UPDATE: Bibb County Officials Pass Smoking Ban In Parks

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – You no longer can smoke at any Bibb County park. County officials passed a smoking ban in all of its parks. Before this policy, there was no rule against lighting up at parks.

“He likes to play on the slide here.”

Tracie Scott brings her two year old son to Central City Park twice a week to play on the jungle gym. She says Bibb County needs a smoking ban at parks so everyone can enjoy the fresh air.

“All sorts of people come out here to the park and everybody wants to be able to share the activities,” Scott said “If you’re smoking, it’s putting our kids at risk.”

The ban applies to all county regulated parks, including community rec centers and baseball fields. Doc Dougherty, the director of the Parks and Recreation Department, says a park wide ban is easier to enforce than designating certain areas to light up.

“Most of our parks are so large it would be too tough to have designated areas throughout the park and have people stay between those two signs,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem like it would be feasible.”

If you do light up, Dougherty says you won’t necessarily get in trouble with the law. Instead, carrying out the rule will be up to the community. Commissioner Joe Allen says he’s been pushing for a smoking ban for a very long time.

“We do not need smoking around children and that’s exactly what people are doing. we need to ban it at the parks, at the baseball fields.”

And let kids, like Tracie’s little boy, play in a fresh, clean park.