Smoking set to be banned in city parks

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Smoke ’em if you got ’em, because the city of Port Townsend is making moves to ban smoking and vaping inside its parks.

The Port Townsend City Council reviewed a draft ordinance on the ban during a business meeting Monday, May 17.

At the meeting, Public Works Director Steve King explained that the ordinance was “pretty simple.” 

“It’s just establishing a prohibition against vaping and smoking in parks,” King said. “Originally we set out to do this because we had understood that the county ordinance did not apply in the city limits.”

King added that city officials later learned that the ban actually does apply to the city parks, given that the ban was adopted by the Jefferson County Board of Health. The proposed ordinance was to guarantee that those who had to uphold the ban were backed by a city ordinance.

“Since our parks maintenance workers are the ones that effectively do enforcement of park rules, we decided it was prudent to go ahead and bring this before council to make our park rules consistent with the board of health ordinance,” King said.

The Port Townsend City Council unanimously approved the first reading of the ordinance to ban smoking, vaping and camping at city parks.