Town & Country Waffling on Smoking Ban

Photo by Jennifer Silverberg; Sheriff illustration by Kenn Minter

Alderman John Hoffmann wants to put out the butts in Town & Country

Last week's "Butt Heads" feature story did not include stats or insights from munis with less than 15,000 people. Town & Country, with 11,000 inhabitants, thus did not make the cut. But apparently its elected officials are also in a lather over whether or not to push for a regional smoking ban. 

Alderman John Hoffmann (featured in a colorful RFT cover story last year) tells RFT that Bill Kuehling introduced a resolution related to smoking at his last meeting as an alderman on April 13. Kuehling wants Town & Country to join five other munis who are publicly pushing St. Louis County to pass an indoor smoking ban, so that businesses in one muni with a ban aren't pitted against those in another muni without one.
  
The Town & Country Board of Aldermen voted to table the issue until June 22, so that bar and restaurant owners could weigh in....much to Alderman Hoffmann's chagrin.

"We could have mailed [the bar- and restaurant-owners] a letter with the resolution in one day, but we are waiting six weeks instead," he gripes in an e-mail to RFT.

"Here is my problem with cities (Town and Country included) that do not have the guts to ban smoking," Hoffmann goes on. "We issue business licenses and require special parking spaces, stair less entryways, special bathroom stalls for people who have mobility handicaps. But we then completely discriminate against people who have ashma and lung ailment handicaps and allow businesses to make it impossible for them to safely enter a public establishment. Every City Council and Board of Aldermen in St. Louis County need to do the right thing and pass smoke-free bans in their communities."