The Maryville City Council presided over its second public hearing in as many weeks Monday night in order to gather more citizen input with regard to a proposed workplace-smoking ban inside the city limits.
Just over 60 people attended the hearing, which was moved from City Hall to the Nodaway County Administration Building conference room in anticipation of a large crowd.
Several of those who showed up to make their views known also spoke at the first hearing on Oct. 26. Members of the Citizens for a Smoke-Free Nodaway County advocacy group once again wore their powder-blue "I (heart) Maryville" T-shirts.
Many of the statements, both pro and con, were also similar, with smokers claiming their right to indulge and non-smokers declaring that employees and customers have the right to be free of ill-effects linked to secondhand smoke.
"You want to smoke, smoke," said one woman who could not be immediately identified. "But you're telling us not to breathe."
Amos Clampit, commander of the local American Legion Post, presented his second petition to the council, which he said contained the signatures of 602 people opposed to the workplace-smoking ban. Clampit presented a similar petition two weeks ago, which he said contained 899 signatures.
"I can't understand how you can tell an American veteran that he can't smoke in his own building," Clampit said.
Similar sentiments were voiced by Pat Nelson of the Maryville Elks club, who said both members and employees "know up front that we are a smoking facility" and that, "We don't force our employees to work there."
Deon and Jodee Roush, owners of Maryville's Bearcat Lanes bowling alley have been among the proposed ordinance's most vocal opponents. The Roush's said Monday, however, that in an attempt at compromise they have restricted smoking to the bowling alley's lounge and no longer allow smokers on the alleys or concourse area.
"We're just asking that you give us some options," Jodee Roush said. "Our fear is that with every day that passes we're getting closer to this."
Voices on the no-smoking side included Aaron Johnson, a geosciences professor at Northwest Missouri State University, who said the proposed ordinance was not a choice issue but a safety issue. Johnson argued that if the statute were proposed with regard to asbestos or some other carcinogen there would be little debate.
He dismissed comments that no one is forced to work in a smoking-allowed environment and cited current high levels of unemployment.
"Unemployment is 9.5 percent," Johnson said. "If their choice is being exposed to a carcinogen or not having a job, then they don't have a choice."
One of the last people to speak was Traci Harr, daughter of Citizens for a Smoke-Free Nodaway County activist Teri Harr. Currently a graduate student at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Harr said that tightening restrictions on smoking are "a natural progression," and that the number of smokers, especially younger smokers, continues to dwindle.
"Some of you have said you grew up with smokers, but young people are accustomed to a smoke-free environment," Harr said.
Beau Dooley, Northwest Missouri State's wellness director also noted the trend away from smoking by teens and young adults and said 70 percent of students at the university claim not to smoke. Northwest's has announced its intention to go completely smoke-free in August 2010, a measure Dooley said is supported by a large majority of students.
The Maryville City Council continued to discuss re-working the definition of what constitutes a single-family residence during its regular semi-monthly meeting Monday.
Council members have been mulling over what should constitute so called "R-2" housing for more than a month following complaints from residents on North Munn about a house rented to college students.
The council took no action on the matter, but did review staff summaries of residential zoning requirements in place in similarly sized college towns. Under the current Maryville ordinance a single-family residence in an R-2 zone can serve as the permanent residence for no more than two unrelated people.
Options floated during Monday's discussion included changing that number to three or four, leaving it at two and tightening up the definition of what constitutes a family.
Mayor Chad Jackson requested that staff do more research and present the council with single-family zoning information taken from a larger sampling of communities.
In other business, the council considered a proposal from the Missouri Department of Transportation, which wants to partner with the city to resurface Highway 46 inside the city limits from First Street and Country Club Road to Third Street and Depot.
Cost to the city would be just under $40,000, about $23,000 of which is already available from state grant funds left over from the Highway 136 resurfacing project carried out this summer.
