According to Smoke-Free West Virginia, Monongalia County used to have the toughest smoking regulations in the state. That was back in 1993.
Now the county is one of eight that still allows smoking in restaurants and bars. Community members created a proposal that would change this, but it's not getting traction.
The proposed smoking ban would prohibit smoking in any enclosed public place, including restaurants and bars. A group calling itself "Smoke Free Mon County" gave the county Board of Health its proposal last November. The Board tabled a vote on the ban twice, including at its most recent meeting in May.
"I believe they have all the information that shows just how harmful second-hand smoke exposure can be," said Valerie Frey McClung, a member of Smoke Free Mon County. "I know that people have viewed it as a liberty issue, but what we’re ignoring is the liberty of non smokers."
Some Board of Health members decided to table the vote because the Smoke Free Mon County group filed a complaint with the state’s Ethics Commission over alleged conflicts of interest among board members. One Board member owns convenient stores in the county and the group says another has received campaign donations in the past from vocal opponents of the ban.
One thing is clear: a Board member who supports the ban will mostly likely not get the opportunity to vote on it. Board member Dorcus Davis ends her term June 30.
"I feel very bad," Davis said. "I feel that Mon County has not been served properly. I don’t think it will ever pass."
Davis was on the board when Monongalia County passed its current smoking regulations about 10 years ago.
Dorcus explained her support for a stronger smoking ban, "I smoked for years. I’ve had cancer. I am very upset that I smoked in the presence of my mother and my mother died from cancer, thinking that maybe I might have contributed somewhat to that. She was very much opposed to smoking."
Davis wants to see the smoking ban through, but the county commission declined to reappoint her. Monongalia County Commissioner Asel Kennedy says Davis has served two five-year terms and he wants someone new on the board.
Kennedy also told a Dominion Post reporter that he wants to appoint a business-minded person since the Board of Health really doesn’t make health decisions. Kennedy said he has received a lot of heat over that comment but he still stands by it.
"I think the Board of Health’s job is to make sure that it’s very efficiently run, that employees are treated well, that they have the money to do things, that they look to future as to what the health department needs to be, so I’m looking for business-sense type people that have experience on boards that size," Kennedy said.
Meanwhile, Monongalia County Commissioner Bob Bell, who also serves on the Board of Health, said the smoking ban issue has resorted to personal attacks.
"Well, I was willing to make a compromise, but the smoking coalition was ‘we want it our way or none,’ and s o, we were willing to protect children, to stop smoking in restaurants and so on and so forth, but they weren’t willing to compromise, so it ended," Bell said.
"Then they started attacking our ethics, that I didn’t belong on there to vote," he added.
One sticking point is whether bars should be included in the ban.
While Monongalia County continues to slug out this issue, Marion County passed an indoor smoking ban this spring and now Harrison County is looking into one as well. Just across the state line, Pennsylvania’s governor signed a bill this month for a statewide indoor smoking ban in most public places.