Committee Adopts Smoke Ban in Public Parks

The Wyckoff Township Committee on Tuesday night adopted a revised ordinance creating smoke-free zones in municipal parks.

The vote was unanimous, with Committeeman Kevin Rooney absent.

"In typical Wyckoff fashion, with our ordinance we've reached a nice compromise," Committeeman Brian Scanlan said, addressing the revisions made to an original proposal introduced in May.

The committee tabled a previous version of the ordinance in June, two weeks after its introduction. At the time, committee members cited concerns that the proposal brought up enforcement issues, with a lack of signage and a possibility that smokers in recreation area parking lots could be unfairly ticketed.

The revised ordinance creates exemptions for parking areas as well as mandating that clear signage be posted for park visitors.

"The revisions are very good that you made," said resident John Unglert, who added that ordinances are necessary "when people forget civility and courtesy."

Susan Winton spoke against the ordinance, as she did at a meeting introducing the revisions last month, telling the committee the ordinance represented an "abuse of your power."

Mayor Rudy Boonstra said that the ban was his second time passing a resolution against public smoking. A former smoker, when he served on the Wyckoff Board of Education during the late seventies, he said, he and another smoker would light up during public meetings. They eventually passed a motion to ban tobacco use on the board's dais, he said.

"It was a simple thing we did because it was the right thing to do," he said, comparing his decades-old resolution with the ban of smoking on youth sports fields. "It's a matter of setting the right example for our youngsters."