Monday, August 5, 2013
Signs at Baxter Memorial Library tell visitors not to smoke on the library's grounds in Sharon, Vt. on August 4, 2013. The library installed the signs following the passage of Sharon's new anti-smoking law. Valley News - Elijah Nouvelage Purchase photo reprints »
Sharon (USA)— A new policy that
recently went into effect is meant to discourage the use of tobacco
around town, Sharon officials said.
The policy, which extends to all tobacco
products and began on Aug. 1, prohibits its use on all town-owned
properties and inside vehicles. It was passed unanimously at a
Selectboard meeting in mid-July, said Paul Haskell, the board’s
chairman.
According to Haskell, the town-wide policy was a way of combining several disparate and ad hoc policies formed over the years.
“We decided it would be prudent to elevate our
thoughts about helping folks quit smoking if they are, and keep folks
from smoking, if they aren’t,” Haskell said.
Besides prohibiting smoking on town-owned
properties, the policy also states that the town will refer employees
and officials who smoke to tobacco cessation programs. In addition, it
will reach out to businesses to join the anti-tobacco cause, and
promote the cause at events such as Town Meeting.
The issue with the passing the policy is how to enforce it, Haskell said.
“That’s always the $9 million question,” he said. “To be perfectly candid, the town is not going to hire smoking police.”
However, he said, if a town employee were to
violate the policy, the Selectboard would look to the town’s personnel
plan to sanction him.
That doesn’t mean the town is expecting to hand
out several penalties to town employees, Haskell said, considering not
all that many town employees smoke or use other forms of tobacco.
To put the plan in place, the Selectboard worked
with Cathy Hazlett, the executive director of Health Connections of the
Upper Valley, which is based in North Pomfret. Hazlett has pitched
anti-tobacco plans to several towns, utilizing grant money from the
Vermont Department of Health.
“I think part of our success in Sharon is that
the Selectboard in Sharon was right on board with understanding the
public health concerns,” Hazlett said. “It’s really important to send
the message out, particularly to young people: There is no safe, or
safer, type of tobacco product.”
Other towns have been reluctant to adopt such a policy.
Members of the Royalton Selectboard expressed
worries about enforcement and the potential for it to infringe on
individual rights, according to minutes from last December. Messages
left for board members in Royalton were not returned yesterday.
In Sharon, several small signs, all bearing the
phrase “Thanks for Keeping This a Smoke-Free Zone,” have sprung up at
town landmarks, such as Baxter Memorial Library on Route 14. In fact,
the library has two — one stuck to the side of the building, and another
in the entryway of the gazebo behind it.
They join several signs that have long been posted at Sharon Elementary School by Health Connections of the Upper Valley.
Judy Tyson wondered if the signs had been put up recently when she ventured onto the gazebo to read yesterday.
“I’m entirely supportive of it,” said Tyson, who lives in Sharon.
She said she was a fan of the inoffensive
qualities of the signs, which use a playful-looking, colorful font and
background and don’t threaten fines or prosecution.
“That’s a very nice way of doing it,” Tyson said. “It doesn’t offend anybody.”
The policy, said Hazlett, is meant to be a
proactive one, to discourage something that isn’t terribly prevalent in
Sharon but might one day be.
At the playground of the nearby Sharon Elementary yesterday, resident Kali Livingston agreed.
“That’s good,” Livingston said of the new
policy. She watched her 21/2 -year-old daughter, Zowie, play on the
nearby blacktop. “I think that anywhere that children are around, there
shouldn’t be smoking.”
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