Marion Council delays vote on nicotine ban
March 5, 2015
MARION — City Council members punted Thursday night.
On a 5-2 vote, the council put off a decision on an ordinance that would ban nicotine products and electronic vaporizers from all city trails and the city’s 21 parks.
Council member Paul Draper won majority support to table the vote to provide time to bring together a contingent of council members and Marion Park Board members along with the police chief to see if they could settle on some middle ground short of a ban.
The Park Board voted unanimously to recommend a ban, and council member Nick AbouAssaly asked Draper what he expected to hear from the Park Board after it had spent time studying the issue before sending it to the council.
Even so, AbouAssaly voted with the majority, which also included Mayor Snooks Bouska and council members Joe Spinks, Mary Lou Pazour and Draper, to discuss the proposed ban with Park Board members and the police chief.
Council members Cody Crawford and Kim Etzel voted against tabling the matter.
It did not appear that the council has the votes to impose a total ban.
Draper, Spinks and Bouska seemed to favor some accommodation for smokers, such as designated areas in certain places, but with prohibitions against the use of nicotine products and electronic vaporizers around playgrounds, swimming pools, splash pads, ball fields and, perhaps, the downtown park, for instance.
Draper said one option might be to impose the ban in most parks and allow the use of nicotine in certain places in Marion’s biggest parks.
Pazour said a ban is unenforceable.
Crawford is a strong proponent of the ban, and AbouAssaly said that the ban speaks to the values of health and wellness and the “modeling” for children that Marion is trying to promote.
Those who spoke in favor of a nicotine ban and a ban on electronic vaporizers talked about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, the unpleasantness of being in a park next to a smoker and the litter of cigarette butts.
Renee Nelson, of 440 W. 33rd Ave., Marion, said she didn’t realize how much she appreciated Iowa’s ban on smoking restaurants and bars until she went out-of-state and sat in those establishments with smokers. The “stark contrast” would apply between nicotine-free parks and those with smoking, she said.
Blake Frericks, 2815 Bullis Dr., Marion, said he supported the city’s Blue Zones wellness initiative, but he said he worried that eating pizza or fried chicken or drinking soda might be banned from parks next.
Alan Rowe, 2650 26th Ave., Marion, called the proposed nicotine ban in parks “visionary.” He said the city should “reach a little higher” and impose it.
Mike Dooley, 3851 29th Ave., Marion, said he wondered if the city ought to install cameras in parks to catch smokers and turn the ban into a revenue producer for the city.
Read and watch the video
Marion council split on nicotine ban in parks
MARCH 3, 2015
Rick Smith, The Gazette
Public hearing on issue Thursday evening
MARION – Don’t look for a unanimous vote.
The Marion City Council on Thursday will hold a public hearing to listen to pros and cons before it votes on whether to ban nicotine products and electronic vaporizers from all of Marion’s 21 parks and trails, including park facilities and parking lots.
At the seven-member council’s work session Tuesday afternoon, two council members spoke favorably about the proposed ban and two questioned an absolute ban, saying there ought to be designated smoking areas rather than a complete prohibition.
Council member Cody Crawford, an outspoken supporter of the ban, said Marion is striving to be the “healthiest city in Iowa,” and so it doesn’t make sense to allow a cancer-causing agent such as tobacco in the city’s parks and trails, he said.
“To me that is the bottom line. This is a substance that is terrible for everyone,” Crawford said.
He disagreed with council member Joe Spinks, who said banning nicotine from parks would force smokers to stop using the city’s parks and trails. There needs to be a designated area in parks for them, Spinks said.
Crawford said smokers threatened to turn their backs on bars and restaurants, too, but that never happened after a statewide ban on smoking was imposed. Some might quit Marion’s parks for a time, he said, but they’d adjust and be back.
However, council member Paul Draper said smokers can stand outside bars and restaurants and smoke, so they “in essence” have a designated smoking area.
Council member Nicolas AbouAssaly said the imposition of a nicotine ban did not equate to keeping smokers away from parks. They can use the parks and simply refrain from smoking, he said. But Spinks said most smokers need to smoke.
Mike Carolan, the city’s parks and recreation director, laid out the case for the nicotine ban, saying the idea originated with Marion’s Blue Zones wellness project and had been unanimously recommended by the Marion Park Board.
Carolan said the ban would make for cleaner parks, reduce vandalism, promote wellness, enhance park users’ experience, align the park system with the schools and limit youths’ exposure to nicotine products.
Carolan said the Park Board and the police chief have said that creating designated smoking areas in parks would be impossible to enforce.
“Is it 200 feet from what?” he said of the difficulty in designating areas that must be a certain distance from non-smoking areas.
Carolan said the Marion Park Board already has a non-smoking policy at swimming pools, ball complexes and some park facilities, and most people comply.
AbouAssaly said he didn’t think a wider ban would be difficult to enforce because most people prefer to follow rules and so will police themselves.
The proposed ban would fine violators $50, but Carolan said he anticipated a lengthy public education effort and new signs before the city issued any citations.
Carolan said 60 cities in Iowa have imposed some type of tobacco ban and more than 1,000 nationwide.
