BY DARRELL HALEN

You better think twice before you light up your cigarette at Windham’s town beach.

Selectmen have voted to ban smoking at the beach and its parking lot.

“I think it’s a good example to set for the kids in town,” said Selectman Bruce Breton. “It will keep the beach clean. It’s a good thing to do.”

Breton joined Dennis Senibaldi and Margaret Crisler in passing the ban at the selectmen’s Monday, May 21 meeting.

According to Cheryl Haas, the town’s recreation coordinator, Selectman Roger Hohenberger, who voted against the ban, wanted to allow smoking in the parking lot.

Several residents, on both sides of the issue, voiced their opinions during the meeting.

The beach officially opens for the summer on June 9. Haas said signs announcing the new rule have been ordered.

“The lifeguards will inform people of the regulation and ask them to put their cigarettes out,” Haas said. “If they don’t, they will call the police.”

The issue arose several weeks ago when Haas approached selectmen with the idea of creating a designated area for smokers at the beach. Selectmen invited the public to weigh in on the idea of broadening the town’s smoking policy – which regulates smoking at town buildings – to open-air facilities.

Eventually, they narrowed the focus to the beach.

Advocates of banning smoking said they were concerned about children being exposed to secondhand smoke, possibly being burned by cigarettes and kids sticking cigarette butts into sandcastles.

Others raised concerns about a ban infringing on smokers rights and whether a ban could be effectively enforced.

The new regulation bans the carrying or holding of a lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette or other lighted smoking product. People who break the rule are subject to a fine of up to $1,000.