MALL MAY PROHIBIT SMOKING

Gerry Dormeyer likes to light up when she's out shopping.

But as of July 1, the Cape Girardeau woman and other shoppers won't be able to smoke in the public areas at 13 St. Louis area shopping centers.

"I'm getting a little sick and tired of this (no) smoking business," Dormeyer said as she puffed away, while sitting on a wooden bench in West Park Mall's Venture court Monday afternoon. "It's getting pretty disgusting if you ask me," said the longtime smoker.

So far, West Park Mall hasn't joined the no-smoking bandwagon, but it's conceivable it could.

"We were considering it, but then we lost our center manager, so we are kind of in a holding pattern," said Karie Hollerbach, assistant manager and marketing director of the Cape Girardeau mall.

West Park's manager Tony Stephens resigned in April to take a job as manager of a shopping mall and retail strip center in Illinois.

Hollerbach said a new mall manager is expected to take over by July.

West Park Mall is managed by CenterMark Properties of St. Louis, which also operates the South County, West County and Mid Rivers malls. Those malls are among the St. Louis-area shopping centers that are going smoke-free, beginning next month.

The policy, established out of concern about the health risks from second-hand smoke, only applies to the public areas of the malls, and not individual stores.

Hollerbach said the impending smoking ban at St. Louis malls was initiated by the mall managers themselves and not by CenterMark.

"They have not dictated to us," she said.

Missouri's malls have had designated smoking areas for more than a year, the result of a 1992 state law that severely limits smoking in indoor, public areas. The law allows operators of malls and other indoor public spaces to set aside as much as 30 percent of their areas for smoking.

"Right now, you can still smoke in our mall, but you have to go to a designated area," said Hollerbach. The designated areas are the courts in front of Venture, JCPenney and Famous Barr department stores.

Smoking is not permitted at center court or in other public areas of the mall. "Thank you for not smoking" signs greet shoppers in most areas of the mall.

Hollerbach said most smokers have been considerate about not lighting up except in the designated areas. "A lot of customers who do smoke have approached our security guards and asked if this is a smoke-free mall," she said.

Smoker Edith Edwards of Piedmont hates the whole idea of banning smoking in malls. "I think that is a bunch of crap," said Edwards, who enjoyed a cigarette at the mall's Venture Court Monday afternoon.

Edwards isn't concerned about the health risks. "I know we are going to die for everything and anything."

If West Park Mall were to ban smoking entirely in its public places, Edwards said she would probably go other places to shop.

The whole idea of malls, she said, is to cater to customers, including shoppers who smoke.

She noted that the mall's designated smoking areas are used not just by shoppers, but also employees. "I saw the girl from the bank just come out and smoke," she said.

Edwards' daughter, Beverly Meyer of Jackson, doesn't smoke. "I am a non-smoker in an all-smokers family," she said. But Meyer said smokers should have a right to light up in the mall. "An area like this, I don't see where it hurts," said Meyer.