Juneau International Airport’s board of directors approved a policy to ban smoking outside of designated areas on the front curb of the airport terminal Wednesday.
Airport Manager Jeannie Johnson said that with two new smoking shelters installed on either end of the terminal, people have a place to smoke at the airport that is not out in the open air. With those shelters in place, she said, airport staff recommend that the rest of the public area in front of the terminal be designated a non-smoking area.
“As long as they’re not 10 feet on either side of a door, it’s legal for them to stand on the sidewalk and smoke,” Johnson said of smokers outside the airport. “I wouldn’t say that it’s the biggest complaint that I get, but it’s darn close, (from) people walking in from the employee parking lot or just walking the gauntlet down there, and they walk through smoke all the time.”
Board member David Epstein made a motion to approve the airport ordinance, which must go to the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly for final approval before it takes effect. But he asked to clarify that smokers would be appraised of where they can and cannot smoke, if and when the ordinance takes effect.
“Just kind of future-tripping a little bit, I would presume if this ends up codified, that … there would be signage and everything that would direct people where to go to smoke, and that we’re not foisting this on the smoking public without some guidance,” Epstein said.
Johnson replied, “There will be signage directing people to the designated smoking areas.”
Johnson also said staff will work to make it clear that people cannot smoke in the bus shelter at the airport, either.
The board heard an update from Airport Architect Catherine Fritz on terminal renovations. Construction work recently concluded on the main entry to the airport.
Reflecting on the renovations to date, Fritz singled out the airport’s installation of ground-source electric heat pumps as a particularly significant step forward. Another heat pump installed as part of the entry renovation brings their number at the airport to 31.
“We have done some pretty remarkable work on this building,” said Fritz. “We were the first airport and first public building in the state of Alaska to utilize geothermal heat pumps, and we’ve been a leader in that area.”
Fritz added, “There’s a lot of people moving forward with this technology because of the willingness of the board and the management here to make those first steps to try something that was pretty leading-edge at the time.”
The renovations have added about 12,000 square feet of new space to the airport terminal to date.
“We demonstrated that good design can give you more than lots of design, and I think that it’s a very efficient, flexible for the long term space, the 12,000 square feet that we’ve added,” Fritz told the board.
Nearly seven million dollars in funding to continue the renovation of the airport terminal were approved by Juneau voters in October as part of Ballot Proposition 1, which authorized a $25 million general obligation bond issue.
Fritz, who is retiring after almost 30 years working for the CBJ, was honored at the meeting with a special presentation by Mayor Merrill Sanford. He presented her with a “certificate of appreciation” for her service.
“She’s more than just an architect and a designer. She’s a gal that pays attention to the nuts and bolts of our buildings, also,” Sanford said, as he and Assemblymember Johan Dybdahl, the new Assembly liaison to the board, stood on either side of Fritz.
Fritz thanked the board, airport management and Assembly after receiving her certificate.
“It really has been a pleasure working as a public servant of the city and borough for nearly 30 years,” said Fritz. “I’ve learned a lot, and that I will take with me my whole life. And I think there’s a lot of good people who really want to give to this community. And so thank you for supporting all the work that I’ve been able to do, too.”
Johnson, Fritz and the board also discussed the Snow Removal Equipment Facility project and its funding schedule, with Johnson saying she hopes to line up full funding by next fall so that the SREF building can be put out to bid and constructed in one phase.
The Federal Aviation Administration has said it will provide $10 million in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2014 on Oct. 1, 2013, according to Johnson. She said she is also hoping for $3 million in state funding for the project.
The SREF project is scheduled to receive $3.1 million over the next two fiscal years, FY14 and FY15, from a 1 percent sales tax extension backed by municipal voters in October.
• Contact reporter Mark D. Miller at 523-2279 or at mark.d.miller@juneauempire.com.
Comments (32)
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tax it until it's too expensive to buy, ban it everywhere, all the time, I am sick of smokers and their stench, their litter and all the death and disease cigarette cause. pass another law that prevents food stamp holders from buying cigs and booze with government handout money too.
A food stamp recipient can't
A food stamp recipient can't buy booze or cigs with their benefit. Also can't buy any non-food items, dog food, vitamins, deli food, etc.
Welcome to Juneau!
Now get your ashes out!
Way to let them know what a persnickety hole they landed in. What next? Ban smoking on the cruise docks except for designated shelters on either end of the seawalk with busses and taxis idling in between?
Cough Cough...
Smoking is a blight to otherwise clean air. I don't want to be insulted by your smoke. If you want to smoke, fine, just do it in an area I don't have to walk by. Plain and simple. You have a right to smoke if you wish, I also have a right not to have to smell it or ruin my fresh air. If you can find a way for me to bottle fresh air around me in your smoke filled world, so be it. Until then suck it up (try not to cough too much) and deal with it. If that doesn't work, how about we settle this through a nice 5k race?
I like to think that your smoking is, in a small way, helping to releave the burden on social security and the retirement systems. :-)
As far as the food stamp thing, many of those individuals do sell the stamps or resulting food stuffs (probably to non smokers) for cash and the use the proceeds for smokes or booze.
raininak
"I like to think that your smoking is, in a small way, helping to releave the burden on social security and the retirement systems."
Except that diseases of the lung can take years of expensive therapy before the smoker is killed off, so it's not necessarily less of a tax burden.
Darn logic
Darn your flawless logic juneauakgrrl. While yes, there is probably a savings to SS, that savings is surely loss through medicare, medicade, and other insurance. If only there was a way to offset those increased insurance costs...
Hey, let's just increase the costs on those individuals so they can absorb their negative externalities (sorry econ class comming through).
Simply stated, smoking IS a burden on society, no one that isn't crazy would truely disagree (personal rights aside). I will support the smokers counter argument that there are many things that are a burden on society such as McD's, booze, and politicians. But nothing is so pervasive as tobacco. It killed my mom plain and simple. Only after a 3 months in a coma, a lung transplain, years on oxygen and the brain death followed by her kids pulling the plug. Oh, did I mention she was only 54?
Perhaps
We could put a smokers hut in Thane on the DuPont trail, and one in Echo Cove. But then a hiker and an ATV driver could happen upon a puff a smoke out there. Or maybe a smoking barge that could be automatically moved 10' off shore (so no driver is exposed to the heinous fumes) every 15 minutes. While we are at it, maybe we could convert to only electric cars because of the release of carcinogens in the exhaust of people idling outside the airport. And be careful, they are selling coffee and alcohol inside the airport which also could contribute to various insidious conditions during peoples brief visit to Juneau. Maybe, if we try really hard, we can ban almost everything that could be annoying or dangerous, but legalize marijuana like Seattle, then we could all feel like we are on the bleeding edge and setting an example for the rest of Alaska.
I'm so sorry about your mom.
I'm so sorry about your mom.
hirsch I think you are trying to be funny so haha
At my building, people are not supposed to smoke right in front of the entrance, but they do. I have to walk through a cloud several times a day.
I'm extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke, and I get headaches from the smoke that will last for days and even weeks. I'm also sensitive to vehicle emissions, but cigarettes are the worst for my condition. Your freedom ends where mine begins - freedom from pain.
ya know
the best thing done was to ban indoor smoking, that said now they need to ban fat people from eating in restaurants & food courts. It makes me sick to see these guys with their belly’s hanging over their pants or the ladies that ware their spandex yoga pants stuffing their pie holes, puts me off my meal. Think of the health costs involved in obesity, heart problems, joint failure diabetes just to name a few. & oh Raininak you’d likely beat them in a 5 K too. Now I think I’ll go out & breath some fresh air by the bus depot
island
I do see your point islandh., but generally seeing "fat" people doesn't cause an asthma attack or a headache (if it does you may have some other issues to address as well).
I agree that obesity is an issue in need of addressing, but the smoking issue is easily addressed via the methods provided by the airport.
It is important to note that cigaretts kill far more people than obesity or bus exhaust.
Really, a thumbs down about saying sorry about my mom.
Shame on you!
While we're on the subject of
While we're on the subject of preventing offensive odors, taxing things out of existence or banning them outright, and relieving the burden on health-care, social-security and retirement systems, I suggest:
1) Stop driving your car, operating any machinery that uses diesel fuel, having fires of any kind, and creating trash, as it creates odors that are extremely offensive to me and are hazardous to my health and the health of the Earth. I am tired of "walking the gauntlet" through neighborhoods, parking lots, city streets, and Lemon Creek everyday.
2) Heavily tax or ban alcohol, most prescription drugs, high-fructose corn syrup, GMO and processed foods, and all other chemicals not meant for human consumption that are consumed by humans on a daily basis and cause untold disease and death.
Families, friends, and health care, social security and retirement systems will thank you.
Raininak, I'm very sorry
Raininak, I'm very sorry about your Mom.
Simple
Buy e-cigarettes. You can 'smoke' them on a plane, in the elevator, in restaurants, in your friends house, in the hospital, they're great!
Thanks
Thanks Juneauakgrrl & Colorado14er. Unfortunatly many many many children loose their parents every year. For a long time I was mad at her for her stealing the relationship we should have had as adults.
I too smoked for many years (2 packs a day when I quit). My daughters WILL know their dad. It is the least I could do for them.
Raininak
Ah now.... I see ex-smokers are usually the ones with the holeyer the thou mentality. Kinda like the pedophile preacher lecturing on abstinence.
that analogy makes no sense
that analogy makes no sense lol
Raininak
My mom stopped smoking after 40 years, and I'm so happy she did. She used Chantix to stop, and we are happy she'll be around for her grandkids, too. Congrats on quitting. It's not easy.
Smoking vs. obesity
The "obesity-related" deaths from obesity is approaching the number of "tobacco-related" deaths, which includes non-smoked tobacco and second-hand smoke (300,000 vs. 446,000). Why is this? Because as people are smoking less, heart disease deaths are attributed to obesity instead. Forget the fact that heart disease is a top cause of death, but statistics are not often cited for "running-related" deaths, "stress-related deaths", or "making-sweet-love-related deaths." Anyways, use caution when interpreting associations that are used as a basis of cause of death.
However, Hisch...
I won't get second-hand heart disease from being in the same room with you while you eat your french fries. That's a fairly significant distinction.
Regarding the smoke shelters, why are tax dollars being used to accommodate these addictions? I see no reason why the City couldn't pass an ordinance limiting smoking to 50 feet from a doorway rather than only 10 feet, like other cities did. Then the smokers could go stand far from the terminal to smoke.
Incidentally, that ordinance would largely solve the problem of the smoking bar flies hanging on the sidewalks outside of businesses. They'd have to take their habits back in the alleys or parking lots.
My dad died of lung cancer
My dad died of lung cancer when I was a little kid. Its a horrible horrible way to go. Chemo is just nasty. Kill everything and hope you kill the cancer before the patient. He at least was from the generation where they had adds showing doctors saying how good smoking was for you etc. He got hooked innocently. These days, everyone knows it is bad for you and those around you. makes no sense.
Good antismoking ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u-rhnV4l08
However, latitude
I have seen a lot of second-hand fat, when a whole social cohort grows fat together as they move away from active lifestyles to dinner parties and eating. Or in other words, when a smoker smells smoke, they smoke, when a fatty smells fries, they eat. Not an exact analogue, but the health consequences might be similar.
For me this is just like
For me this is just like fireworks near my home.
People that want to buy and use a product that causes injury is fine,
but don't force it on others.
And if the city wants to allow the activity then the city needs to designate an area for the activity away from those that don’t want to be exposed to the activity. No one should have anything forced on to them if it can cause injury to them
...
...
Right on Fmast
My first post was only pointing out that a lot of time can be spent thinking of new restrictions based on the noisy few, when there is a regulation in place. If the regulation is 10 feet, and someone cannot avoid smoke at that distance, then people smoking are not standing 10 feet away. Make an effort to enforce that regulation before using resources to make a new, less enforceable regulation.
Pity Party
Way to turn this article into a pathetic pity party about personal loss.
Pity
No pity, just statements of fact. The arguments above likening smoke to car exhaust is absurd at best. The realtiy of removing cars from the road would destroy the economy yet the same cant be said of the smoking. I am not stating that smoking should be banned (you have a right to it I guess) just not in public air space.
No sane individual would try to contend that smoke does not pose a personal risk to the smoker as well as having secondary (caustic or otherwise) affects on bystanders. Many people can have alergic reactions from headaches to asthma attackes around cigarette smoke. It is far more concentrated that car exhaust (which is highly regulated).
I guess I am curious why the smokers are trying to fight this? What is the real reason? Is it that you feel your rights are being compomised or that you don't want to have to walk to the "smokers corner" or is that public funds were spent on the smoking building, or is it an irrational compensation developed to support your habit. I really what to know.
Concerning my being an ex-smoker.. The pedophile comment was just weird (personal issues for the commentor?). I agree ex-smokers are the worst because we know the difficutlies of quiting (the opportunity for success as well) and understand how a smoker will rationalize the addiction as "personal choice" or god given right. The reality is you are addicted and not incontrol. It is tought to face.
If you choose to quit, good luck. If you choose to continue, good luck as well.
Pity Party!?!?!
Pity party my freakin rear?!?!?! Just stating the facts. I've had almost 30 yrs to get used to it. When I was 12 and without a dad? Yeah, it was hard. I came to grips with it a long time ago. My comment was purely factual. have you ever watched anyone die from cancer/chemo? Have you seen the financial and emotional destruction it causes? Or is it all about your personal freedoms? You can smoke if you want. Only hurting you, right? Or is it?