For the first time since smoking was banned inside Omaha businesses, some are now legally lighting up. A special license has been granted to a Benson business, the first within Omaha city limits.

A smoky bar hasn't been seen in Omaha in quite some time. The city outlawed the habit at such places in June 2008. Strict tobacco retailers were the exception.

"I can't tell you how many times I'd be at a bar, and I'd just reek. I didn't really care for that, so I was pretty happy they banned it." A state ban on smoking took effect this past June.

By September, LB 355 was enacted, creating a new class of liquor license. It allows cigar smoking at certain establishments which meet requirements of the Nebraska Liquor Commission.

The bill is a major benefit to business owners like John Larkin of Jake’s Cigar Bar & Spirits, 62nd & Maple. "It's right in our name, Jake's Cigars,” he says, “and to not be able to smoke in the business was very tough, and now that we can, we expect cigar sales to go back up."

Monday, Larkin was granted a license that allows cigar smoking. To obtain the license, a business must have a class c liquor license and earning at least 10% of business from sales of tobacco or tobacco products. They cannot serve food outside of unprepared bar snacks, and they must have a walk-in humidor. A license costs $1,000, and it does not allow cigarette smoking.

With the first such license granted in Omaha, some familiar arguments resurface. “There is absolutely no safe level of second-hand smoke exposure," says Mark Welsch, president of the Group to Alleviate Smoking Pollution.

"I think it's terribly wrong for the legislature to allow people to be poisoned when they're in any work place, including cigar bars or tobacco only retail stores.”

To that, Larkin says, "My bartenders all know that this is going to be a smoking environment now. If they absolutely have objections to it, they can work on the side with no smoke or they can get a job somewhere else."

He points to a high-tech air purifier recently installed, to help suck up much of the smoke. While some of it lingers into a room outside of the smoking area, it doesn’t seem to bother customers.

Daniel Holland of Omaha, a non-smoker, says, “I think it's definitely the person's right to do it, so I'd definitely support it."

Welsch tells Channel 6 News another big concern of his. “When you're right next to an adjoining business that doesn't allow smoking and you allow smoking, some of that smoke is going to get into that other business.” He says he’s helping to mediate some issues right now with businesses adjoining other tobacco retailers.

However, employees at a comic book store, next to Jake's, say the smoke-eating machine the bar is using appears to be working. They say they haven’t noticed any smells seeping through their wall and have not fielded any complaints from customers.

Cigarro's, in West Omaha, has also been issued a license to allow cigar and pipe smoking, but the business is currently closed for renovations.

Welsch vows to continue to lobby lawmakers, in hopes of getting LB 355 reversed.