Wednesday, November 04, 2009
A sharply divided Waco City Council on Tuesday voted to tighten city smoking ordinances after hitting a 3-3 deadlock on a more comprehensive smoking ban.
The council also approved a resolution Tuesday that will remove Dumpster-style bins from alleys and provide those customers with curbside trash collection.
The new smoking ordinance eliminates several exemptions in the current smoking ordinance but preserves exemptions for existing bars as well as restaurants with sealed-off smoking sections. Mayor Virginia DuPuy said she thinks a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance eventually will pass and ban smoking even in those places.
“We are not united in how far to go, but this is a major step forward,” said DuPuy, who supported the smoke-free ordinance with council members Randy Riggs and Toni Herbert. She urged businesses to “take a hard look at your operation and do what’s right for customers and employees.”
The new smoking policy streamlines the 2002 smoking ordinance, removing exemptions that allowed smoking in restaurants with fewer than eight employees, in other establishments with fewer than 15 employees and in restaurants between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
It prohibits smoking in new bars but grandfathers existing ones. It also continues to allow restaurants to offer sealed-off, separately ventilated smoking sections.
Council members Jim Bush, Alice Rodriguez and Wilbert Austin opposed the comprehensive ban, saying it would restrict personal freedom and hurt business. They supported the streamlined ordinance, which passed 5-1, with Herbert opposing.
“Option B is only going to prolong this argument,” Herbert said. “Why do we have to do this over and over again? We’re going to end up smoke-free one way or the other. We might as well get on with it.”
Anti-smoking activists lined up to voice support for the comprehensive ban, while owners of bars, pool halls and restaurants voiced opposition.
Dr. Brad Holland, president of the McLennan County Medical Society, said government scientists have concluded that secondhand smoke is as dangerous as dioxin and asbestos and is a significant risk factor in heart disease.
“Communities that ban smoking have fewer heart attacks,” he said. “You realize that you six people could vote to save hundreds if not thousands of lives.”
Restaurateur Sammy Citrano suggested that if the government considers cigarettes a menace, it should outlaw them.
“I’m tired of being the policeman,” said Citrano, who has a separate smoking section at his George’s Restaurant and supported the second option. “Here in Waco, it’s a workingman’s town, and we want to give hospitality to all our customers.”
The new smoking ordinance must pass a second reading later this month and will become law soon afterward.
Also Tuesday, the council voted 5-1 to rid alleys of garbage bins, with Herbert dissenting. The change will take 12 to 18 months to complete.
Supporters of the change said the current mixed system is inefficient and inequitable, giving a more expensive service to 4,500 alley trash customers and subsidizing it through the bills of the other 28,700 curbside customers.
Herbert, whose North Waco district has the most alleys, said her constituents are evenly divided on the issue. She said she could not support the new policy without seeing an implementation plan.
City Manager Larry Groth said the city would not abandon the alleys and would hire crews to maintain and clean them.
In other action, the council voted to contribute $250,000 in federal block grant money for Rapoport Academy’s renovation of a building at the former Paul Quinn College campus. The charter school had applied for tax-increment finance zone funds, but the TIF board recommended against it.
jbsmith@wacotrib.com
757-5752
Comments
By Bert
Nov 4, 2009 8:35 PM | Link to this
Again,there is a simple solution.If you do not want to be exposed to second hand smoke,you have every right not to frequent any establishment that allows it.On that same token,any business owner should have every right to decide for themselves whether or not it will be allowed.It really is just that simple.
If people would only apply this much passion to a real issue,just think what might be accomplished.
By wp
Nov 4, 2009 7:24 PM | Link to this
The clowns that call themselves the city council have to be using FUZZY math about the trash bins.
First, on my block, there are 12 houses and 3 dumpsters. The truck comes and dumps 3 dumpsters taking care of 12 houses. That's 3 stops & starts. With the councils & Larry Groth's math, we get a new truck and 12 plastic trash cans that set out front for all to see and that new truck has to make 12 stops and starts, I just don't get it.
My dumpster is about 15 yrs old and looks good. I want to see that peice of crap plastic trash can last that long.
Ya'll elected them ,I sure did not, but councilman Bush will have an opponent next time around since he was less than honest with me in our conversation about the Trash bins.
By wp
Nov 4, 2009 6:14 PM | Link to this
The clowns that call themselves the city council have to be using FUZZY math about the trash bins.
First, on my block, there are 12 houses and 3 dumpsters. The truck comes and dumps 3 dumpsters taking care of 12 houses. That's 3 stops & starts. With the councils & Larry Groth's math, we get a new truck and 12 plastic trash cans that set out front for all to see and that new truck has to make 12 stops and starts, I just don't get it.
My dumpster is about 15 yrs old and looks good. I want to see that peice of crap plastic trash can last that long.
Ya'll elected them ,I sure did not, but councilman Bush will have an opponent next time around since he was less than honest with me in our conversation about the Trash bins.
By WP
Nov 4, 2009 6:01 PM | Link to this
The clowns that call themselves the city council got to be using FUZZY math about the trash bins.
First on my block there are 12 houses 3 dumpsters now the truck comes and dumps 3 dumpsters taking care of 12 houses,that is 3 stops& starts. With the councils & Larry Goths math, we get a new truck, 12 plastic trash cans that set out front for all to see and that new truck has to make 12 stops and starts. I just don't get it.
My dumpster is about 15 yrs old looks good I want to see that peice of crap plastic trash can last that long.
Ya'll elected them I sure did not but I will run against Bush next time around he is les than honest.
By paul
Nov 4, 2009 5:59 PM | Link to this
The clowns that call themselves the city council got to be using FUZZY math about the trash bins.
First on my block there are 12 houses 3 dumpsters now the truck comes and dumps 3 dumpsters taking care of 12 houses,that is 3 stops& starts. With the councils & Larry Goths math, we get a new truck, 12 plastic trash cans that set out front for all to see and that new truck has to make 12 stops and starts. I just don't get it.
My dumpster is about 15 yrs old looks good I want to see that peice of crap plastic trash can last that long.
Ya'll elected them I sure did not but I will run against Bush next time around he is les than honest.
By paul
Nov 4, 2009 5:57 PM | Link to this
The clowns that call themselves the city council got to be using FUZZY math about the trash bins.
First on my block there are 12 houses 3 dumpsters now the truck comes and dumps 3 dumpsters taking care of 12 houses,that is 3 stops& starts. With the councils & Larry Goths math, we get a new truck, 12 plastic trash cans that set out front for all to see and that new truck has to make 12 stops and starts. I just don't get it.
My dumpster is about 15 yrs old looks good I want to see that peice of crap plastic trash can last that long.
Ya'll elected them I sure did not but I will run against Bush next time around he is les than honest.
By Lindy
Nov 4, 2009 4:22 PM | Link to this
Cigaretted smoke stinks and works its way into anything and everything it comes in contact with. No one has a right to polute my lungs with their second hand smoke. Anytime I get anywhere near it my eyes water, throat gets scratchy, my voice becomes raspy, and my nose begins running like a river. I am all for 100% banning of smoking in all indoor places, within a certain number of feet from public buildings of any/all types, all restaurants (regardless of the number of employees), all indoor public events, etc/etc. ...if they want to smoke in their own private homes or vehicles thats up to them; but, I feel so bad for their wives/husbands and their own innocent children who are continuously being subjected to their 2nd hand smoke.
I understand there are those that are addicted to cigarettes; they crave their nicotine just as those hooked on any drug need their fix to get through the day. If they opt to shorten their life, quality of it, and commit suicide by smoking that a sad sack of beans. Their family and loved ones, who are non-smokers, can only hope and pray that they one day emerge out of their cloudy/smokey existance to see the world more clearly when they finally make the choice to quit.
By Jimmy
Nov 4, 2009 3:24 PM | Link to this
[http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ped/content/ped_10_2x_secondhand_smoke-clean_indoor_air.asp]
By reno
Nov 4, 2009 3:06 PM | Link to this
The rights and liberties that are being violated are those of the business owners. They should decide if their facilities will be smoking, non-smoking, or both...not the city government.
By Freedom
Nov 4, 2009 2:38 PM | Link to this
To all of you yelling about violations of your freedom, what about mine? Does my right to clean air not have just as much protection as your right to smoke? Does my right not to taste smoke when dining out not have just as much right as your right to coat the restaurant with that ugly yellow film that comes from your cigerettes? Just because you wish to reak of cigerette smoke does not mean the rest of us do. In fact nearly 80% of Americans don't wish to be part of your habit.
I'm no activit, I'm a regular citizen. I don't speak for a minority that has an agenda, that would be the smokers since they represent about 20% or the population here in America. I guess it's become the norm that when a majority vote speaks for the majority, that the losing side considers it "draconian". Maybe you should look up definitions to those big words before you start tossing them around, since there is nothing unusually cruel about keeping smokers from forcing their unhealthy habits on others against their wills.
You freedom ends to smoke ends when it violates my rights to good health. Go kill yourself in your own home, and stop trying to kill me in public.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. National Toxicology Program (NTP), the U.S. Surgeon General, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) have classified secondhand smoke as a known human carcinogen (cancer-causing agent).
Inhaling secondhand smoke causes lung cancer in nonsmoking adults. Approximately 3,000 lung cancer deaths occur each year among adult nonsmokers in the United States as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke. The Surgeon General estimates that living with a smoker increases a nonsmokerýs chances of developing lung cancer by 20 to 30 percent.
I believe they call this a fact, and a fact coming from more then a single case study like the OSHA letter from and acting assistant.
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