City delays smoking restrictions vote

Dodge City's long-running debate over whether to restrict smoking took a new turn Tuesday, when the Dodge City Commission delayed voting on whether to adopt a proposed smoking ban.
    The commission voted 4-0 to postpone its decision on the ban because it did not spell out the distance that smokers who go outside to smoke must maintain between themselves and the front door of a business. The commissioners also wondered whether the ban should apply to smoking at outdoor recreational facilities, such as Legends Park.
    Attorney Brad Ralph, filling in for City Manager and legal adviser Ken Strobel, suggested the delay.
    "You don't want to start adding important language into the ordinance on the fly," he said. "That would be much better, to table the matter and take it up at the next meeting, when that language can be vetted."
    It was not immediately clear whether the delay would force the city to postpone the start date for the ban, which is supposed to take effect Oct. 1.
    Under the ban, business owners would be required to post signs saying either "No smoking" or "Smoking prohibited by state law." Businesses may still designate all or part of their building as a smoking zone, but those areas must be enclosed by solid, impermeable walls or windows and an entrance designed to minimize the effect of tobacco smoke on the rest of the building.
    The areas must be marked as designated smoking zones, and they would be open only to smokers or people who do not object to smoking. They must also be equipped with an exhaust and ventilation system capable of removing a significant amount of smoke from the air.
    Anyone caught smoking in violation of the ordinance would be fined up to $50 per offense, and any business failing to post the required signs would be fined up to $100 for the first violation.
    Any other violations would cost up to $100 for the first offense and up to $200 for a second offense within a year.
    Fire Chief Dan Williamson said he did not consider whether the ban would apply to outdoor recreational facilities when he was thinking about how to enforce it.
    "I typically looked at this as an indoor issue, so if anything's at fault there, that's got to go back on me," he said. "I didn't know you didn't want smoking at the racetrack or smoking at Legends Field because I figured that's outdoors, and right now you're saying, 'You can go outside and light up anytime you want to.'"
    Mayor Kent Smoll said he thought that the proposed ban came close to what the commission had previously discussed. But he said that two questions remained: Would the ban apply to outdoor facilities, and did it spell out the distance required between smokers who go outside to smoke and business entrances?
    "I think our discussion originally said 'outdoor facilities,' and we weren't necessarily thinking of Memorial Stadium, because that would already be prohibited," Smoll said. "But it's going to be the racetrack or Roundup Arena or someplace like that. I mean, I think we've all been to the rodeo and had somebody sit down next to us and start smoking."
    Audience member Adam Rankin said after the meeting that he was glad the commission had decided to postpone voting on the ordinance.
    "I think it's a good decision to delay it," he said. "I think there's a lot more revision that needs to take place."
   
    EDITOR'S NOTE: A story on other developments from the commission meeting will appear in Thursday's edition of the Daily Globe.