Northpinellas: Oldsmar considers smoking ban in park

Oldsmar city officials are considering banning smoking at Bicentennial, home to a new 4,000-square-foot skate park, tennis and basketball courts, a playground and a fitness trail.

If the ban passes, Oldsmar would join Largo and Clearwater on the list of communities that have decreed parts of their parks or athletic facilities to be smoke-free. Elsewhere in the country, opponents have challenged one similar ban in court.

In Oldsmar, the reason for the ban is public health, officials say.

"We're asking for a recommendation to make it a smoke-free park because it'll enhance health benefits," said Lynn Rives, director of parks and recreation. "It's beneficial to the public."

Bicentennial is one of 50 parks in the country chosen for a pilot Hearts N' Parks program. It uses parks to get information to residents of all ages on better health. It is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the National Recreation and Park Association.

"This is an opportunity to promote our Hearts N' Parks community and say, 'Hey, we're trying to look out for your health,"' Rives said. "If you're going to promote healthiness, you need to make the environment so you're not allowing unhealthy things."

Bicentennial Park was the logical choice for a smoke-free park because there are a lot of children that use the facility, Rives said. Besides skateboarding and a playground, the park also has a teen recreation center.

One of the problems with the center is that teenagers gather outside and smoke, especially on Friday's teen nights, Mayor Jerry Beverland said.

"When you're dealing with kids, I think we should take our part in being role model," Beverland said. "Bicentennial is basically teenagers and young children. The people that go down there for the health walk, they shouldn't be smoking anyway. I would never support a smoking ban at any other park."

The parks and recreation board is scheduled to consider the ban at 6 p.m. today at the Municipal Services Building, 300 Commerce Blvd. The board would then make a recommendation to the City Council.

If the City Council approves the ban, Oldsmar would become one of the first cities in Pinellas County to have an outright smoking ban at a public park.

In Largo, the Little League and soccer fields are smoke-free, parks superintendent Greg Brown said. And there is a smoking ban at the playground at Largo Central Park. But smoking is allowed in the rest of the parks.

"We wanted people keeping smoking away from the kids," Brown said of the Little League fields. "Central Park playground is fenced off. You can stand outside the wall and smoke if you want."

Clearwater only has a smoking ban at its athletic facilities, said Kevin Dunbar, director of parks and recreation.

Harry Gross, director of leisure services for Dunedin, said there is no ordinance prohibiting smoking at the city's parks. He said some residents have complained about smoking at the Little League and soccer fields. The Dunedin-Stirling Soccer Club has its own rule against smoking, he said.

"We have told the Little Leagues that it's acceptable for them to post signs at the complexes at Fisher Field," Gross said. "The problem with that is there is not a city ordinance that would make it enforceable."

Safety Harbor doesn't have any smoking bans at parks for the same reason, said Tom Ronald, director of leisure services. It would be hard to enforce.

Ronald said the city has more problems with dog feces than smoking. He also said he would be concerned about creating a hostile environment between park officials and residents who smoke.

"On my priority list that's not my highest priority," he said. "If someone's going to smoke, they are going to smoke."

Outdoor smoking bans are the latest in a series of stamp outs against smoking in public places. In November, Florida residents overwhelmingly approved an amendment to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars that serve food.

The House and Senate are now ironing out the details on how to implement the measure. The House voted April 1 to ban smoking in every workplace. The Senate bill is awaiting floor debate.

"We are already restricting public facilities," Oldsmar's Rives said. "I want this to be a positive thing that promotes healthiness, not a negative thing. I don't want people to think this is negative. I would be very surprised if most people wouldn't be positive towards it."

But the proposed ban does have its critics.

"I think it's ridiculous," said former City Council member Ed Richards, who uses the park regularly. "It's an open area. I can see it in the building. In the park, that's a stupid idea."

Timothy Maloney, a Maryland attorney who represented opponents to one of the nation's most comprehensive smoking bans, questions the constitutionality of such a law.

In his 2000 case, the Village of Friendship Heights in Maryland had banned smoking or discarding tobacco products on or in sidewalks, lawns, parks, buildings and other areas owned by the village.

A judge issued a preliminary injunction against the ban, claiming the community of 5,000 was a special taxing district -- not a municipality -- and did not have the authority to pass the ordinance. The village, in turn, repealed the ban because of the injunction.

"You have to balance whatever public health needs are with the actual need for regulation itself," Maloney said. "I would think the proponents would need some proof that outdoor smoking is actually a public health harm."

That's something they don't seem to have. While there's plenty of research on the dangers of secondhand smoke indoors, studies on the effects of outdoor smoking are few.

The American Lung Association does not have a specific statement on secondhand smoke's effects outdoors, said Nancy Whitlock, a spokeswoman for the American Lung Association of Gulfcoast Florida.

Kaitlyn Hartsock, 14, likes the idea of the ban. She rides her horse Silver on the trails behind the park.

"I think a lot of older teens are doing it nowadays trying to fit it in," Hartsock said of teen smoking. "If they want to propose this new rule, I think it would be great."

Rives said he would like to see the ban implemented in the first part of June, before the summer camps start. He said officials have not decided on penalties. Instead, there would be more signage and an honor system.

Rives said he is not planning to propose a smoking ban on other parks in the city.

Council member Don Bohr has said he's against the idea. Not because he's a smoker, but because he's "tired of rights being taken away from people."

"We have too much government regulation," said Bohr, 67, who smoked for about 50 years. "We keep taking away people's rights and I'm against that. It's a free country. Let's keep it free.

"What about secondhand alcohol? My chances of going out and getting hit by a drunk driver are much greater than getting hit by someone under the influence of nicotine," he said.

-- Megan Scott can be reached at (727) 445-4183 or mscott@sptimes.co .

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