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By DREW KERR
dkerr@poststar.com
Published:
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Post Star
Lee Edmonds stood at the edge of the pond in
Congress Park and took incremental drags from a
cigarette.
It’s a practice that is increasingly drawing the ire
of local officials eager to stamp out tobacco’s
presence at outdoor recreation hubs in the region.
But Edmonds, in Saratoga Springs from Maryland for
the horse sales at Fasig-Tipton, said any effort to
cull her smoking at a park is an intrusion.
"It gets to the point
where you feel like a criminal," she said on Tuesday afternoon
from the park, where smoking is restricted around the carousel
but otherwise left unregulated. "You feel like you’ve got to
hide all the time; it just makes me sick."
Such opinions, though, are becoming more uncommon.
A new survey released
by the Southern Adirondack Tobacco Free Coalition this week
showed residents in Warren, Washington and Saratoga counties,
for the most part, support smoking bans or restrictions at
outdoor oases.
The survey, conducted by the Siena Research Institute this
spring, showed that a majority of the 1,000 residents
interviewed in the three counties said they favored smoking
prohibitions at public playgrounds, pools, parks and beaches.
Specifically, 83 percent of residents interviewed said they
favored smoke-free playgrounds, 80 percent said they supported
smoke-free pools, 60 percent said they favored smoke-free
beaches and 50 percent said they supported smoke-free parks and
outdoor recreation areas.
The numbers of those supporting the moves has increased each
year since 2005, a review of earlier polls showed.
Janine Stuchin, a
project manager for the Southern Adirondack Tobacco Free
Coalition, which partnered with the research institute to
conduct the study, said the results highlight the increasing
popularity of tamping out smoking in public places.
"The numbers confirm the willingness that we’ve seen from local
officials, and the interest from the public that we’ve seen in
the communities we work in," Stuchin said.
Within the last year, officials in Glens Falls, Bolton, Fort
Edward, Queensbury and Wilton have all moved to restrict smoking
at municipal recreation facilities.
Moreau is the latest
community in the region to take action, prohibiting smoking at
Betar Park and the town beach.
Officials at the Washington County Fair also moved recently to
curb smoking at their event later this month.
In Bolton, where the Town Board banned smoking at its two public
beaches this spring, Supervisor Kathleen Simmes said the move
has been well received.
"I personally have not heard a complaint," Simmes said on
Tuesday. "And between the park attendant and the recreation
director, they haven’t heard any complaints one way or another
either so I assume it is working."
Josh Milton, the director at the Glens Falls Recreation
Department, said visitors to the city’s recreation facilities
have also reacted well to a new smoking ban at the sites.
Signs denoting the new
non-smoking policy were installed about a month ago.
"Parks in general are places that you want to be clean and
healthy, and eliminating tobacco is just another way we can do
that," Milton said.
Glens Falls’ ban, like others adopted in the area, does not
include language allowing violators to be fined or arrested for
breaking the rules.
But Milton said city staffers have been told to urge those who
are found smoking in restricted locations to stop and, so far,
the message has gotten across.
"People have been pretty good about it, just on a voluntary
level," Milton said.
Stuchin, of the
tobacco-free coalition, said she knew of no other communities in
the three counties currently considering the adoption of smoking
restrictions at their parks.
But the organization, she said, will send letters to community
leaders again in the fall inviting them to consider the move and
offering their assistance.
The group provides free signage and printed materials to educate
the public if rules are put into place.
Stuchin also said the group plans to reach out to officials with
the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic
Preservation to see if they would consider adopting smoking
restrictions at state parks in the area.
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