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Tick. Tock. Puff. Puff.

The countdown to the new year has begun and bar patrons are lighting up all over town — while they still can.

Another deadline is looming. Oregon’s new Smoke-free Workplace Law will go into effect at 12:01 a.m. for bars starting on New Year’s Day.

“Will I stand outside? I guess so,” said Jim Luther, a smoker who was hanging out at Gooney’s Sports Bar in Coos Bay. “I worry about it, but I can’t fight politics.”

Luther, like many smokers, isn’t looking forward to the new law, but he plans to abide by it.

At local bars, most smokers are preparing mostly with reluctant submissiveness, but not all.

Blue Moon Restaurant & Lounge bartender Kathleen Barko said she has been against the law since she first heard about it.

“I think the president should veto it,” Barko said angrily. “We didn’t get to vote on it.”

Canon Lingreen, a 10-year Blue Moon customer, echoed the sentiment, saying he enjoys smoking when sitting at a bar.

“Now it will be the same no matter where I go.” Lingreen said.

As to the law’s impacts on business, bar owners don’t seem too worried. There may be a slowdown in the beginning, but in the long run it may increase business, said Lori Ross, who owns Gooney’s with her husband, Ron Ross.

“We have food here,” Lori said. “I’m looking forward to getting more people in to eat.”

Both former smokers, Ron and Lori say they’re thankful they already have an outdoor beer garden. It will allow their customers to stand at least 10 feet away from the building’s doors or windows, as is specified by Senate Bill 571. But the Rosses feel bad for their smoking customers.

“Who’s going to sit out there in the middle of January?” asked Ron.

They’re also not sure they like the government telling them what they can allow in their own business, but have resigned themselves to it.

Enforcement will be complaint-driven. Once a complaint comes in, Stephen Brown, Coos County’s tobacco prevention program coordinator, will send a letter to the bar owner making sure the individual knows the law. If a second complaint is filed, Brown will visit the site and the owner will have to complete a remediation plan.

“We’re not going to be going out patrolling,” Brown said.

If the bar owner still doesn’t comply, the case will be turned over to the state, which can charge $500 a day while a bar is in violation, but not more than $2,000 in a month.

There’s a catch in the law, though. It doesn’t mandate smokeless casinos, which are run by Indian tribes. Lori said she worries she may lose customers to The Mill Casino-Hotel in North Bend.

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll see an increase of guests, but I think our main draw is still gaming, not whether someone can smoke here,” said Ray Doering, The Mill’s communications coordinator. “In fact, we have a very large facility where people can game that’s completely non-smoking.”

Like the Rosses, some tavern owners are looking at ways to put outdoor smoking areas on their properties, but far enough away from their buildings to meet the law. The biggest obstacle is expense.

“I don’t have the space or the money to build an enclosure,” said Blue Moon Restaurant & Lounge owner Natalie-Monique Ocampo. “Right now my plan is to put up an awning with a heater and call it a day.”

With that she might be faced with providing security personnel outdoors and dealing with noise complaints from neighbors, she said.

There are some businesses around town that went smoke free years ago.

Roger Scott, the owner of Roger’s Zoo in North Bend, hasn’t allowed smoking since he re-opened his bar and pizzeria in 1996.

When he first announced his smokeless policies he took a lot of flak from customers.

“People told me they would picket,” Scott said. “I told them I’d give them the paint and the buckets to make the signs.”

The impetus for Oregon’s law is to protect people’s health. Luther prefers to smoke while drinking, but he thinks the law might influence him to take up that healthier lifestyle.

“Do you think maybe I’ll quit smoking?” Luther asked himself. “I wonder.”

“I’d like to quit it,” said Kevin Ansboro, who joined in the conversation.

For nonsmokers, it’s annoying having to endure other people’s smoke.

“In smoky bars, you walk out and you stink all night long,” said former bartender Carla Mobley.

These days she stops in across town at the newer Walt’s Pourhouse, which has been a non-smoking tavern since it opened in June. Owner Natalie Speidel is a little worried about the new law. Her business caters to customers who come specifically to eat and drink in a smoke-free establishment.

“I think it’s one of the main reasons we’ve done so well,” Speidel said.

Now, she’ll have more competition, as her customers have more options come Thursday.

— Reedsport reporter Jack Carrerow contributed to this story.