Committee bans smoking on municipal properties

Committee bans smoking
on municipal properties
Pupils’ letters end up
prompting Jackson
officials to enact ban
By Joyce Blay
Staff Writer

JACKSON — Children from the Lucy N. Holman Elementary School learned firsthand that a good idea could also become a good law, as the Township Committee formally adopted an ordinance their letters helped to enact.

Ordinance 51-02, which amends the Administrative Code, will prohibit smoking on municipal property and at recreational areas, but its enactment was not by chance or whim of the committee. The inspiration of Holman School guidance counselor Beverly-Ann Foran, she said she conceived the idea to make smoking on public property illegal back in October.

"On Oct. 17, I had attended a workshop in Toms River that was given by Leslie Terjesen of the Ocean County Chapter of the American Cancer Society," Foran recalled. "(I learned during the presentation) that in this county, only Toms River and Stafford Township have enacted non-smoking ordinances prohibiting smoking on municipal property or recreational facilities."

Foran said she felt that if Jackson enacted a similar ordinance, it could create an opportunity for children at the school to participate in government, as well as gain experience in several other important skills.

"October (was) Fire Safety Month at Holman School and I spoke with Jeanne Pollock, the principal, about having each of the school’s 700 students write a letter addressed to Mayor (Michael) Broderick about their concern that smoking could cause forest fires," Foran said. "I thought that because the project was about passing a law to prohibit smoking on public property, it involved social studies and health safety, while the letters the kids wrote involved a lesson in literacy. But the teachers deserve a lot of credit for making it all possible."

On Dec. 9, Foran saw the realization of her project as the committee members voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance based on her idea. She was accompanied by fourth grade Holman students Svetlana Preis, 10, Richard Thomas, 9, Jessica Linke, 9, and Michael Trotta, 10, who presented Deputy Mayor Marvin Krakower with the school’s letters after Broderick had to leave the meeting early. But then the unexpected happened.

"The entire committee came down to pose for pictures with the children, and that was very nice," said Foran. "The children were very impressed by it all."