Nonsmoker John Long addresses the Greenwood City Council on Monday night before the board approved a smoking ban on a 5-1 vote. PHOTO BY SCOTT ROBERSON
Paige Wassel, Daily Journal of Johnson County Reporter
Restaurants and most businesses in Greenwood will have to go smoke-free by the end of April.
But it still will be OK to eat a burger and light up in a bar.
After more than an hour of debate before a standing room-only crowd, the Greenwood City Council passed a measure to ban smoking in a 5-1 vote Monday night. Council member Ron Deer voted against the proposal. Member John Gibson was absent.
Greenwood became the first community in Johnson County to ban public smoking.
Members of the Johnson County Board of Health are set to discuss a countywide ban on Wednesday.
The measure was passed after council members clarified some portions of the proposal.
The council broadened the ordinance’s definition of who could enforce the ban to allow designated members of the fire department and code enforcement office to help police with citations.
Members also redefined a portion of the ban that limited smoking in company vehicles to ban smoking only in city-owned vehicles.
The provision exempts bars. A bar was defined as any place where people have to be 21 to enter and consume alcohol on the premises.
Smoking also will be banned in stores and other workplaces.
Speakers opposing the ban questioned why more time wasn’t taken to gather more public input, particularly from restaurant and business owners.
Deer asked that a decision be put off so that those opposing the measure would have more time to present their views. His request was denied.
Some business owners complained that they didn’t have time to police the measure in their restaurant or business.
Kwang Casey, owner of the Oaken Barrel in Greenwood, said the measure took away individuals’ choice to be smoke-free and forced the restaurant to police its own customers.
“I see we’re not responsible enough to choose smoking or not, but we’re responsible enough to police ourself,” he said.
Other speakers questioned the logic behind exempting private clubs.
Those supporting the ban said some people working in restaurants didn’t have the choice to avoid cigarette smoke.
Janie Adcock, who used to work as a career counselor in Kokomo, said that many people she talked to didn’t have a choice about where they worked because they would have no other job to go to.
Other speakers said that they heard angry comments made by many business owners in the crowd but questioned whether they considered the number of nonsmokers who might start coming to their business if it were smoke-free.
Greenwood resident Brian Lowe, who supported the ban, said those who oppose smoking should have the right to be smoke-free.
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