Council considers smoking ban for city parks
Hartsville City Council will consider a ban on smoking in city parks.
The issue surfaced during council’s monthly work session Tuesday.
The city already prohibits smoking in city-owned buildings. Several council members said they believe that should be extended to the city’s parks as well.
“I think that’s a healthy start for us,” said Mayor Mel Pennington. Pennington said he hears frequently from parents concerned children being exposed to second-hand smoke at Byerly Park and other parks during ball games and other events.
“Let’s do the right thing when it comes to our kids and our parks,” he said.
Councilwoman Wanda James said she believes a ban on smoking in public parks would create a more family friendly environment in the parks and at sports events.
“I think parks are an excellent start,” said Councilman Johnny Andrews.
City Manager Natalie Zeigler said she would have a proposed ordinance drafted and presented to council for consideration. Council holds its next regular meeting at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, and the matter is on the agenda for that meeting for first reading approval of an ordinance. If council gives preliminary approval, final approval on second reading could come in May.
Officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control last year asked the city to consider a ban on smoking in all public places, including restaurants and other work places, but that got nowhere.
Many restaurants in the city have already implemented their own smoking prohibitions, city officials pointed out.
In other work session business, council got an update from Public Services Director James Clemons on pending stormwater management legislation.
Council has scheduled its first budget work session for 4 p.m. on April 21 at city hall. City officials and officials with the Pee Dee Regional Council of Governments have also scheduled a Community Development Block Grant needs assessment meeting for 6 p.m. that same day at city hall. That meeting is intended to give city residents a forum to voice concerns about issues of concern for which the city may seek grant funding.
Tuesday’s meeting was also the first for the city’s newly designated police chief, Capt. Saundra Rhodes of the Horry County Police Department.
Rhodes thanked council, the mayor and the city manager for giving her the opportunity to serve as chief. She is expected to begin her duties as chief no later than June 6. She said she is looking forward to meeting and talking with police department personnel over the coming weeks.
Items on the agenda for Tuesday’s regular meeting include final approval of an ordinance for the sale of 39.15 acres of land the city owns on Black Creek outside of the city south of the city’s wastewater treatment plant site and an ordinance to set mitigation rates for deployment of emergency services by the Hartsville Fire Department.
Council will vote on first reading on an ordinance to rezone several pieces of property on First Street and Coker Avenue from a manufacturing (M1) zoning designation to designations more compatible with surrounding uses. The proposed changes come as recommendations from the Hartsville Planning Commission.
The commission is recommending changing a large piece of vacant land owned by Milliken & Co. behind the S.C. Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics and adjacent to the Oakdale neighborhood from manufacturing to residential (R2). The Governor’s School sits on the site of a former Milliken mill.
The panel is also recommending that a warehouse and property now owned by Coker College be rezoned from manufacturing to campus. And the group is recommending rezoning two buildings just off the Vista property, the old Hartsville Oil Mill Warehouse on Coker Avenue and a nearby smaller storage building and property from manufacturing to professional (P1).
Council is also expected to consider a resolution to accept a $95,000 FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) grant for the Hartsville Fire Department as well as a resolution for a bid award for street sweeping services and for a bid award for clean-up of nuisance properties.
Banning smoking! Please say it ain’t so! What will the folks from Pine Ridge, Dovesville, and Antioch do when they bring the family to town? Don’t all ya’ll city people realize that having a smoke along with a good chew of Red Man keeps them knats away?
It’ll be a cryin’ shame if Bubba’s six year old girl can’t hot tip her marlboro while swinging on the gym set.
Next they’ll try banning peeing in parking lots knowing full well Granny’s bladder ain’t what it used to be.