Ordinance Review Committee Focuses on Tobacco Free Parks

BY MELANIE BUCK –

The City of Mena Ordinance Review Committee met on Monday, July 18 at City Hall to discuss the longtime issue of smoking in city parks and also business location requirements of Advertising and Promotion Commission members.

The committee first discussed smoking in city parks. Currently City Ordinance 2211, Section IV states: “All parks shall be designated as no smoking parks with smoking prohibited in all areas of the parks except in designated smoking areas…” Each of the city’s three parks, Janssen, McMillan, and Aubrey Tapley, all have designated smoking areas.

There was much discussion during the meeting to replaced Section IV with a comprehensive smoke free policy that would not allow any tobacco products in any city park in Mena. Tobacco products include cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco such as dip, snuff, and chew.

Bobby Willborg, of the Arkansas Health Department, also attended the meeting and explained what a ‘comprehensive police’ would entail and the language that would need to be used when amending the existing ordinance. “Comprehensive policy would eliminate confusion of where designated areas are or aren’t,” said Willborg. He also pointed out that children in parks seeing adults smoke does not provide good role modeling and litter issues also become a problem.

Committee member Andy Brown said that wads of dip can be seen around the ball fields at Aubrey Tapley Park, leaving unsavory conditions for children to play in the dirt in those areas. Another committee member said they have heard complaints of cigarette butts on the playground at Janssen Park saying that small children pick them up, some try to eat them, causing health risks for playground visitors.

Willborg told the committee that if they amended the current ordinance to a comprehensive policy, that the state Health Department would provide signage free of charge for each park.

The current penalty for being caught smoking in undesignated areas is $50 and/or removal from the event or location.

The amended Section IV of Ordinance 2211 would state: “…tobacco use is prohibited in indoor/outdoor city owned parks and recreational facilities.”

The amendment will also define ‘tobacco’ as “any product containing, made, or derived from tobacco that is intended for human consumptions, whether chewed, smoked, absorbed, dissolved, inhaled, snorted, sniffed, or ingested by any other means or component, part, or accessory of a tobacco product to include but not limited to: any lighted or unlighted cigarette, cigar, pipe, and any other smoking product, and spit tobacco, also known as smokeless, dip, chew, snus, and snuff, in any form including, e-cigarette and Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems.”

After much more discussion, the committee voted to send the amendment before the full City Council for approval at their next meeting. If you have any questions or concerns about the amendment, contact any City Council member.

There was also discussion from the committee on requirements of board members and officers of the Mena Advertising and Promotion Commission. The committee voted to amend a section of that ordinance to make clear that any representative of the Mena A & P (with exception of one member-at-large and two City Council members) that owns a restaurant or lodging facility would have to have that business located in Mena and their residence must be located in the county in order to qualify to hold a position on the commission. That amendment will also be discussed at the next meeting of City Council on August 9, 2016 at 6 p.m. in City Hall.

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Jeri Pearson

Jeri is the News Director for Pulse Multi-Media and Editor of The Polk County Pulse. She has 10 years of experience in community focused journalism and has won multiple press association awards.

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