HOULTON, Maine — Town councilors again opted to have a designated smoking area at two upcoming events at the John A. Millar Civic Center.
The decision was made during a brief meeting on Monday evening.
The Houlton Agricultural Fair Association is sponsoring Uncle Kracker in concert on Saturday, April 13. On Saturday, May 18, the annual Blackfly Brewfest will return to the civic center, sponsored by the Greater Houlton Chamber of Commerce.
To accommodate attendees, organizers discussed once again designating areas outside the civic center where people could go to smoke.
Smoking currently is not allowed at the Millar Civic Center or in municipal parks. The civic center sits on the edge of Community Park and there are signs up in the area telling citizens that they can’t smoke or use other tobacco products.
In 2018, however, councilors approved changes in the community’s public smoking ban to allow tobacco use in designated areas of the civic center and in municipal parks under specific situations.
The changes arose after discussion about the difficulty of enforcing existing ordinances and the interest of some groups in providing designated smoking areas when sponsoring events.
The amendment allows the council to temporarily authorize people or groups who lease the civic center or municipal parks to use an outside designated area for the use of tobacco products that complies with all laws. Lessees are responsible for cleanup of the designated area.
Councilor Chris Robinson questioned the need for petitioners to come to the council each time they wanted to rent the civic center and request a designated smoking area.
“You couldn’t have an ongoing designated smoking area?” he asked.
Chair Jane Torres explained that they’d voted that down, with Councilor Bill McCluskey adding that they wanted those who were renting the arena to be responsible for cleaning the smoking area up after they had finished using it.
Councilor Sue Tortello also had questions regarding the brewfest. She noted that the brewers would be distributing sample sizes of alcohol products, and wondered how they would know when to cut someone off.
“That is a good question,” said Torres, who is also the executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.
“They all come with their own [liquor] licenses. They all have licenses. They have an obligation that if they see somebody getting out of control that they won’t serve. I have not seen it happen. They are supposed to limit that,” she said.
In other business, councilors accepted a $2,877 Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant for the Houlton Police Department.
