BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer
Long Branch LONG BRANCH — Smokers have already been banned from lighting up on Long Branch beaches and in restaurants, and soon other public areas could be added to that list.
A “no smoking” ordinance at parks and the boardwalk could be introduced in the city as soon as next month, according to Mayor Adam Schneider, who said, “I think it is appropriate. It is a safety issue.”
At the June 28 workshop meeting, held prior to the council meeting, Schneider asked council members to submit input to city attorney James Aaron to create a ban on smoking at city public parks and on the boardwalk.
“I was at McLoone’s in Pier Village where there is no smoking [inside the restaurant],” Schneider said at the meeting.
“So people go outside. I saw someone stomping out a cigarette on the boardwalk. It is painful to see someone putting out a cigarette and grounding it into the boardwalk.
“It is a protection issue of the boardwalk,” he added.
Councilman Anthony Giordano agreed.
“At Sunday night concerts [at West End Park], we sit at the playground where there are two to three dozen kids playing, and there are people smoking there nonstop,” he said. “There is no consideration.”
But Director of Public Safety William Richards said new laws banning smoking would be promoting behavior that is “neither deviant or anti-social.”
“The problem, I would think, is you are going to generate nasty interactions with police officers and people who do not perceive themselves as wrongdoers,” Richards said at the meeting.
“You would have a lot of animosity and a lot of ugly interactions.”
Aaron suggested to council members that one possibility for the new restrictions would be to phase them in over a period of a year to give people a chance to get used to them.
He added that designated smoking areas could also be created in city parks and at the boardwalk to limit smoking, rather than ban it entirely.
“I think you should have designated smoking areas for people to resort to,” Richards said.
Council members who are in support of expanding the ban on smoking ordinance will be presenting their suggestions to Aaron within the next two weeks, and a draft of the ordinance is scheduled to appear on the July 12 council agenda.

