Coffee to allow smoking in park

Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital - Administrators at Coffee Health Group have agreed to open the park across the street from Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital emergency room for smokers.

The decision was made during Monday's board meeting and comes in response to complaints by residents who live in homes that border the hospital to the south.

Coffee facilities became smoke free Oct. 1 in response to a Florence city ordinance that bans smoking in all public buildings and on public property. Coffee Health Group includes ECM Hospital and ECM East in Florence and Shoals Hospital in Muscle Shoals.

Bridges Crawford, who lives near ECM, had complained that smokers were making their way across Alabama Street and up Water Avenue to smoke near homes in the Rivermont subdivision.

"I agree with the ban; I agree that it's not healthy, but what has happened is that it's become a problem for my neighborhood," she said. "My home has become unhealthy as I have to drive through and pass by these smokers. There's also a problem with litter and the additional noise. These are the unforeseen problems with this ban."

Jody Pigg, interim chief executive officer at Coffee, as well as Chief Operating Officer Jeff Flowers proposed opening the park across the street from the emergency room as a place for smokers to go.

"I asked a couple of them who were standing out there this morning if they would smoke in the park instead of on the street and they agreed that they would," Pigg said. "While we don't want to pull back on our policy, this gives us the best chance to police the issue, get (smokers) out of the street and into the park."

Florence Mayor Bobby Irons, who is chairman of the Coffee board, said this was a reasonable and workable solution.

"It's only fair to give this a try before we look at something else," he said. "It's also convenient for smokers, so we hope they use this instead."

An area on College Street had been considered, but Pigg said it was ultimately too far from the ER to be amenable to the smokers he interviewed. The parking deck was also not considered a viable option as visitors to the facility would have to walk through the smoke in order to get to the hospital's main entrance.

Already, policing the ban has proved a strain on Coffee's resources, according to Flowers.

"We've added two additional officers for the next 30 to 60 days to deal with this and make sure folks are where they need to be when smoking," he said. "We had expected more trouble with people ignoring the ban, but what we found is that they were just going into the residential areas to smoke."

One of the ongoing issues will be the cleanup of cigarette butts, something Flowers said would take continued vigilance to combat. He said multiple cigarette receptacles will be placed in the park.

Although Coffee attempted to go smoke-free more than a decade ago, the added encouragement by the city to comply with the ordinance made the decision that much easier this time around.

"Our intent is to create a healthier environment," Pigg said. "With each patient, we advise them about smoking, its dangers and how to help them stop if they so choose. Our ultimate goal is for the community to understand their choices."

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.