Council continues tobacco-free policy discussion

RED OAK — The Red Oak City Council discussed areas to potentially be made tobacco-free within the city limits at last  Monday’s regular meeting.

A presentation at a September meeting by the Free People from Tobacco group encouraged the Council to make parks tobacco-free in addition to already being smoke-free. At that time, the city was still waiting to see if it had been accepted into Blue Zones. Adopting a tobacco-free policy would qualify for points toward the Blue Zones’ mission so no action was taken at that time.

During Monday’s discussion, though, City Administrator Brad Wright asked the council whether they should amend the current ordinance, which makes all city property smoke-free, to switch to tobacco-free or if there should be a separate ordinance making only parks tobacco-free.

“It would be simpler to have one (ordinance) that affects both instead of trying to say, ‘you can chew here and smoke there;’ it would just be simpler to have it all the same,” Council member Jeanice Lester said.

Council member Scott Keith agreed with Lester, but Wright mentioned the potential complications this overall tobacco-free ordinance could create.

“It’s easy for me because I don’t smoke and I don’t chew, but I do know there will be city employees affected by it,” he said. “So keep that in mind, because if you do it overall like smoke-free, it will affect employees who chew, making them comply with the same regulations smokers now do.”  

Council member Fred Pilecki asked if people spitting chewing tobacco on city property was a problem in Red Oak.

Wright answered, saying the City already has an ordinance against spitting on the sidewalks so someone could be sited for that, but he added the larger concern, at least for the Free People for Tobacco group, was the negative influence chewing tobacco could have on young people at parks.

Wright also added this ordinance would be unenforceable, aside from signs on city properties and/or parks, which he said made him struggle on this matter.

The discussion concluded with a motion by Keith and second by Lester for Wright to rewrite the current ordinance to read all city property to be tobacco-free. The new ordinance will be voted on at a future council meeting.

In other business, the council unanimously voted to adopt the code of ordinances in Red Oak to add a new chapter imposing the hotel/motel tax.

Lester, who also is the council representative for the newly formed Red Oak Recreation and Tourism committee that will be responsible for the distribution of funds from the tax, said the committee has met and plans to have a draft of the application to the council for approval by March.

The first distribution of funds will be sometime during the summer.