A small town outside the metro may be the first in the state to take an extra step to say no to tobacco.
The Village of Greenwood in Cass County recently pledged not to sell tobacco at any of their retail businesses. Last summer the board. voted to make their park tobacco-free but they wanted to take it even further.
At least one local business did previously sell tobacco products.
When contacted by the state. Greenwood told Nebraska DHHS in January that there were no places licensed for cigarette, cigar, or chew sales.
Tobacco Education and Advocacy of the Midlands says it's the first place they've heard of doing this.
"That's one of the wonderful things with these small communities where maybe they don't have as many businesses but that doesn't take away from how amazing what they did is. It doesn't matter if there was only a few and now there's none, or if there was two and now there's none," said Autumn Burns the TEAM Sarpy Co. Coordinator.
The gas stations along Interstate 80 at Exit 420 are not in the village limits of Greenwood.
Roughly 5 times Greenwood's population, about 2,500 Nebraskans die each year because of tobacco.
