Smoke them now if you got them.After wrestling with the topic
for more than a month, the Marion City Council on Thursday night imposed
an ambitious ban on smoking and the use of tobacco, nicotine products,
and vaporizers in the city’s 21 parks and on its trails.
The vote was 6-1, with Mayor Snooks Bouska voting no, saying he didn’t like the $50 fine that violators must pay.
Council
member Joe Spinks, who had been skeptical of the idea a month ago, said
he was voting for the ban after getting its start date pushed back to
Aug. 1. The first enforcement won’t be until 30 days later, Spinks said,
so smokers have a chance to prepare and summer park use has ended.
Police
Chief Harry Daugherty told the council he would wait to enforce the ban
until after the city’s annual Swamp Fox Festival on Sept. 26.
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