APPLETON – The effort to make the Appleton Public Library and Valley Transit Center blocks a smoke-free campus has not received the necessary support for passage, at least not yet.
The Common Council voted 7-5 on Wednesday to create the smoke-free campus, but eight votes were needed for approval.
Council members who voted in favor of the smoke-free zone were Denise Fenton, Brad Firkus, Patrick Hayden, Vered Meltzer, William Siebers, Katie Van Zeeland and Nate Wolff.
Members who voted against the proposal were Chris Croatt, Chad Doran, Sheri Hartzheim, Patti Heffernan and Alex Schultz.
Mayor Jake Woodford said afterward that he wouldn’t be surprised if there was a reconsideration of the vote at the Nov. 6 council meeting, as three council members — Kristin Alfheim, Vaya Jones and Martyn Smith — were absent.
Smoking is already prohibited on Valley Transit property. It is also prohibited in the library, within six meters of the library entrance and on the walkway leading to the entrance, but the ban does not apply to the entire library grounds or adjacent sidewalks.
The sidewalk in front of the Yellow Parking Ramp on Washington Street is used as a smoking area for people waiting for Valley Transit buses. That wouldn’t change.
Library Director Colleen Rortvedt said the existing ordinances can lead to confusion about where someone can or cannot smoke. The opening of the new $40.4 million Appleton Public Library offers the opportunity for a clean start.
“This is a clearer place to say, ‘You can smoke there,’” Rortvedt said. “It’s more specific.”
Related: The Appleton Library will close its temporary location on November 26 in preparation for the move to a new building
Wolff, a former smoker, said the area near the yellow parking ramp is not too far to walk for smokers.
“It’s reasonable to ask people to move away from a children’s yard and not smoke around children,” Wolff said.
Hartzheim said the proposed expansion of smoke-free areas was “a step too far.”
“Nobody likes walking through a cloud of second-hand smoke,” she said, “but I think this particular ban is just a little bit too much for the government.”
Heffernan, a former smoker, said a large portion of Valley Transit riders are people who smoke and are lower-income.
“I don’t think we need any more barriers or other things for that particular population that is an added hassle for them,” Heffernan said.
The ban, Heffernan said, would ultimately push smokers to other parts of the neighborhood, which would “create bigger problems that we probably don’t want to have to deal with.”
Hartzheim said she worried the ban “could be seen as a veiled attempt to control what types of people are allowed into the library building.”
Rortvedt disputed the statement and emphasized that the library is welcome to everyone.
“This is not a veiled attempt to target specific individuals,” Rortvedt said. “This is specific to the redevelopment of the library infrastructure, the way the parking lot will be changed in terms of ingress and egress, and ensuring that we can have a safe place and a healthy place that is not filled with smoke from the children’s garden.”
The Health Council unanimously supported the expanded smoke-free zone.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on X, previously Twitter, op @DukeBehnke.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: The smoke-free zone around the Appleton library doesn’t get the votes it needs
