By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
No one will be allowed to smoke in Princeton municipal parks or within 35 feet of entrances to municipal buildings based on an anti-smoking ordinance the Board of Health adopted Tuesday.
The measure, making Princeton the first Mercer County town to take such a step, brings the community in line with more than 150 other New Jersey municipalities that have adopted some version of an outdoor smoking ban. The law takes effect next month, 20 days after the ordinance is published as a legal advertisement.
Violators would face fines that start at “not less than” $250 and escalate for repeat offenders. The town has said the Police Department would be responsible for enforcing the law although they expect citizens will enforce the law by informing smokers of the prohibition.
George DiFerdinando, chairman of the Board of Health, said after the meeting that he hoped Princeton becomes a catalyst for other Mercer County towns.
”My main thought is, it would be great if this led to further municipalities in Mercer doing the same thing,” he said.
The town still needs to determine how many no-smoking signs it will have to install, signs that will come free from the American Cancer Society, said Health Officer David A. Henry after the meeting.
No one from the public came to speak against the proposal while only one came to speak for it. Grace Sinden, a past Board of Health member, recalled at Tuesday’s meeting Princeton’s then pioneering step in 2000 to ban smoking in indoor public places and work places. She congratulated officials for the latest effort.
”This will help especially young people to resist starting to smoke or making it less easy to do so in addition to lessening exposure to others, especially children, of breathing secondhand smoke in public places,” she said.
As part of the preamble to the ordinance, the Board of Health said it “has determined that the public interest is especially implicated in preventing the youth of Princeton from being exposed and succumbing to the temptations of experimenting with tobacco products.”
During the meeting, the board amended the measure to add language that says smoking is prohibited within 35 feet of all entrances to municipal buildings as opposed to just front entrances.
In addition to applying to parks and recreation facilities, municipal employees will not be allowed to smoke in their official vehicles.

