No Changes Made to Smoking Rules at Buffalo Grove Days

Smokers attending Buffalo Grove Days this year will be allowed to light up in the same places they always have, village officials indicated Monday.

Officials have discussed in recent months how to handle smoking at the suggestion of Trustee Mike Terson, who urged the village to ban smoking throughout the festival. 

Smoking is already prohibited year-round on Buffalo Grove Park District property, where the carnival is held, and on St. Mary Church property, where the bands perform. Terson hoped to extend the ban to village property, which hosts the food and beer tents as well as the craft fair and business fair.

In June, trustees rejected the idea of a complete smoking ban, but asked the village staff look into designating alternative smoking spaces.

Village Manager Dane Bragg said staff looked into a complete smoking ban as well as other smoking options.

He said when staff members considered a complete smoking ban, they were concerned that smokers might round the fence along Lake-Cook Road, exiting the festival grounds but potentially creating safety hazards due to nearby traffic and pedestrians on the sidewalk. 

Another concern was that people on the festival grounds might pass alcoholic beverages over the fence to those on the sidewalk, Bragg said.

The staff also looked at creating different smoking areas on village property. “Unfortunately, we’re tight on space so we don’t really have space to put them anywhere other than where they are now,” Bragg said.

Village staff members also determined that changing the designated smoking areas would result in more concentrated smoke near the craft fair and business fair.

Buffalo Grove resident Scott Jacobson, who serves as a park district commissioner, spoke in favor of a complete smoking ban. He said “no smoking” signs and verbal reminders have been effective in keeping park district property smoke-free. 

In the seven years since the park district’s ban has been in place, “we’ve had zero police reports regarding smoking,” he said.

“People seem to be pretty much law abiding citizens,” Jacobson later told Patch. “If it says ‘no smoking,’ they don’t smoke.”

The village memo regarding smoking at the festival noted that volunteers, police and staff have received minimal complaints from non-smokers about secondhand smoke at the festival.

“I have heard complaints from people,” Terson responded.

He wondered whether the village received complaints from residents before deciding that dogs would not be allowed at events such as Buffalo Grove Days or the art festival, or whether residents complained about assault weapons before trustees considered an ordinance restricting them. 

“My point is that a lack of complaints from the public has never been a reason not to enact legislation,” Terson said.

He also suggested that allowing people to smoke near the festival’s food tents conflicts with a village ordinance that prohibits smoking within 20 feet of an open-air dining area.

While village officials previously discussed Terson’s proposal, during Monday’s meeting Terson was the only trustee to comment on the subject.

“The recommendation for the treatment of smoking at Buffalo Grove Days is driven primarily by geography,” according to the village memo. “If the event was held on a continuous piece of property not bisected by major roadway, a decision to prohibit smoking entirely would much easier to manage and smokers would have a safer place to smoke. The risks associated with trying to manage smokers are significant and cannot be easily mitigated with police officers.” 

Jacobson noted that the Buffalo Grove Park District was the first in the state to ban smoking. Other park districts have since followed suit. He said he’d support a similar ban on village-owned property.

“I think the village should go one step further and say no smoking allowed on all village property,” he said.