Marion considers nicotine-free parks

MARION - Next week, City Council members will discuss approving a recommendation from the Marion Park Board to make city parks nicotine-free.

'It's something to explore,” City Council member Cody Crawford said Friday.

Mike Carolan, Marion's parks and recreation director, said the five-member Marion Park Board first talked about tobacco-free parks two to three years ago, but 'wasn't ready then to head in that direction.”

The city did ban smoking in and around park facilities in Lowe and Thomas parks and at ball complexes in Starry and Pierce parks, but not elsewhere in city parks, Carolan said.

More recently, he said Marion's health-promoting Blue Zone Committee approached the Park Board and persuaded it last week to vote to recommend a ban on nicotine products in all Marion parks.

The board's recommendation extends to nicotine products such as e-cigarettes, he said.

Sara Mentzer, community program manager for Blue Zones Project Marion, said there is currently a lot of confusion because school properties in Marion have already moved against nicotine products, but parks next to them haven't. Smoking isn't permitted at some events, but you can smoke in the park when there isn't an event, she said.

'This takes it (city parks) to the level where schools are,” Mentzer said. 'It makes for a family-friendly environment when you take kids to the park or the playground. And there is very clear guidelines on what you can and can't do.”

She said there is an anti-litter aspect to nicotine-free parks, too.

School students participated last fall in an exercise where they placed little flags in Thomas Park everywhere they found a cigarette butt or some other piece of tobacco litter. 'Around the pavilions, there are just a ton of flags,” she said.

Mentzer said clean-air campaigns typically consider one of three levels of prohibition against smoking in parks: smoke-free, tobacco-free, or nicotine-free, the latter of which addresses emerging products like e-cigarettes.

The Marion Park Board has recommended nicotine-free, she said.

'This isn't something where the community is trying to slap this down and write a bunch of tickets,” Mentzer said.

Carolan said any implementation of a ban would come with a grace period to allow time for the city's park users to learn about that ban. At some point, there would be penalties for violations if the City Council approved the draft ordinance as proposed, he said.

Gail Loskill, communications coordinator for the Cedar Rapids Parks and Recreation Department, said her department also is looking at the possibility of smoke-free or nicotine-free parks. The department could have a recommendation to the Cedar Rapids council in a couple of months.