The Pool Hall in Portage la Prairie's north end, Smoke Break Billiards, has approval to begin hosting social functions.

At its meeting this week, city council approved a conditional use application from Proud Smoke Holdings, which operates the pool hall at 601 Tupper Street N, to allow a banquet hall for a one-year term -- in line with a parking agreement Smoke Break has with the nearby Ukrainian Catholic Church to handle the potential increased traffic social functions may bring.

"I just really felt while we want to support the development of facilities and that group has indicated there is lots of demand for that, we have to match that with the realities of the area," said Coun. Brent Budz, who tabled the amended motion to limit the use application to one-year. "Without ample parking social functions do not work there ... It's basically one year, and we'll see how things go for that group in that future."

A resident who lives near the pool hall, Maureen Greenlay, spoke against the application. She expressed concerns over the type of behaviour and atmosphere social functions may bring back into the neighbourhood

"We've had people yelling, talking loud out of there, the occasional fight. I sit up late at night because I can't sleep. I see all this," she said. "The other day I was very upset and I was going to go out and tie into four young men. They were standing on the corner of my street on the parking lot, passing a toke back and forth in broad daylight. I don't mind stuff like that if they do it in private, and I'm not objecting to that stuff if that's the law."

"What I'm objecting to," continued Greenlay. "I don't like to see this coming back into the neighbourhood. Having that kind of atmosphere come back into the neighbourhood is not a good idea. I stand firm on that, and I even bought a pool cue cause I want to learn. But that's my objection, big time."

Dave Kirkbride, a spokesperson for the Smoke Break Billiards, says the pool hall is simply trying to accommodate a demand as several requests have come in already from people wanting to rent out the space.

"We're looking to provide that for the community. People ask for it, we're going to do our best to help them out," he said. "There's socials all over the place and we obviously don't want any troubles. We're hoping to just give people a place to have a good time in a controlled environment and go from there."

"The possibility exists anywhere for trouble," continued Kirkbride. "And we hope that there will be no trouble and we don't anticipate any trouble."

See related story:
"Pool Hall to Open in Portage"