Tangipahoa OKs smoking ordinance
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AMITE — The Tangipahoa Parish Council voted to approve ordinances regulating tobacco smoking at parish-owned facilities and establishing a deadline for cleaning up after yard sales.
The ordinances, passed Monday, go into effect next month.
The smoking ordinance approved on a 7-1 vote prohibits smoking within parish-owned vehicles, at parish parks and outside all parish-owned facilities, including grounds surrounding those properties.
Councilman Bobby Cortez opposed the ordinance. Councilwoman Debbie Edwards abstained and Councilman Tennis Rick was not present.
Prior to passage of the measure, Ponchatoula resident Tim Patrick expressed concerns about the effect a smoking restriction would have on people summoned for jury duty.
“Jury duty is a conscripted service, it is not a voluntary action,” Patrick said, adding that council members should not want people serving on juries while going through nicotine withdrawal.
Patrick requested the smoking ban ordinance include language setting up a designated smoking area for people on jury duty.
But Patrick was advised state law prohibits smoking within public buildings, and no action was taken on his request.
The council’s yard sale ordinance gives residents three days to remove items from public view after a sale is over.
Patrick, also speaking on passage of the yard sale ordinance, questioned whether applying time limits on yard sales would also apply to sales of crafted and grown products as well as vehicles, boats and other items.
He was told that the new law concerns only yard sales and the cleanup of frontage following those sales.
Council attorney Clifton Speed said items grown or made by residents fall into a different category and the sale of such goods is governed by state law.
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