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July 10, 2008

County to ban smoking

By MaryAlice Meli

Smokers may not be able to puff on county-owned property after Sept. 11, not even in their cars.

The commissioners presented an ordinance again yesterday that bans smoking in all public and work places owned or operated by Lawrence County.

Those wishing to smoke will be required walk to a public area. They cannot circumvent the ban by smoking in their cars if the vehicles are on county property.

Yesterday’s action was the second reading of the proposed ordinance, which will be read at a public meeting a third time before a hearing is conducted. That public hearing will be scheduled later.

The county’s proposed ban is scheduled to take effect the same day the state’s new law does, which is Sept. 11.

At last week’s work session, Karen King, director of human resources, said her office has worked in cooperation with Jameson Hospital to provide employees with smoking cessation programs.

Visitor Oran Allen urged the board to create a place for jurors to smoke, if they need to do so, or “they may not do their job right.”

However, Commissioner Rick DeBlasio said Jameson and other health facilities are leading by example in banning tobacco smoking on their grounds, inside and out, and the county will follow suit. There will be no place reserved for jurors or any other visitors to the courthouse to smoke.

The commissioners approved salary contracts for the remainder of the year not to exceed $10,000 for each of three court-appointed attorneys for juvenile cases.

The attorneys — Robert DiBuono of Ellwood City, Larry J. Puntureri and Deborah A. Shaw, both of New Castle — have requested additional compensation of $2,500 each for next year because of the increasing number of cases they are handling.

In 2007, the attorneys handled a total of 608 cases from children and youth services plus 164 from the district attorney’s office, according to Barbara Collins, assistant court administrator. She said those figures are up from the year before. Last Thursday alone, she said, there were 22 cases.

The case load for 2008 is expected to top 850, according to Michael Occhibone, court administrator.

The commissioners authorized the submission of the county juvenile probation department’s $163,074 application to the Pennsylvania Juvenile Court Judge Commission.

Part of a five year grant-in-aid, the money is used for salaries, benefits and training. The department receives the same amount each year, but must submit an application to the state for a yearly review as a requirement to receive the allocation. The grant runs through 2012.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will pay the county’s planning department $2,240 to perform traffic counts to gather information for road maintenance. The planning department has hired Count Electronics to perform the counts.

The commissioners allocated $7,000 in liquid fuels tax money to Mahoning Township for the paving of Hillsville Road.

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