Lebanon
The City Council is scheduled on Wednesday to discuss a proposal that would prohibit smoking in roughly a dozen public spaces, including Colburn Park, the pedestrian mall, Storrs Hill Ski Area and outside both Lebanon libraries.
The ordinance would forbid smoking within 25 feet of the entrances and exits of all city-owned buildings. The proposal does include designated smoking areas in some public places. A draft on the city’s website calls for escalating fines for each violation. If approved, the ordinance would take effect on June 19.
“We’re not telling people they cannot smoke,” Paul Coats, Lebanon’s director of recreation and parks, said in an interview last week. “We’re just trying to curtail it in areas where people who are not smokers can freely come in and out of buildings, or enjoy our parks.”
Smoking regulations have long been in the works for the city, Coats said, in part out of concern about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke. Complaints from non-smokers also pushed the ban forward, he said.
“We’ve been getting a lot of customer complaints,” Coats said, adding those complaints are primarily caused by smokers outside of City Hall and the Kilton Public Library.
Both locations are in busy corridors and are near some of the Advance Transit bus service’s busiest stops, he said.
Smoking in both the front and rear of the Kilton Public Library has traditionally led to conflict between smokers and non-smokers, said Lebanon Library Director Sean Fleming. And although the entrances to the library are already designated as no-smoking areas, it’s difficult for his staff to enforce it because it’s such a frequent problem.
“It would be impossible for our staff to stop smoking in front,” he said.
“It would be like trying to remove the pigeons we have in front of the Lebanon Library by going and trying to shoo them away,” Fleming joked.
The library has taken several steps in the past to mitigate the problem, including purchasing receptacles for cigarette butts and placing them away from the entrance.
Kilton library also unlocked two emergency exits, so patrons have more choices of where to enter the building.
Still, Fleming said, the ordinance would be a welcomed change.
Van Chesnut, the executive director of Advance Transit, said he’s also in favor of a city ordinance, one that allows officials to designate areas for smokers.
“I’ve heard complaints and I’ve known for a while that this ordinance was being crafted,” he said. “I think it’s a good effort, a good way to find compromise with this situation.”
Advance Transit buses are smoke free, Chesnut said, and stops around the Upper Valley often become places for people to smoke before getting on board. But AT riders aren’t the only ones smoking.
“Places like City Hall, even though there’s a bus outlet and a bench, there’s always a lot of people that sit around the steps there and a lot of them smoke,” he said.
While smokers outside the Kilton Public Library agreed that the proposed rules could help solve conflicts, they also were skeptical things would get better right away.
“You ban something, they’re going to do it anyway,” said Alanna Sarazin, who lives near the West Lebanon library.
Sarazin pointed to the current signs outside the library prohibiting smoking, and said people don’t follow those rules now.
“They’ll still throw their cigarettes, which I think is wrong,” she said. “Designating smoking areas, I think that would be a good idea, but not completely banning it.”
Malcolm Hasty, who was smoking as he awaited an Advance Transit bus near the library, said he also supports having a separate area for smokers.
“This little corner just kind of congests with people that do and do not smoke,” he said. “I’m a smoker myself, but at the same time, I wouldn’t want somebody blowing smoke in my face.”
The ban could inconvenience those who need to stay close to work during a smoke break.
“I guess I would have to hide over there on the sidewalk or something like that if I was actually going to smoke a cigarette in this area,” said Jonathan Webster, who was on break on Monday from his job at the Lebanon Diner on the pedestrian mall.
“It’s convenient. I can sit down right here and kind of relax,” he said of the bench outside the diner. “It’s nice to be able to smoke right here.”
Smokers also were concerned about possible fines — $50 for a first offense, $100 for a second, and $200 for a third — levied under the proposal.
Coats, the recreation director, said he hopes compliance wouldn’t require police involvement. Rather, he said, a public information campaign before the ordinance’s rollout and simply asking people to smoke in designated areas should be enough.
“Police are not looking to hand out fines,” he said. “However, that is permitted under the ordinance, that we could hand out fines if that came to it.”
The city’s attorney has signed off on the regulations, finding it consistent with state statutes. If the Lebanon council were to approve the ordinance, it would join both Claremont and Newport in banning smoking on most city property.
Claremont banned smoking from Barnes. Monadnock and Veterans parks, along with the front section of Moody Park in 2014. Like Lebanon’s proposed ordinance, Claremont offers to designate smoking locations in those parks.
The Lebanon City Council is scheduled to discuss the proposed smoking ban at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in City Hall.
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.