Village considering tobacco-free parks
WARWICK Image taking a walk through tree-lined pathways in a park on a hot summer day. Or playing a game of softball on the grassy fields at dusk. Or children playing on a swing set.
These activities are enjoyed by many and, for some, ruined by the smell of a burning cigarette.
The skateboard park in Veterans Memorial Park already is a tobacco-free zone and trustee Bill Lindberg announced at the July 16 Warwick Village Board meeting that he is looking into expanding that ban.
The idea came to him at the All-Star Game in Memorial Park when a man asked Lindberg for permission to smoke.
More recently, four-year old Gianna Roma and her friend Veronica Volk wrote a letter to the mayor, asking him for a no smoking sign in Stanley Deming Park where the girls play.
As a fireman Im always picking up (cigarette) butts from the side of the road after brush fires, said Lindberg, who is a firefighter at the Warwick Fire Department as well as its treasurer.
Lindberg is in contact with POWR Against Tobacco, a coalition funded by the states Tobacco Control Program and active in Putnam, Orange, Westchester and Rockland counties and 29 community partnerships across the state. According to the groups Web site, their goal is to decrease the social acceptability of tobacco use. They promote a voluntary enforcement strategy with peer pressure to not smoke at its core. Their signs also are eye-catching and include Young lungs at play and Keep your butts off our playgrounds!
Parks in Port Jervis and Middletown are already 100 percent smoke-free as is Memorial Park and all of Orange Countys playgrounds and parks.
The village maintains more than 100 acres of both active and passive parkland that includes playing fields, playgrounds and hiking paths.
Next steps include Lindberg continuing his due diligence in consultation with village attorney Michael Meth.
- Birgit Bogler