BLOOMINGTON - You will be able to smoke in Bloomington parks but not Normal parks after January 2007.

That is the only difference between the two cities' ban on smoking in public places, including taverns and restaurants, now that the Bloomington City Council approved a comprehensive ordinance by a 5-4 vote Monday.

After 40 minutes of wrangling through different proposed exemptions from the ban, the one exemption that made it through allows smoking in places of outdoor public assembly, such as outdoor concerts at Miller Park.

Aldermen Kevin Huette, J. "Skip" Crawford, Mike Matejka and John Hanson voted in favor of the comprehensive ban with the outdoor exemption, pushing the issue to a tie. Mayor Steve Stockton cast the tie-breaking vote to approve the ban. The ban would go into effect Jan. 1, 2007, the same day as the one approved by the Normal City Council.

"Out of all the compromises proposed, that is the one we could agree to," said Dr. John Krueger from a local coalition lobbying for the smoking ban.

In fact, Krueger said the ordinance is what the coalition was looking for in an indoor smoking ban. The Normal City Council took the extra step by adding outdoor public assemblies, he added.

"We don't see this as a compromise of the indoor act," Krueger said.

Barbara Taft, an attorney representing the independent bar and restaurant owners in Bloomington, said the ban will lead to some businesses closing.

"Obviously we are horribly disappointed in this," Taft said. "What we heard tonight was this vote was done because the council had to walk out of here with some kind of ordinance. It's been a long three months, but that should not be the basis of the final vote."

Huette, Crawford and Hanson, who voted for the ban, and Aldermen Steven Purcell and Allen Gibson, who voted against the ban, all said they were voting as their constituents wanted.

After about 45 minutes of discussing their positions on a possible ordinance, the aldermen took an initial vote on an ordinance identical to Normal's, with no exemptions.

That failed by a 6-2 vote. Huette and Crawford voted for the ordinance while Purcell, Karen Schmidt, Matejka, Jim Finnegan, Gibson and Hanson voted against.

Between rounds of voting for different options, Stockton warned aldermen, "If people don't compromise we may get a full ban."

One area of compromise several aldermen focused on was tavern liquor licenses. Normal only offers liquor licenses for restaurants, but Bloomington has restaurant and tavern licenses.

Schmidt, who represents Ward 6, which includes downtown, proposed a permanent exemption from the ban for establishments holding tavern licenses.

That failed by a 5-3 vote with Schmidt, Matejka and Gibson voting for it.

That prompted Hanson to offer a motion that exempted tavern liquor license holders until Jan. 1, 2008, giving tavern owners a year before coming under the ban. That failed by a 6-2 vote with Matejka and Hanson the only "yes" votes.

Before the final version of the ordinance was put to a vote, Matejka said: "We owe it to the community to do something. We need to vote on this with great caution because we are talking about people's livelihoods, but we have to have something that shows a nonsmoking mandate."