City Council last night discussed several items and issues
- Approval of zoning certificate for Baumann’s Florist to move to Darrow Road. Baumann’s has been in Stow for 39 years as of March and they are very happy to have found a new home in Stow.
- There was re-appointment to several boards & commission positions—these are volunteer positions that work to help move the city forward, I personally have experience with this having served on the parks board for 5 years. There were 35 applicants for the open positions, and a few still remain open, but a large majority were filled with re-appointments last night.
- There was information about Pizza Palooza that will take place on January 27th from 12 PM to 3 PM at the high school. This event is a Stow Community Foundation event, 50% of all money raised is specifically ear marked for teacher grants for Stow Munroe Falls Schools.
- The biggest topic/discussion that took place was regarding T21 which is legislation from the Summit County Public Health regarding changing the age for the sale of tobacco or any related product to the age of 21. The goal of T21 is to reduce the availability of tobacco/tobacco related products to kids under the age of 18. Information was presented which discussed youth tobacco usage and addiction statistics. This is a civil law and involves the vendor of tobacco products and does not create criminal penalties. It would involve a registration of vendors and they would receive materials, training, and literature. There would be an annual inspection (done during other inspections which are already occurring) and there would be an undercover/underage buy inspection at least once every 2 years. Penalties wouldn’t be present until a 2nd violation and any money collected due to violations would be used to fund youth smoking cessation programs. The overall idea is to try and limit the access youth have this types of products through their peer groups (i.e. peers just old enough to purchase these for younger kids). The principal from the high school spoke and it does seem that vaping has greatly increased and become a serious issue at the high school. The size of the vaping and the little to no by-product produced with vaping seems to make it much easier for students to have in school. I feel that there wasn’t enough information as to “where” kids are getting these tobacco products to know if this legislation would even help address the issue/concern.