ON THIS PAGE:
08-20-2007: Talk about a smoking ban.
Voting Poll: Give your opinion
09-10-2007: Council postpones vote about ban
02-04-2008: Council votes NO to citizen
referendum vote
08-20-2007
The Lewisville council is talking about banning smoking in Lewisville.
Is this good? Bad? Is it the right thing to do?
I hate smoking. I loathe it tremendously. I think it is
rude for smokers to force me to breath their smoke (it's really
tainted bad breath if you think about that they exhale it).
The City Council has the power to ban all smoking in Lewisville
public areas, stores, restaurants, etc... It is what most of
the Council wants to do. The idea
was suggested that it be put on the ballot. Lathan Watts was
the only one that really spoke against putting it on the ballot due
to the expense during the meeting tonight.
Though the Council has the power to ban smoking, I believe it to
be the wrong thing to do. Businesses (specifically
restaurants) in Lewisville may have in their business model that
their patrons are able to smoke. To make them non-smoking
places may put them out of business and the City Council should not
be the catalyst for them going into debt. Citizens should
decide the success of a business with the money they spend. If they do not want
to smell smoke,
then they will not go there and the business will fail if they do
not cater to their patrons.
There are some restaurants in Lewisville that are non-smoking and
I commend those places for their efforts. There are some like
Denny's near Hwy 3040 that have a glass enclosed area for smokers.
Nice effort but they need more negative ventilation to be sure smoke
doesn't leave the room. Then there are places like Bennigan's
that has a bar at the entrance. You have to go through the
smoke to get to a pseudo non smoking area divided by a railing.
This is a smoking restaurant period. I do not go there because
of the smoke.
I do not think that the Council should put this on the ballot
either. It costs money to do this and should not be spent on
this. If it did go to the ballot, I do think that it would
pass. The council could make that decision on their own but
again I do not think that they should make a ban.
The City Council can do something that seems more fair to the
businesses. I think they should require smoking establishments
to have a sign posted at the front entrance large enough to be seen from the
street. For those that have an ACTUAL non-smoking section
where no smoke is detectable from the entrance to the seating area
should also add a sign stating such. Restaurants that are
completely non smoking should not be required to have a sign.
No Smoke - No Sign!
Also, if smokers have to go outside to smoke, then they should
not be doing so anywhere near the entrance. As for who
pays for the sign? It should be the establishment that wants
smoking. This should not be paid for with our tax money. That's how I
see it. John Gorena |
