The smoking ordinance that was approved by Surfside Beach town council in October of last year has been put on "hold" while the town staff works on a revised ban.
Surfside Beach Police Chief Andy Christensen said police are not enforcing a smoking ban, because there isn't one.
In September, the state supreme court ruled that local municipalities could not make smoking a criminal offense, which is what it was in the original Surfside Beach ordinance.
Christensen also said when the smoking ban was in place, police wrote 27 citations, but they have since been dismissed since the Supreme Court’s ruling. Christensen said his officers cannot do anything until council has a second reading of the ordinance.
Jack Cahill's been operating Nibils Oceanfront Dining restaurant in Surfside Beach for more than twenty years and for ten of them it's been smoke free.
Cahill said the reason you won't find any ashtrays on his tables is because he had employees who had asthma. But Nibils has seen its fair share of smokers. Cahill said, "They have their breakfast or lunch or whatever and they go outside and smoke and that's the way their doing it and they're not going to change." And Cahill said that doesn't bother him at all, and when it comes to the impending Surfside Beach smoking ordinance, Cahill said the decision about smoking inside a business should be left up to the owner.
"A person that has a business should be able to run it, the way he like, whether it be smoke free or let them smoke I mean that's their business and they should be able to operate you know under that ordinance, I meant hey pay taxes, they do everything else, I think it's their right." said Cahill. And until town council approves a revised version of a smoking ordinance, the pier, and the beach and everywhere in between are places you can smoke in surfisde beach, without violating the law.
Council members said they plan to have the revised version on the November agenda.
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