Staff Writer 

 It may already be illegal to smoke in Maine state parks and state legislators say public and municipally owned parks and beaches such as Old Orchard Beach and Fort Williams Park in Cape Elizabeth could be next. Two bills concerning the issue were expected to receive final votes earlier this week.

“You have to do this incrementally,” State Senator and Health and Human Services Committee Chairman Joe Brannigan (D – Portland) said. “We’ve already banned smoking in bars and restaurants.”

Earlier this month, Brannigan said the Health and Human Services Committee unanimously supported LD67, a bill sponsored by Democratic State Sen. John Nutting that would prohibit smoking tobacco or any other substance in state parks. Nutting, who represents 10 municipalities within Androscoggin County, said he drafted the bill after receiving a call from a concerned constituent.

“She said she was walking on the beach when she turned around and her 2-year-old had a cigarette butt in her mouth,” Nutting said. “People just bury them in the sand.” 

While LD67 initially only prohibited smoking on beaches located in state parks, Brannigan said the committee amended it to include “places of congregation” within state parks, including camp sites, vendor locations and picnic areas. Brannigan said the amended version of LD67 was expected to receive a final vote sometime this week, but Nutting’s anti-smoking legislation doesn’t stop there. Livermore Falls State Rep. Gary Knight, a Repbulican, said Nutting helped draft and cosponsored his bill, LD155, which would expand the smoking prohibition to include public beaches and public parks as well.

“It would include beaches like Old Orchard Beach,” he said. “Most smokers are pretty sensitive to it, but the truth is that cigarette butts end up in the sand. I know they rake the beach every night, but they can’t get them all. You’re outdoors to enjoy the outdoors and when you get smoke blown in your face, it ruins it.”

Brannigan said the committee was less receptive to LD155, which Knight said would most likely “come under the hammer” sometime this week while Nutting’s bill was expected to “fly through to approval.”

Knight’s bill to ban smoking in parks and beaches may not become state law, but Brannigan said the committee did approve sending letters to individual municipalities encouraging them to address the issue at the local level.

“If it’s a real problem in Old Orchard Beach, why haven’t [town officials] done something already?” he asked.

Town officials in Cape Elizabeth are no strangers to the topic of smoking in public parks; in July former Town Council Chairman Mary-Ann Lynch initiated a proposal to ban smoking at Fort Williams Park that was eventually defeated in a 3-3 vote. State Rep. and former Cape Elizabeth Town Councilor Cynthia Dill voted in favor of Lynch’s proposal at the time and said she would still support a prohibition, although not through LD155.

“Municipalities are perfectly capable about governing their parks. It is not appropriate for the state to do,” she said. “I still think smoking should be banned at Fort Williams [Park], but the state doesn’t need to tell them to do it.”

State Rep. George Hogan (D – Old Orchard Beach), a cosponsor of Knight’s bill, said he will encourage town officials to consider prohibiting smoking on the public beach, although in time, the issue may solve itself. His retail store close to the beach has seen a steady decline in cigarette sales during the past few tourist seasons, he said.

“I was surprised how many members of the [Health and Human Services Committee] were concerned about vendors,” Hogan said. “My thing was all about cancer.”

To check on the status of LD155 and LD67 visit janus.state.me.us/legis/LawMakerWeb/search.asp.