The steps toward a healthier, more vibrant community should continue moving forward.
If so, July 1 will become a significant milestone for Vigo County and the city of Terre Haute.
That is the day a comprehensive clean indoor air ordinance takes effect in the city. In the meantime, the Vigo County commissioners are working on revisions to an important, yet less stringent countywide ordinance that has been in place since 2007. The commissioners are trying to make the county ordinance consistent with the new city ordinance.
It is important that the process of making the two laws consistent hinges upon tightening up the county ordinance. The city ordinance should not be diluted to match it up with the existing county policy. The community has been working toward a safer atmosphere in local workplaces for nearly a decade. This is not a time for steps backward.
The county’s ordinance — passed in 2006 and effective on July 1, 2007 — granted bars and taverns a five-year exemption to prepare to go smokefree by July 1, 2012. That equals the new city ordinance, which also prohibits smoking in bars and taverns.
However, the county law also gave an unlimited exemption to fraternal organizations, such as American Legion posts, civic organizations, service clubs and private-membership organizations. The city ordinance is comprehensive and does not allow those exemptions.
Some businesses within the city limits have told Commissioner Mike Ciolli they want the two smoking ordinances to be fair and consistent. That desire is understandable and appropriate. The clean indoor air guidelines should apply in every workplace, so that all employees can earn a living without exposure to secondhand smoke, and so that some businesses and organizations aren’t restricted while other similar entities are exempted.
County attorney Mike Wright is reviewing the Vigo ordinance, and commissioners will vote on any revisions “as soon as we get something back,” said Ciolli.
All of these efforts to improve workplace environments and “level the playing field” by matching up local ordinances could have been made much smoother by the state Legislature. But, instead of passing a comprehensive smoking law last winter, Indiana lawmakers enacted a weak statute with exemptions for bars, taverns, casinos, private clubs and fraternal organizations.
Vigo County and Terre Haute have exhibited more progressive leadership. The county ordinance, passed six years ago, paved the way for the new city ordinance, passed last year by the City Council. The commissioners labored through years of discussions and negotiations, listening as the rights of workers to be protected from toxic air exposure, the rights of smokers and the rights of businesses were thoroughly debated. The staff at the Vigo County Health Department and its board members led the charge for that initial county law, and the ultimate hope was to see a comprehensive ordinance adopted, someday in the future.
That day is July 1, 2012.
With employees, businesses and organizations functioning under a consistent workplace ordinance, the community will quickly adapt to a new, more welcoming environment. The standard of living will improve. Prospective industries will find the county more attractive. It is a win-win for the community.
Editorials
EDITORIAL: Be fair, consistent, but keep smokefree ordinance on track
Workplace safety concerns apply to all
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The celebration season
Spring has been a bit elusive at times in 2013, which is its nature.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: MVC tourney an event worth having
It’s been a long time since the Missouri Valley Conference chose Indiana State University to host its post-season baseball tournament, but Terre Haute had never been more prepared for an event such as this.
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EDITORIAL: Cleaning up voter rolls
It’s not a lot of money in the big scheme of things, but the $2 million designated in the recent session of the General Assembly will begin the messy but necessary process of cleaning up Indiana’s voter registration rolls.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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EDITORIAL: Education remains worth the cost
Within the next few weeks, each of the local colleges will have conducted graduation ceremonies. A few days later, a different Class of 2013 will don caps and gowns for commencement — the seniors at five Vigo County high schools. It is still a smart, worthy aspiration for those high school grads to replicate the achievement of those college students by earning a higher-education degree.
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EDITORIAL: Good news for downtown
For decades, it seems, downtown Terre Haute has been in the throes of change
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EDITORIAL: Overall, state budget step in the right direction
For average Hoosiers uninterested in political point-scoring, the budget crafted by the Indiana Legislature inspires only muted, if any, fanfare.
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EDITORIAL: The lessons of organ donation
The range of emotion surrounding life-saving transplantation of a vital organ is extreme. It is the ultimate “good news-bad news” scenario.
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READERS’ FORUM: April 26, 2013
• Pence’s tax cuts benefit wealthiest
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
This does not qualify as a surprise in any way. But the Wabash Valley’s response to widespread flooding of recent days has been nothing short of impressive, even inspirational.
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EDITORIAL: Still waiting for the jobs reward
The forces in control of Indiana government for most of the past decade need to show some results to Hoosiers in one primary category.
Good-paying jobs. -
MARK BENNETT: Littered with irony: Why do people callously discard their trash, and who are they?
Though they aren’t acknowledged by the U.S. Census Bureau, there are basically two demographic groups of people … Those who would dump their old toilet on the banks of the Wabash River or a rural roadside. And those who wouldn’t.
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EDITORIAL: Doing the dirty work to clean up tossed trash
A first-of-its-kind, coast-to-coast project to remove litter from U.S. roadsides brought the Pick Up America crew through the Wabash Valley two years ago.
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EDITORIAL: Keep school security a local issue
The decision to provide armed security inside a schoolhouse should be made locally.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news
Indiana’s parks need your help.
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EDITORIAL: The return of terror
Emotions today remain strong and raw in wake of Monday’s terror bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
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EDITORIAL: A solution to distracted driving … stop it … now
You’ve got to stop. You know you do it. It’s a miracle you haven’t caused a tragedy already.
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EDITORIAL: ‘Women of Influence’: 2013 selectees have given much to their communities
For the second year, United Way of the Wabash Valley has teamed up with local sponsors to select and honor a group of women who have made outstanding contributions to their communities, professions and families.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: A new honor for our veterans
A commendation goes out today to state Rep. Clyde Kersey, a Terre Haute Democrat who led the charge this week in the Indiana House of Representatives to pay tribute to the nation’s Purple Heart recipients.
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EDITORIAL: Shifting view on marriage
One could argue, as many have, that Sen. Joe Donnelly did the right thing last week when he dropped his support of government-sanctioned opposition to same-sex marriage. It wasn’t a radical move, considering most Democrats have now made the switch.
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MAX JONES: The American Newspaper: Changing? Yes. Dying? No way!
It happened again this past January when all those “looking at the year ahead” stories started popping up on Internet “news” websites and broadcast “news” programs. Under a provocative headline reading something like “Five industries/businesses doomed to tank in the coming year,” there it was, a prediction based on an unsubstantiated “expert” analysis that the newspaper industry will continue in 2013 to suffer its slide into oblivion.
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EDITORIAL: A chance to change our bad cultural habits
The sight of diligent, eager young people dragging trash out of the Wabash River wetlands is both inspiring and sad.
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EDITORIAL: Maintaining high standards
Standards
It’s the raging buzzword in education circles these days. Everyone insists that higher standards must be met. Anything less is, doggone it, unacceptable. -
Noteworthy in the news
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The celebration season
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