By Jennifer Wilson -

The Jackson City Council will be meeting tonight to present a first reading of a draft smoking ordinance for the downtown area. The council gave the matter serious discussion at their August 11th meeting, and decided to draft a smoking ordinance for review. At their August 25th meeting, Council member Andy Rodriguez reported that he and City Manager Mike Daly were in the process of drafting the ordinance, which will institute a partial smoking ban in historic downtown. The ordinance, if passed, would restrict smoking on all sidewalks from Broadway and Water Streets up to Magdaleno’s restaurant and the fire station on the north side of Main Street. The only exclusions to that rule would be the parking lots off Main Street, and the sidewalks directly in front of those parking lots. Smokers would still be able to use Petkovich Park, which will be handy for bar patrons on the south end of Main Street. The entire issue has been kicked around for several years, and was revisited recently due to citizen complaints of secondhand smoke and cigarette litter. At prior meetings, several council members and citizens in attendance brought up the delicate balance between scaring away non-smoking tourists by not controlling the situation, and insulting tourists who do prefer to smoke. Daly indicated that their draft ordinance was on the lighter side. “It’s about as non-heavy handed as it can be,” reported Daly. The council meeting will be held tonight at the Jackson Civic Center at 33 Broadway at 7 PM.