Smoking ban goes up in smoke

Nevada Daily Mail

The Nevada City Council voted 3-2 to defeat a general ordinance to regulate where people could smoke in the city of Nevada after a lengthy and sometimes impassioned discussion during Tuesday's night's council meeting.

Lance Christi, Blake Hertzberg and Ryan Watts voted no and Jayne Novak and Brian Leonard voted yes.

Novak asked after the vote is she should continue to look for a proposal that could gain council approval or drop the issue.

Nevada Mayor Brian Leonard said he would discuss the issue with City Manager JD Kehrman and see how to proceed.

To Jayne Novak, who appeared to be the primary force behind the proposed ban, it was a matter of inconsiderate smokers impacting her health and others.

And to Lance Christi, who does not smoke and said he could not see what the problem was this proposed ordinance this was supposed to attack, it was a matte of personal liberty.

A proposal to prohibit smoking came to the council several months ago and Novak said she has been working with city attorney William McCaffree to come up with a proposal that would be more acceptable to the council than the original, very restrictive proposal the council discussed.

This proposal would have prohibited smoking in any city owned or controlled building and within 20 feet of beyond the exterior wall of the building, and in city parks smoking would only be permitted in parking areas.

It would also have prohibited smoking on sidewalks adjacent to front entrances to commercial establishments, but would have allowed smoking at rear entrances at least 20 feet from dumpsters.

Other locations would have included taxis, public restrooms, miscellaneous educational day care facilities, health care facilities, and indoor recreational facilities. These would have included places like gymnasiums, theatres, concert or theatre halls, bingo halls, arenas and indoor swimming pools and recreational areas for children, not including licensed bars.

The proposal would also have prohibited smoking at any stadium, outdoor arenas or athletic field.

Smoking in privately owned facilities would have been up to the discretion of the property owner.

Council member Ryan Watts said he had heard concerns that the ordinance would prohibit smoking at the golf course, which after some deliberation, McCaffree said would not be allowed because it is city owned.

Another concerned raised by council member Blake Hertzberg was that a local resident was concerned he would not be able to smoke while walking around the road circling Radio Springs Lake.

In other business the council:

* Voted 5-0, to give final approval to the city's 2016 municipal budget, capital improvement budget and setting the city's public records fee schedule.

* Voted 5-0, to accept the overall lowest and best bid from Vernon County Ready-Mix of a bid not to exceed $92,000 blanket purchase order for the city's concrete needs for 2016.

* Voted 5-0, to accept the sole bid from Ash Grove Aggregates of for the city's aggregate needs for 2016, for an amount not to exceed $113,950.

* Voted 5-0, to accept the sole bid from MFA for the city's bulk fuel and automotive fuel needs in 2016. The price for bulk fuel will be 5 cents off the posted price and for automotive fuel, 35 cents off the posted price. These are the same rates as in 2015.

* Voted 5-0, to pass on first reading a special ordinance to assign new ordinance number to bills previously adopted by the city council, but given the wrong numbers.

* Voted 5-0, to pass on first a special ordinance declaring a list of city owned items as surplus property and will be sold to the highest bidder through an on-line auction. The list includes vehicles, heavy equipment and miscellaneous items that are no longer in use.

* Voted 5-0, to pass on second reading a special ordinance setting a new fee schedule at the Frank E. Peters Municipal Golf Course.

* Voted 5-0, to pass on second reading a special ordinance renewing the city's contract with Alliance Water Resources to operate the city's water and wastewater systems. Under the terms of this contract, beginning in January 2016 the base compensation for Alliance will be $135,975.50 per month for 2016. The repair limit for 2016 will be $73,000 and the chemical limit will be $93,000.

* Voted 5-0, to give final approval to a general ordinance increasing sewer rates by 1 percent to cover the cost of operations, capital improvements and to maintain adequate reserve funds. The change will increase the average residential sewer bill by 38 cents.

* Voted 5-0, to pass on second reading a general ordinance increasing water rates by 3 percent to cover the cost of operations, capital improvements and to maintain adequate reserve funds. The average residential water bill will increase by $1.44.

* Voted 5-0, to give final approval to special ordinance releases the neighborhood improvement district assessment on lot 28 if the country club addition.