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| Smoke Free Illinois Enforcement Officially Begins in Knox County |
A state law that was supposed to go into effect almost two years ago is now finally being enforced at least locally.
That's according to Knox County Health Department Environmental Director Wil Hayes, who told the county board of Health Thursday night that citations are now being written for individuals and businesses in violation of the "Smoke Free Illinois" law -- that bans smoking in most indoor venues outside of homes.
Hayes says that's possible because Galesburg Police now have the tools to make enforcement a reality.
"We have the citations printed. We distributed them," Hayes said. "As of this week, the first citations came into us. They've written citations both to individuals and to a business. So, that has started moving forward. We'll see how it goes from there."
That's not to say that Smoke Free Illinois violations weren't cited before this week in Knox County, but Hayes says there is now the more formal procedure in place. The Smoke Free Illinois law was first passed in 2007 and was to go into effect January 1st, 2008, but questions about its legality plagued a more widespread enforcement of it.
The Knox County Board of Health Thursday night also learned that a public meeting on the county's efforts to get its health clinic federally-qualified that was postponed on Wednesday has been tentatively re-scheduled for January 27th, and they approved several changes to the department personnel manual. Among them, employees can't use cell phones in public areas -- something the Board of Health expressed an interest in making sure the general public doesn't do either. |
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| 12 11 09 by Newsroom |
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