If the Charlevoix County Board of Commissioners vote in favor of a proposal tomorrow, smoking will be banned on beaches maintained by the county. The vote comes after the tobacco ban was recommended by county health officials as well as the parks committee.
According to parks committee member Shirley Roloff she believes that smokers should be given their own area to smoke in even though she rather “do away with it everywhere”. Account to the parks director Ross Maxwell similar bans have been adopted elsewhere and its time for Charlevoix County to do the same.
The meeting which was originally slated for today has the support of commissioner Chris Christensen although he also believes that limiting what people may do might amount to over-regulation.
“It’s one of these things where you’ve got to weigh out over-regulation versus common sense,” Christensen said.
Ross Maxwell added that the propose regulations makes them “100 percent tobacco free” and the next step would be to ban smoking in parks.
Charlevoix County is home to 26,000 residents over 1,391 square miles and sits on the shores of Lake Michigan. It was founded in 1840.
