The committee drafting the no-smoking ordinance for Starkville met for the first time last week. Members described the meeting as a good start.
The committee includes three aldermen, two representatives of Starkville’s restaurant industry, two representatives from the Campaign for a Breathe-free Starkville organization and a Mississippi State University student.
“We brought together a pretty good group of people who are working together to draft something that makes sense for Starkville,” Ward 5 Alderman Matt Cox, who proposed the creation of the committee, said.
Cox, who is a member of the committee, said he proposed the committee because he felt it was important to get input from all parties affected by a no-smoking ordinance.
“I think the kind of big picture, if we are going to have a smoking ordinance, that we put all people at the table that are going to be impacted or have a big stake in it,” he said.
“I think that it’s a great opportunity for the board to sit down and draft a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance and get input from all the major stakeholders,” said Robert McMillen of Citizens for a Breathe-Free Starkville, which presented an ordinance to the Board of Aldermen last year to ban smoking in all public buildings in Starkville, including restaurants and bars.
“Although we’re still not for the ordinance being passed, we’re glad that they’re including us in putting together the ordinance that they’re going to consider,” said John Bean, who owns Harvey’s and has spoken out against the proposed ordinance.
McMillen said he thinks some restaurants are still under the impression that prohibiting smoking indoors is negotiable and that to allow smoking indoors at any hour would negate any health benefits of the ordinance.
The city attorney, Rodney Faver, is working to draft an ordinance based on the results of last week’s meeting, and the committee will prob ably meet again at the end of this week, Cox said.
Bean and McMillen both said the meeting, which was held Wednesday morning, went well.
“I know that there was a lot of different points discussed, and we did have some issues that the committee sort of roughly decided,” said Lori Holland, the student representative on the committee.
McMillen said all parties agreed that the ordinance needed to ensure a level playing field for different establishments.
“I’m hoping that we can complete our task in one more meeting,” he said.
He said the make-up of the committee was fair. “I think it’s fair. You know, there’s a student representative, and then there are two people who are proponents of the ban and two opponents of the ban,” along with three aldermen, Bean said
Holland said she felt that it was important to have a student voice on the committee because so many students live in Starkville.
“I think that having a college student voice on the board is a good thing just to bring light to what college students think and where they go and that kind of thing,” she said.
A student member was not included on the committee originally proposed by Cox, but Ward 4 Alderman Richard Corey, who is also on the committee, added the student post in an amendment.