By Catherine M. Welch
Wilmington, NC – Columbus County Commissioners are going to try again to put a smoking ban in place.
The county's health director put forward a request to ban smoking in county offices, vehicles, and put smokers 50-feet from county buildings. But commissioners unanimously denied the request at last week's meeting.
Chairman of Columbus County Commissioners, Edwin Russ says some of that was because of concerns that the distance would cut down on productivity. But that, he says, shouldn't keep the county from coming up with some kind of policy on smoking.
"It seems nice to finally go inside restaurants in North Carolina and somebody beside you is not smoking, which I'm not a smoker my self. I smoked years ago but I don't smoke now. And people ought to have respect for others you know and smoke outside."
Russ says Columbus County is looking over a new proposal that bans smoking inside county offices and asks smokers to stand 10-feet away from building entrances. He says commissioners could take it up as early as Monday's meeting.
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