Beach smoking ban sees majority support in S. Bethany
A majority of South Bethany residents want smoking banned on the beach and town officials will now address the issue.
By a ratio greater than 2:1, residents who responded to a survey mailed late last year told the town they "support smoking restriction on the beach."
Should S. Bethany ban smoking, drinking on its beaches?
However, residents pushed back against restrictions on alcohol at town beaches, with survey results showing nearly three out of every four surveyed were against the idea.
The call for a restriction on smoking follows what many other towns along the region's coast have already implemented.
Since 2011, towns ranging from Ocean City to Rehoboth Beach have instituted restrictions on smoking cigarettes and other products at their public beaches.
Mayor Pat Voveris briefly addressed the survey results at a Mach 11 meeting. She'd previously said when she thought about posing the question to residents back in 2014, she hadn't heard of smoking the beaches being a major issue.
"Overwhelmingly people don’t want smoking on the beach," Voveris said. "They want the alcohol. They don’t want the smoking."
She then tasked councilman Frank Weisgerber with implementing the change, but stressed that any changes to the town code to enforce a ban would probably have to wait until after the summer season, when the town sees the most foot traffic due to tourism.
"I don’t know that it’s possible that we get it in this season," Voveris said, adding they would look to examine other nearby towns who have smoking ban ordinances and would need to address signage, enforcement and penalties in about two months.
"I don’t want to put pressure on anybody … on doing something in-season, when we are the busiest," she added. "I’m hoping that by September, we can start wrapping things up."
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