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Local couple proposing hookah bar for downtown
A local couple's dream of opening a hookah bar in downtown Greencastle may go up in smoke before it draws its first breath.
If the city's existing smoke-free law can't be amended, Blake and Destiny Doolin will likely have a difficult time opening a hookah bar -- an establishment where patrons share shisha from a communal waterpipe at each table -- within city limits.
The Doolins came before the Greencastle City Council at its February meeting to make their intentions known. However, the city's existing smoke-free ordinance casts a cloud over the possibility, it was pointed out.
City Attorney Laurie Hardwick noted that the city adopted a smoke-free ordinance several years ago, not a tobacco-free version.
Had a tobacco-free ordinance been put in place, the hookah bar could legally operate without amending the ordinance because hookah bars or lounges have transitioned from smoking traditional shisha (a syrupy tobacco mix containing molasses and vegetable glycerol which is smoked in a hookah) to smoking herbal shisha because it contains no tobacco, or nicotine and is considered legal indoors in areas that specifically prohibit tobacco smoking.
So the local question is not a zoning issue and wouldn't necessitate action by the Zoning Board or Plan Commission. Instead, making it legitimate would require action by the City Council, Hardwick said.
Since the city ordinance is more restrictive than the state legislation, the city could make an exception for hooka bars or cigar bars, she noted.
The City Council, however, wasn't ready to do that at its February meeting as Councilman Dave Murray made a motion to take the matter under advisement. That motion passed unanimously.
"Given what the city went through when this (smoke-free ordinance) went in," Murray commented, "at first blush, my feeling is not to encourage this."
Nonetheless, the Doolins said they hope to "create an atmosphere for younger people and college students" with a goal of helping decrease under-age drinking locally.
They would be open Thursday through Sunday from 5 p.m. with live local music on Saturday and game night perhaps with a pool tournament on Friday, offering an alternative place for young people "to hang out." The Doolins have their eyes on a Washington Street storefront.
The couple also hope to give back to the community should their project gain approval and prosper. They proposed presenting one $1,000 scholarship to each of the four county schools annually.
Meanwhile, in another downtown-related request, DePauw University received permission to close South Indiana Street between Washington and Walnut streets (alongside Starbucks and in front of Moore's Bar and Tap 24) on Friday, June 9 during Alumni Reunion Weekend.
"The idea is to bring alumni to the town square to see the renovation and the new businesses," university spokesman Angie Nally said.
While the alumni event will run 9-11 p.m., the street closing will be from 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. to facilitate set-up and clean-up.