June - July 2002 Edition 

Council Creates Smoking Area for H.S. Kids   By Chris Neidenberg Anti-smoking groups protested recently, when the Borough Council unanimously approved creating an area where students can openly smoke near Fair Lawn High School. The council entered into a lease with the Board of Education. Under the deal, it will take possession of school property on a grassy area behind the Berdan Avenue building. Borough Manager Barbara Sacks, who helped negotiate the issue with Superintendent of Schools Bruce Watson, is tasked with deciding what amenities will be provided to students and school staffers seeking to light up during breaks, including lunch periods. She earlier told Fair Lawn News the area might include benches. The municipality will look to launch the area this spring. The decision was vigorously protested by a coalition including the statewide Group Against Smoking Pollution of Summit (GASP), the Bergen County chapter of the American Cancer Society, the Bergen County Heart Association, the Communities Against Tobacco Coalition, and the student organization REBEL (Reach Everyone by Exposing Lies). It was just as vigorously defended by all five Democratic council members, led by Mayor David L. Ganz. Opponents said they were aghast that a public entity would do anything to facilitate smoking. Yet Ganz and his colleagues adamantly insisted that they agreed smoking is reprehensible. Yet they also argued creating the zone is a viable way of providing much-needed relief to residents in areas including Orchard, Lexington and Burbank streets, Fairclough Place and Berdan Avenue. The school's neighbors have complained loudly about the discarding of thousands of cigarette butts in the streets and their properties since the state passed a law banning smoking on public school grounds. The council has taken other steps in trying to attack the problem. These have included banning parking on Orchard from Berdan to Hopper Avenue, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., and doubling maximum litter fines in a range from $100 to $1,000. Additionally, it has mandated community service for any litter penalty that is a second offense (while making it an option for first-time offenders}. These other steps were taken earlier in response to neighbors' complaints. Approval of the Orchard parking ban (to keep students' cars away from homes) came despite heavy opposition from students, parents, the school's PTA and Principal Elizabeth Panella. In leasing the knoll area from the school district, council members see it as a way of getting around the state's school property smoking ban. "No one likes the idea of having to create a place for kids to smoke, particularly me," said Councilman Allan Caan. "This is an attempt not to allow smoking. This is an attempt to move the problem where it's not going to bother the neighbors." Ganz told upset residents the action was not a long-term solution. He agreed to appoint interested residents on a task force dedicated to ending the smoking scourge inflicted upon young people, who often get hooked in their middle and high school years due to peer pressure. Ganz said the borough itself is not responsible for the teen smoking epidemic. He blamed the problem on tolerant parents. "If a child wants to smoke, he or she is going to smoke," the mayor insisted. "The only thing this council wants to do is to regulate where they're going to smoke." While not blaming the borough for the problem, critics insisted that the issue is simple: a municipality should not do anything that gives engaging in the hard-to-break nicotine habit the green light. "I just implore you not to encourage addiction by adopting this ordinance," urged resident Jamie Taylor-Tomko, of the Communities Against Tobacco Coalition. Despite her disagreement with the council, she volunteered for the task force. Barbara Simon, another resident active with the Bergen County Heart Associaton, agreed. She said, "I just want to say ... to the mayor and council how embarrassing it's going to be tomorrow morning, when I read in the newspaper that Fair Lawn is adopting an ordinance that will allow people to smoke." During a recent public hearing on the Orchard "no parking" ordinance, GASP statewide Director Regina Carlson cited a literal "pediatric epidemic of nicotine in the United States." She warned it will only be promoted further through steps such as the smoking zone. "We're protesting any proposal that basically encourages a taxpayer-sponsored drug use area," Carlson said. She cited figures showing smoking kills some 440,000 Americans each year. See Residents' Reaction to the Smoking Area   Note:  Mr. Neidenberg is a talented local writer looking for a job.  If you have a job tip for him, send an e- mail to cn07055@aol.com     What Do You Think?: Send an e- mail to editor@fairlawnnews.com or post a message on the Fair Lawn News Discussion Forum.