UPDATE – Public hearing on controversial Sheffield no-smoking law to be held this THURSDAY

by Steve Wiggins
1 comment

Sheffield, Alabama – City Council

SHEFFIELD – Want to light up a cigarette in Sheffield? Careful, you could get cited. No smoking on the street or in any restaurant or bar. That’s the new law. No more “Smoking-Sections”.

The law was passed a couple of weeks ago, with little public fanfare in a 4-to-2 vote by the City Council. As word spread around the community, Mayor Ian Sanford, who – along with Council Member Steve Nix – voted against the ordinance. Sanford tells The Quad-Cities Daily that this upcoming Monday evening City Council meeting is probably going to be a huge complaint-fest. So huge, in fact, that Sanford has called for an additional City Council meeting to be held on Thursday at 5:00 PM at the regular location, which is the second-floor Courtroom at the Sheffield Municipal Building on Montgomery Avenue.

Sanford told this reporter that the amount of back-scatter from restaurant owners, business owners and private citizens has been pretty intense. He says that the council will stay in session for hours, if need-be, to hear comments from the public on this ordinance. Public input is invited.

Tuscumbia and Muscle Shoals in Colbert County have been approached by the same people who proffered the Sheffield ordinance. Those cities have decided not to take such action, deemed by many to be an ill-conceived and poorly thought out ordinance that will hurt their downtown business districts and local restaurant food servers, as well as the business owners themselves.. City Council members, Steve Stanley, Ronnie Wicks, Penny Freeman and MaLea Scales voted in the majority to pass the new ordinance.

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1 comment

Keith Olive October 13, 2018 - 9:58 pm

How much control do they want? This should not be left up to any form of government to decide what ,”We the People” want for our pursuit of happiness.

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