professional, clean environment,” Higgins said.
He also said he hopes to “keep as much of the old, historic, downtown look of this building as we possibly can.” Spruill said she is not aware of anyone else expressing interest in occupying the former Mugshots building in the past few years.
Higgins was the only member of the public who spoke in favor of the proposed change, and Ward 7 resident Alvin Turner was the only one who spoke against it. He said he hopes the changes do not make the ordinance “redundant” or “cause misunderstandings.”
In addition to Beatty, Aldermen Henry Vaughn of Ward 7, Ben Carver of Ward 1 and Sandra Sistrunk of Ward 2 said they support the ordinance change and look forward to Spring Street Cigars possibly coming to Starkville.
“We’re trying very hard to respect the concepts of our original non-smoking ordinance, and I think we’ve hit the sweet spot,” Sistrunk said.
Ward 3’s David Little, Ward 4’s Jason Walker and Vice Mayor Roy A. Perkins of Ward 6 offered no comments during the hearing.
Spruill said she advocated for the city’s anti-smoking ordinance when it was first enacted in 2006 and was “very proud” of it. However, she said, she supports the proposed change because it is “a very specific and different kind of use that is very tailored” and will not interfere with other forms of downtown leisure such as restaurants.
“If all they’re doing (inside the lounge) is smoking and drinking beer, I’m not worried about it,” Spruill said.
Tess Vrbin was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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