smoking ban

The center plans to offer smoking cessation options including nicotine replacement patches and over-the-counter medication.

Council member Chris Walsh said bar owners have told them the total ban has hurt their businesses by pushing customers to bars with smoking outside city limits.

At least five council members approved of the idea to place a proposed repeal of the smoking ban on the Jan. 24 work session agenda.

Casper City Council on Tuesday approved actions about two liquor licenses, but not before a restaurant owner and the mayor blamed the changes on the voter-approved smoking ban in November.

Casper residents who want to vote on the smoking referendum before the Nov. 3 election may cast absentee ballots now, Natrona County Clerk Renea Vitto said Tuesday.

Casper City Council isn't waiting for its next regular meeting to take the next step about voting for two ordinances to repeal two smoking ban ordinances.

Casper City Council voted to repeal the 2013 softened version of the hard-and-fast 2012 smoking ban, and then voted to repeal the 2012 version itself after a two-hour public hearing and council discussion on Tuesday.

Casper City Council had no choice Tuesday but to follow state law when it suspended a 2013 relaxed version of a near-total smoking ban in buildings in Casper.

A recent decision by the Casper College board of Trustees to expand the college's smoking policy to include a ban on e-cigarettes, or vaporizers, is spurring conversation about the practice.

Casper College has adopted new policy with regards to smoking indoors, part of the new policy includes forbidding the use of electronic cigarettes from campus buildings.