Mendota City Council amends tobacco ordinance

Kip Cheek
Posted 2/18/19

MENDOTA – The Mendota City Council passed an ordinance regarding tobacco products and took action for this year’s Sweet Corn Festival at its Feb. 18 regular meeting.

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Mendota City Council amends tobacco ordinance

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MENDOTA – The Mendota City Council passed an ordinance regarding tobacco products and took action for this year’s Sweet Corn Festival at its Feb. 18 regular meeting.

Alderman Kyle Kim presented a proposal to amend Chapter 278 of the Tobacco and Tobacco Products Ordinance dealing with electronic smoking devices, which was approved by the council. An electronic smoking device means an electronic and/or battery-operated device, the use of which may resemble smoking, which can be used to deliver an inhaled dose of nicotine or other substances.

In the amended ordinance, it shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, give away or deliver smoking material or any electronic smoking device or electronic smoking materials to any person under the age of 18 years. Also, it shall be unlawful for any person under the age of 18 years to purchase or to possess smoking materials, electronic smoking devices or electronic smoking materials.

Alderman John Hessenberger presented a request from the Mendota Area Chamber of Commerce in regard to this year’s Sweet Corn Festival. The council approved the request to shut down and for the use of various streets and parking lots for the August festival. Also, the council approved a resolution for the Illinois Department of Transportation to close a portion of U.S. 34 for the festival, which will be held Aug. 8-11.

Alderman Walt Weiland encouraged people to attend the Mendota Police Department’s ‘Polar Plunge’ on Saturday, Feb. 23 at Lake Mendota. Check-in for the third annual plunge will take place from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. inside the Mendota Civic Center. Plunges will start at noon. The event is presented by the Law Enforcement Torch Run to benefit Special Olympics of Illinois.

Alderman Bill Hunt said the first round of budget sessions has taken place for the upcoming new fiscal year.

Fire chief Dennis Rutishauser thanked the Mendota police, fire and street departments for all they did during the ice storm last week, and made special mention of the employees from ComEd for their hard work in getting power restored to everyone in the area that suffered an outage.

The council meeting was the last one for police chief Tom Smith before his resignation/retirement becomes effective on Wednesday, Feb. 20. Smith said that his 21 years as chief of the Mendota Police Department have been the most rewarding of his career, and it has been an honor to work with the great members of the city council, the mayors and the men and women of the police force during his tenure as chief.

The next regular meeting of the Mendota City Council will be Monday, March 4 at 6:30 p.m.