The Person County Board of Health held a hearing Monday night for public comment on a proposed ordinance banning smoking in public buildings throughout the county. But no one showed up to address the board regarding the proposed smoking ban.

Following the hearing, the health board voted unanimously in favor of implementing the ban, with member Jack Hester, owner of Hyco Tobacco Warehouse, abstaining.

After March 31, smoking will be prohibited at entrances to governmental buildings or close to air intakes for the buildings, Person County Health Director Janet Clayton said. The ordinance also establishes setbacks at the Person County Health Department and the Department of Social Services, where smokers will not be allowed within 35 feet of entrances.

Setbacks will not be in place at buildings such as the Person County Courthouse or City Hall, Clayton said.

Persons found to be in violation of the ordinance, Clayton said, would receive an oral warning initially. A second violation will incur a formal warning, but violations after the second warning could result in a Class I misdemeanor charge and a fine of $200, Clayton explained.

The April 1 implementation of the ban, said Clayton, will give her office time to educate the public regarding the ban and smoking cessation.>>

The ordinance specifies that the health board was moved to take the action because it “recognizes the health risks of smoking and secondhand smoke for non-smokers and smokers and determines that the purpose of this rule regulating smoking is to minimize the harmful effects of tobacco use among staff and the public and eliminate secondhand smoke exposure for staff and the public in those buildings controlled by Person County and the City of Roxboro as well as the grounds surrounding the Public Health and Social Services Departments.”

Elizabeth Constandy of the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, Division of Public Health, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, attended Monday’s health board meeting to offer the state’s assistance. Clayton said Constandy “assured us that her office will be there to help employees and the general public with cessation.”

Person is just the second county in North Carolina, Clayton said, to make use of a new state option that allows boards of health to ban smoking in county-owned and city-owned buildings.

The idea of instituting a ban on smoking in public buildings first came to light at the Jan. 7 meeting of the Person Board of County Commissioners, when Clerk of Court Debra Barker asked commissioners to assess the smoking situation at the courthouse.

Commissioners supported a ban, as did Roxboro City Council and Person County Sheriff Dewey Jones.

The Person County Law Enforcement Center is one of just a few jails that still allow smoking. According to Clayton, Jones said the state Department of Corrections is smoke free and it is only a matter of time before all jails in North Carolina must ban smoking on the premises.

Both county and city governments, however, deferred to the health board to invoke an ordinance because the latter’s authority is broader for ordinances aimed at protecting the public health.