Zionsville Town Council will consider smoke-free ordinance next week

By Brooke Baker/Zionsville Times Sentinel

The Zionsville Town Council will consider a proposed smoke free public places ordinance at its June 5 meeting.

Council members initially heard from community members who were lobbying to make Zionsville smoke free at the council’s May meeting. Speakers cited the health of workers in smoking establishments as well as the comfort and health of patrons in Zionsville’s businesses as reasons to ban smoking in public places.

Dr. Jim Haines acted as the spokesman for the Proud to be Smokefree Zionsville Coalition, introducing the proposed ordinance and bringing in several other speakers to underscore the group’s position. Among them was Bruce Hetrick, whose wife died from lung cancer at 49 despite the fact that she had never been a smoker.

Several Zionsville businesses are already smoke free. Cobblestone Grill recently joined that group, annoucing on May 17 that it would no longer allow smoking in its restaurant or bar.

“We’ve actually been thinking about it for quite awhile,” said owner Liz Esra. “With a building as old as ours is, it would be very difficult to control the airflow so we could really have a smoking area and a nonsmoking area and keep everybody comfortable.”

She said customers have been appreciative of the change. It was something some patrons had asked for, and it seemed like the right time to do it, Esra said.

“We would occasionally get comments from diners about the smoke, so that obviously was a concern to us, if people were not happy when they were dining because there were smokers in the bar area,” she said.

Esra said she expects the town council will pass the smoke free public places ordinance, but even if it doesn’t, Cobblestone will remain smoke free.