Smokers, supporters to fight ban
Veteran Evicted After New Smoking Ban In Apartment Complex
9/8/13
NEWINGTON, Conn. –
90 year old Newington Resident Andy Nowicki started smoking 70 years ago, while serving in the United States Army, during World War II. And, it’s this habit that has brought him and his wife to the brink of eviction from the apartment they have called home for 20 years.
On January 1, 2012, the Newington Housing Authority banned smoking inside all enclosed areas in the three housing complexes they oversee. And, they mandated that smoking only be done at least ten feet from any of these buildings. This has caused major problems for Mr. Nowicki, who uses a wheelchair and can barely walk.
Until recently, he would smoke right outside his apartment door, inside a breezeway. But, the Executive Director of the Newington Housing Authority, Melinda Harvey, says a complaint for an anonymous resident and observations by NHA staff led to the eviction notice.
Nowicki says he is now in compliance, but there is still a court date set for September 3 at Hartford Housing Court. Mediation will be the goal of that session. And agreement would be best not only for Mr. Nowicki, but also his 90 year old wife, who suffers from advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
“This is the last place she’s known for almost 20 years. So, to have to take her and tell her she doesn’t live here anymore and put her in somewhere else would be just really confusing for her,” says Shayna Golet, who is the Nowicki’s granddaughter.
Andy Nowicki won a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts during the war. He was a combat infantryman fighting the Nazis in Africa, Italy, France and Germany. The army is where he picked up his smoking habit 70 years ago because Uncle Sam provided soldiers with free cigarettes during the war.
– myfoxphilly.com/story/23250881/smoking-veteran-evicted
UPDATE
Pact Allows Newington Veteran To Avoid Eviction Over Smoking
September 17, 2013|By CHRISTOPHER HOFFMAN, Special to The Courant, The Hartford Courant
NEWINGTON — A 90-year-old disabled World War II veteran will not be evicted for violating the Newington Housing Authority’s smoking policy after his lawyer worked out a settlement with the agency Tuesday.
“The bottom line is he’s staying there,” said state Sen. Paul Doyle, D-Wethersfield, after about four hours of negotiations at Hartford Housing Court. “He’s not being evicted.”
The agreement requires the authority to make Nowicki’s apartment at Cedar Village, where he and his wife have lived for 20 years, more handicapped accessible, Doyle said.
Key to the settlement was the assistance of Linda S. Schwartz, the state’s commissioner of veterans affairs, Doyle said. Schwartz will seek volunteers to build a 10-foot awning enabling Nowicki, who can barely walk, to smoke outside in bad weather, he said.
“I think today common sense prevailed,” Doyle said. “This should have happened months ago. This guy is a true American hero.”
Nowicki and his daughter Janet Nowicki, said they were satisfied with the agreement. Both praised and thanked Doyle, who took the case for no fee.
“I’m relieved that they can stay in their home,” Janet Nowicki said.
Andy Nowicki said he would have preferred combat to the stress of the last two months.
“I’d rather go back to being in the infantry and being in the outfit I was in,” he said.
Housing authority lawyer Elliot Lane called the agreement fair to both sides.
“There was a reasonable request made by Mr. Nowicki,” Lane said. “We were happy to accommodate him to make the apartment more handicapped accessible.”
About 18 months ago, the housing authority, which is independent of the town, banned smoking inside its apartments and outside within 10 feet of a window.
Andy Nowicki, who started smoking 70 years ago when the army gave him free cigarettes, struggled to comply. Because of old age and wounds suffered in World War II, he uses a walker or motorized scooter most of the time, making it difficult for him to go outside, especially in bad weather.
Two weeks ago, he fell and broke two ribs coming back inside from a smoke, his family said Tuesday.
The housing authority caught him smoking in the breezeway of his apartment and moved last month to evict him and his wife, who has advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
Doyle and Janet Nowicki initially sought an exemption based on Andy Nowicki’s age, disability and war record.
From 1942 to 1945, he fought in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany. He was wounded two times, the second in his leg, leaving him partially disabled He won the Bronze Star for bravery.
The housing authority responded that it could not make an exception. The policy was put in place to protect the health and well-being of all residents, officials said.
?Andy Nowicki arrived in court Monday morning in his motorized wheelchair, surrounded by family and representatives of several veterans organizations.
“I think that it’s a crock,” he said. “This is my first time in court in 90 years.”
Korean War veteran Dominick S. Cortese of Wethersfield, of the Disabled American Veterans, said he came to show his support for a fellow soldier. He and the other veterans expressed anger over the case.
“I think it’s deplorable that they would think of doing such a thing,” Cortese said.
Andy Nowicki said he was grateful for the support of his fellow veterans.
“God bless them, from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
Schwartz said that Doyle called her Tuesday about Andy Nowicki’s case and she agreed to help. She said she would ask veterans groups that modify houses for wounded servicemen and women to build an overhang allowing him to smoke the required 10 feet from the building.
“I was called today from the court, and I thought that we could help,” Schwartz said. “We don’t want to see Mr. Nowicki evicted. I think this is a compromise.”
Schwartz said her agency would work with the authority to build the awning.
Under the settlement, the authority will increase the handicapped accessibility of their Nowickis’ apartment within 30 days. It will also give them priority to move into a fully handicapped accessible apartment if one becomes available.
– articles.courant.com/2013-09-17/community/hc-newington-veteran-eviction-0918-20130917_1_janet-nowicki-doyle-bad-weather
Some ignore point of law
April 11, 2005
By Andy Bromage, Register Staff
A bar patron takes a deep drag off his cigarette, the red-hot tip flares before he spews a cloud of smoke inside a Hamden pub.
He does not flinch when rain-soaked strangers wander in off the street for bottles of beer.
“No smoking” signs are clearly posted around the bar, but he either doesn’t see them or doesn’t care.
The bartender chats causally with customers. Peter Jennings’ newscast is barely audible over the hum of an electric smoke eater in the ceiling rafters.
This is the scene at a Connecticut tavern one year after the law banning smoking in bars took effect. And opponents of the ban – and even some police officials – say the action highlights the statute’s Achilles’ heel: It is unenforceable.
North Haven police recently ticketed 16 people caught smoking in local pubs. On a raid Feb. 23, police issued $75 fines to 12 patrons and a bartender. Last month, they ticketed three more.
That is the only known enforcement of the law in the last 12 months.
While there are no hard numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests that as many as 65 percent of all Connecticut bars may be permitting smoking indoors, claims Robin Potwora, executive director of Smoke Signals, a nonprofit smokers’ rights group.
The ban on smoking in restaurants took effect Oct. 1, 2003, while the ban in bars started April 1, 2004. Private clubs and casinos are exempt.
Evidence suggests restaurants have largely fared well, while some bars and bowling alleys are suffering.
Bars that can survive off food sales and nonsmokers are enforcing the ban voluntarily, while those that cannot are ignoring it, said state Rep. Len Greene, R-Beacon Falls.
“I could take you to 10 of them in the Valley that ignore the ban,” said Greene, a Naugatuck Valley lawmaker who is leading the charge to relax the ban. “It’s the only way that they can survive.”
The law enforcement community is split on how best to enforce the ban, or whether it is enforceable at all.
Some police departments are planning special sweeps, while others will respond to complaints only.
In Shelton, Detective Lt. Michael Madden said the department is planning new enforcement measures with the state but would not elaborate.
“The honeymoon period is over,” Madden said. “We are going to become more stringent with enforcement action.”
By contrast, most other area departments said they will respond to complaints but will not randomly visit bars.
“There are probably places where people are smoking, but if we are not getting complaints, we are not going out there,” said New Haven police spokeswoman Bonnie Winchester. So far, the department has received no such complaints, she said.
Greene said police don’t have time to enforce the ban.
“I’d rather have them chasing some criminal than running in and grabbing someone that has a cigarette,” said Greene, who also represents Seymour and Ansonia. “That’s ridiculous.”
Brian Virtue, owner and manager of Christopher Martin’s, a State Street bar in New Haven, said business is steady, enforcement is a cinch and employees are happier.
“Everybody knows it’s the law, so everybody is obeying,” he said. “Honestly, it’s gone very well. We have nobody that’s tried to cheat. The whole year, we’ve had about two people that lit up because they just forgot.”
Ernest P. Ricca, a Hamden roofer, said he’s been kicked out of bars for asking patrons to stop smoking. In January, such a request led to a scuffle that ended in his arrest.
Smoking advocates fighting to repeal or relax the ban have met with little success so far.
A bill easing the ban died in the legislature’s Public Health Committee earlier this session, and now efforts are under way to tack that language onto anther bill.
A legal challenge filed by four bar owners was shot down in Superior Court and is now on appeal.
Only a public outcry by smokers will reignite the debate at the Capitol, Potwora said. And that will only happen if the ban is strictly enforced.
Walter Williams, pastor of the Walk of Faith Church in New Haven and a spokesman for the antismoking MATCH Coalition, agrees with Potwora about the need for enforcement, but has a decidedly different agenda.
“If they are fined enough, (bar owners) will begin to enforce the law,” he said. “If you go into the establishment and they are reported and they receive a fine, they will change.”
http://www.nhregister.com
Smokers, supporters to fight ban
March 3, 2005
Mark Zaretsky, Register Staff
NORTH HAVEN – If police wanted to get people’s attention when they issued tickets to 13 people last week for violating the state law banning smoking in bars and restaurants, they need not worry.
It worked.
Smokers and supporters from around the state Friday will join some of the people who received those tickets as they protest both the tickets and the law that spawned them.
“There is going to be a very big crowd,” said Robin Potwora, executive director of the Smoke Signals Coalition, the Torrington-based smokers’ rights group organizing the rally, to take place at 8 p.m. Friday at Doran’s Cafe, 80 Old Broadway.
“It’s going to be a vocal, physical” but peaceful rally – held indoors, not outdoors where the law requires smokers to do their thing, Potwora said. Management or patrons of all three North Haven bars where the tickets were given will be represented, she said.
“I represent the over half a million adult cigarette smokers in the state and the business owners who are suffering because of the ban,” Potwora said. “Our message is, we are not going away. We are growing in strength and we will remain” until legislators protect the rights of Connecticut smokers.
Chief of Police James X. DiCarlo said smokers “have the right to protest” and “we respect that right.”
However, DiCarlo, said, “I hope they’re in compliance with the statute that night.”
“They can have their protest and as long as they’re in compliance with the state statutes, we have no problem with it,” he said.
DiCarlo was not surprised by the attention the tickets have drawn.
“We’re in America, so if somebody doesn’t like it, they can try to have it changed.”
Patrol officers and detectives went to five establishments on Feb. 23 after receiving complaints that people were smoking, DiCarlo and Capt. Thomas McLoughlin have said.
Violators were found at Doran’s, Vic’s Cafe at 244 Quinnipiac Ave. and Playbook Sports Bar at 425 Washington Ave. At least one of the 13 was a bartender smoking with patrons. Doran’s also got a $75 fine for failing to prominently post a no-smoking sign, per state law, McLoughlin said.
Doran’s bartender Luranna Foster, who was one of the people issued tickets, said Potwora called and offered to get involved after seeing news accounts of the sweep.
Foster said she would be at the rally.
“I think it’s a ridiculous law that people can’t have a cigarette in a bar,” she said. “I understand it in a restaurant, but this is just a gin mill. You should be able to light up a cigarette if you want to.”
The rally is the latest in a series of activities the Smoke Signals Coalition has organized to protest the law, which bans smoking in bars and restaurants. Connecticut’s casinos. as well as private clubs including veterans’ halls, are exempt.
John Suchy, director of the state Department of Consumer Protection’s Liquor Control Division, said his department would not hesitate to take administrative action if it learned patrons were smoking with the full knowledge or encouragement of the bar owner.
Mark Zaretsky can be reached at mzaretsky@nhregister.com or 789-5722.
http://www.nhregister.com
