Morgan Reedy spent Friday afternoon at Free State Brewery, smoking a cigarette while he shared drinks and food with a pair of friends.

“If you go to a bar,” Reedy said, “it’s going to smell like smoke.”

That could change in Lawrence.

Mayor David Dunfield on Tuesday will appoint a six-member Smoking Task Force that could lead to a ban on tobacco use in bars and restaurants, as was done this year in Salina.

“That would be one possible outcome,” Dunfield said. “I’m instructing this task force not to propose a solution, but to give us alternatives based on what other communities are doing.

“Those alternatives range from doing nothing to a ban.”

Members of the task force are David Kingsley of GRI Research; Peach Madl of The Sandbar; Chuck Magerl of Free State Brewery; Scott Hazelitt of GLPM Architects; Dave Hiebert, a Lawrence arts benefactor; and Judy Keller, executive director of the American Lung Association of Kansas.

The study should take about six months, Dunfield said. No meetings have been scheduled.

Not everyone on the task force is ready to back a ban.

“It’s hard for me to imagine an issue that I have more contradictory opinions about,” Magerl said.

Magerl is a nonsmoker, but he has customers who light up.

Do you support a ban on smoking in Lawrence clubs and bars? Yes. No. Undecided. ¢See the results »Note: This is not a scientific poll. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

“To suggest they are not welcome to do so in a private business is one of those challenging concepts,” he said. “It strikes to the core of the word ‘hospitality’ in the hospitality business.”

Dunfield and then-Mayor Sue Hack discussed the task force long before this month’s City Commission election — but they decided to wait, not wanting to affect the election outcome.

“It’s one of those issues that has a lot of emotional content attached to it,” Dunfield said.

Even Reedy was philosophical about the prospect of a ban. He said he could always smoke on his back porch.

It might even encourage some healthy habits.

“Smoking,” Reedy said, “is evil.”

¢ 6News video: Task force to look into smoking ban¢ Guide lists area restaurants where smoking has been banned (1-29-2003)¢ City not ready to fire up Salina-style smoking ban (1-11-2003)¢ Smoking ban in restaurants begins in Salina (1-10-02)¢ Salina smoking memo from city manager¢ Executive summary of Salina ordinance¢ More about Lawrence restaurants