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Sign of the times: No smoking debated

by Ralph Bartholdt Staff Writer
| April 17, 2018 1:00 AM

There may be something new to read at Coeur d’Alene Public Library. “No smoking” signs are destined for outside the library and part of McEuen Park if the City Council approves the measure today.

Although signs prohibiting smoking within 20 feet of the library already exist, the latest measure would make the City Hall and library campus, as well as the playground at McEuen Park, off limits to butts, pipes, stogies and other glow-tip, tobacco-burning amusements.

Proposed by the library administration and the city’s parks and recreation department, the amendment to the existing city rule to expand the no-smoking zone requires an act of the City Council.

“Having an ordinance will give us more tools when we ask people to not smoke around the library and the playground,” said library director Bette Ammon.

State law limits where people can smoke around the library, and signs let people know it’s a no-no, but smokers puff there anyhow, Ammon said.

“It’s been an issue for 10 years,” Ammon said. Ever since the library was built, many patrons just walk outside and light up.

“It doesn’t happen daily, but it’s certainly significant enough that we get a number of complaints,” she said.

Blue cigarette smoke lingering outside the doors has prevented people from coming to the library, she said, and secondhand smoke in the playground, as well as the flammable wood chips surrounding equipment, are a cause for concern.

Ammon brought the measure to the General Services Committee last week, which forwarded it to the City Council to hear, despite a no vote from council member Dan Gookin.

Gookin thinks adding a new law prohibiting people from smoking on the campus where the 250-foot rule already exists is redundant.

In addition, Gookin said, the state rule is not being enforced, so he doesn’t think a ban would be enforced either.

“This is a California law, and I like my Idaho without California in it,” Gookin said. “I oppose it, and I hope the council will agree.”

The library hopes to take away the ash cans if the rule is adopted, which, Gookin thinks, is more of a cause for concern. People will smoke, he said, and without ash cans they will toss their butts into unseen nooks.

“It’s like a lump in the carpet: It will just be pushed elsewhere, and people will be tossing their butts onto the sidewalk and into the bushes,” he said. “Why don’t we just accommodate them? I don’t think we should have this huge smoke-free zone that will never be enforced.”