“Until smoking tobacco is ruled illegal, I think we should just follow common sense and logic,” alderman Mickey Schneider declared at city council on Monday when an ordinance banning smoking in city parks came up. “We are not God,” she said regarding the fate of who lives or dies as a result of smoking. “It is their choice.”
Alderman Kristi Kendrick said she did not like aspects of the ordinance, which had been prepared by the Parks Department. She said she had prepared a second ordinance that council had not seen yet, but in it in she expanded restricted areas and increased fines for violators.
City Attorney Tim Weaver mentioned Kendrick’s ordinance needed a few changes as well, so Kendrick suggested they defer discussion until aldermen had a chance to review the two proposed ordinances. Mayor Butch Berry said his office would arrange a workshop.