No Stupidity Ban At Snowmass

November 11th, 2007 at 08:12pm Michael Conniff 2

In the Roaring Fork Valley, Aspen has the title for the most socialistic municipality. If there’s a chance for the local Aspen poobahs to levy a tax or stick their nose in your business, then chances are that’s just what they’re going to do.

But not even the Aspen Politburo has the stones to do what the Town Council has done at Snowmass: to ban smoking outdoors in the Town of Snowmass Village.

Outdoors. That’s right. Light up in the great outdoors of Snowmass Village and you are toast–or at least subject to a fine as high as $1,000. Town Councilor Jack Wilkinson proposed the ban, according to a local paper, in part because of the impact of smoking on the health of his family.

“Some 3,800 people will die next year due to secondhand smoke,” he said.

We can all certainly feel for all the victims of second-hand smoke, but we have to laugh out loud out the twisted logic of the Snowmass Town Council. The one thing they refused to do was to ban smoking on chairlifts–the one place outdoors where you might actually experience second-hand smoke because the person sitting right next to you is blowing smoke.

In Colorado, Beaver Creek and Vail do not permit smoking on chairlifts, but Aspen Skiing Co.–owner and operator of the Snowmass Ski Area–eschewed such a policy at least in part because it’s unenforceable. Thus the Town Council has managed to protect everyone but the people who actually need to be protected.

“Does anyone else see the futility in this whole exercise?” asked Councilor Reed Lewis.

Yes, Councilor. Even in the Roaring Fork Valley, somebody else does.

Entry Filed under: Snowmass, Resorts, Travel, Ski Business, Pitkin County, Politics, Environment, Health, United Post, Colorado, The West