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Bellevue looks at making parks smoke free

Posted at 5:23 PM, Feb 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-12 19:09:23-05

A metro city is looking to clean the air in publicly funded places.  The Bellevue City Council will hear a reading on a resolution to make all parks and the new city hall tobacco free.

The resolution would designate all city parks with playgrounds and other public areas where children congregate smoke free.  It would not be a rule that could be ticketed by police, but signs would be put up.

Tobacco Education Advocacy of the Midlands helped draft the resolution.

"That's an area that's for our community we should be keeping it clean we should be keeping that intentional messaging to our youth.  This is an area where we go to learn about healthy activities, we spend time doing healthy things, there are plenty of other areas where you can smoke a cigarette," said Autumn Sky Burns, Sarpy Co. Coordinator for TEAM.

TEAM says across the country there are about 15-hundred cities and municipalities that have adopted a similar resolution.

A public hearing on the proposal will be held in a couple of weeks.

If the resolution is adopted the new city hall would be smoke-free on March 15, and it would be effective in public spaces on April 1.