Wrightsville Beach revisits smoking ban

A smoking ban on Wrightsville Beach will be considered by the town alderman next month. The ban, if passed, would make Wrightsville the first beach in North Carolina to go smoke-free.

The Town of Wrightsville Beach voted against a smoking ban on the beach in May 2010 because of enforcement issues and wanting to focus on other priorities such as education.

“I personally don’t believe in passing an ordinance that you can’t enforce,” said Robert Simpson, Wrightsville Beach town manager. He said he has received about 400 emails on the issue, many of which have come from outside the Wrightsville Beach area.

Wilmington’s Aaron Richardet, who is an executive board member of California-based Surfrider Foundation, is leading the push to pass the local beach smoking ban. The organization has launched an on-line petition to garner support.

Richardet said his family has removed 38,585 cigarette butts from Wrightsville Beach over 115 beach clean-ups.

About 126 beach municipalities in the country are smoke-free, including two in South Carolina, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation. On Monday, the town of North Myrtle Beach, S.C. will vote on prohibiting cigarettes on its beach, said K. Allen Deaton, Surfside, S.C. mayor.

Surfside’s town council enacted a smoking ban in 2008 following the state Supreme Court ruling that banned tobacco in restaurants, bars and other public spaces. The emphasis was on the public health issue of second-hand smoke, he said.

“Cigarette butts have been generated. That’s a real problem. We live on the ocean. If people smoke down the beach from us, [cigarette butts] are going to wash ashore. You are always going to have some of that, but [since the ban] we’ve seen a decrease,” he said.

At Surfside, about 87 miles south of Wilmington, the town has found most visitors to be compliant with its beach smoking ban. Visitors find out about it through brochures, visitor information, a few public signs and police officers.

“We haven’t had any official complaints,” Deaton said.

The Wrightsville Beach board of alderman will hold a public hearing at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 8 in the town’s Public Safety building located at 3 Bob Sawyer Drive.