Decatur’s commission amended its clean air ordinance, adding electronic cigarettes to the list of products/substances that can’t be smoked in designated public areas. Those areas include no smoking within 20 feet of any place of city employment and 20 feet within a restaurant’s serving area.
The banned precincts also now include, among other places, public parks, playgrounds, green space and outdoor recreation sites maintained by the city, along with the city cemetery. Previously there have been signs posted in some of these places, but those warnings now carry the weight of law.
Decatur’s initial clean-air ordinance dates to April 2004, even before statewide regulations had passed.
“We got a lot of complaints back then from restaurant owners,” City Manager Peggy Merriss said. “Eddie’s Attic complained the most. But a few months [after the initial ordinance passed] they told us they were actually getting more patrons and the musicians loved not having to sing in cigarette smoke.”
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