TRAFFIC

Eagle City Council will revisit smoking ban in all public areas

City officials will hear input and possibly vote on a redrafted ordinance with new language on possible fines.

BY JOE ESTRELLA - jestrella@idahostatesman.com

Copyright: © 2009 Idaho Statesman

Published: 06/09/09

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ELSEWHERE

www.cityofeagle.org

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

WHAT: Eagle City Council meeting

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: City Hall, 660 E. Civic Lane, Eagle

Passage of the ordinance would make Eagle the first community in Idaho to prohibit smoking in all public areas. Idaho law currently bans smoking in restaurants but exempts businesses with fewer than five employees and bars.

The City Council tabled a previous ordinance in April over concerns that fines on individuals of up to $300 and up to six months in jail were excessive. The redrafted ordinance still prohibits smoking in any public building, including restaurants, bars and workplaces, but reduces the individual fines to a written warning for a first offense and $25 and $50 fines for a second and third offense, respectively.

Business owners who do not enforce the ordinance would be subject to fines of $100 and $200 for the first two violations, and $500 for each additional violation in a year.

Kevin Settles, owner of Bardenay, 155 E. Riverside Drive, Eagle, was not concerned about the financial penalties as much as he was with ensuring that a provision was written into the ordinance allowing smokers to light up as long as they're no closer than 5 feet to an entrance or outdoor seating or patio area of a bar.

Under the original proposed ordinance, his customers would have had to go out into the parking lot to smoke, he said.

"You (a business) would have to violate the ordinance so many times that it would have to be willful," he said. "And who is going to enforce this? Nobody I know has ever been given a ticket under the current state law."

Heidi Low, Idaho director of government affairs for the Cancer Action Network, said the organization was satisfied with the draft.

Eagle Chamber of Commerce President Teri Bath said there has been no indication the business community is concerned about a smoking ban.

Eagle Mayor Phil Bandy said he hoped the council could vote "up or down" on the proposal Tuesday and move onto other matters.

Joe Estrella: 377-6465

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