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Businesses throughout Peachtree City have until Monday to replace the old smoking ordinance signs (shown on the lower left) with the new ones (on the right). Photo/J. Frank Lynch.

Smoking ban kicks in Monday

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Enjoy that cigarette with your meal while you can.

This weekend is the last that patrons will be allowed to smoke in Peachtree City restaurants. On Monday, the city’s tough new Smoke Free Air Act goes into effect in nearly 800 businesses and places of employment.

The only exceptions are the handful of bars in town that derive less than 60 percent of their total revenue from the selling of food and where no one under the age of 18 is permitted.

Also exempt are most private homes, hotel and motel rooms designated for smoking, retail tobacco stores, some private and semi-private rooms in nursing homes, and private social clubs.

The Smoke Free Air Act was adopted by the mayor and City Council in August. It requires all businesses in the city affected by the ordinance to remove the red, blue and green signs allowed by the previous ordinance and replace them with new ones.

But a quick check of businesses on Thursday morning revealed that many had yet to display the new signs, which feature a smoking cigarette overlaid with a red circle and slash.

An employee at the Kwik Copy location at 428 Huddleston Road, which was the only print company to bid on the contract to produce the new signs, said they had sold only about 150 as of noon Thursday.

City Spokeswoman Betsy Tyler said the city mailed notices about the new law to all of the businesses affected, and that code enforcement officers would begin checking that the signs were properly displayed on Monday morning.

The cost is $2.25 for a set of two adhesive signs and two window decals. Kwik Kopy’s phone number is 770-631-6336.

Businesses must also move all ashtrays away from doorways and buildings so that they are located beyond the 10-foot restricted area for smoking, city officials said.

Council adopted the ordinance to protect the public health and welfare and to guarantee the right of nonsmokers to breathe smoke free air.

For more information, call City Hall at 770-487-7657.