Smoking banned at Hendrickson Park

If you stroll down one of the trails through A.J. Hendrickson Park, you may notice not only the leaves changing colors, but an absence of cigarette smoke in the air. The village board adopted a smoking ban on Oct. 18 in order to give some teeth to its already existing smoke-free outdoor policy there, according to Acting Mayor Joanne Antun.

“We are adopting an ordinance to reinforce policies already in place,” Antun said. “Currently there is a no-smoke environment there, but we are just reinforcing that with a resolution.”

Village officials met with Carol Meschkow, Nassau County project coordinator for the Tobacco Action Coalition, in June. Meschkow presented the board with New York state’s latest outdoor air initiatives and entryway smoking bans to promote smoke-free environments. The coalition seeks to push nonsmoking as a social norm through the prevention of youths’ initiation to smoking, the cessation of tobacco use and the protection of nonsmokers from second-hand smoke.

Since the New York State Clean Indoor Act was amended in 2003, any local ordinances pertaining to smoking must be as strict as that law, according to the New York State Department of Health’s website. With an already long list of New York State counties jumping on the no-smoking bandwagon, the village is in good company. The board’s decision could breathe new life into the village’s current smoke-free policy.

“The board never put a resolution on no smoking in the park before,” said Deputy Village Clerk Robert Fumagalli. “Even especially when it was a hot, dry summer where people put cigarette butts on the grounds.”

According to Antun, Hendrickson was the first targeted area for the smoking ban because it is the largest village park facility, spanning 38 acres. Park-goers cannot smoke cigarettes, cigars, pipes or anything similar anywhere on the grounds. Several signs at the park’s entrances serve as reminders of that policy, warning visitors not to smoke, and the no-smoking message is contained in other park information.