Monday night the Conway City Council meeting included awards, debates, public input, an executive session and a workshop. A full agenda indeed.

The highlights were the public input pertaining to the proposed smoking ban and the workshop discussions about vinyl siding and electronic signs. The public speakers were overwhelmingly in favor of banning smoking in governmental and community buildings, but leaving smoking in businesses up to the owners. This view seemed to be shared by smokers and non-smokers alike. Only two folks came forward in favor of the city dictating a smoking ban in private businesses and one of those based his support on, “they’ve done it in Ohio”.

Our un-scientific poll we here at the ConwayJournal.com ran around town has echoed the sentiment of the folk’s at the meeting. The vast majority think that allowing smoking in businesses should be left up to the owners, not the city government. It will be interesting to see if the council governs with or against the wishes of the populace.

Later, the council tackled framing a new ordinance concerning the use of vinyl siding in the historic and commercial districts. The consensus seemed to be allowing vinyl trim and windows but not vinyl siding for cladding. This is a marked departure from the no vinyl, no way philosophy of the past.

Council also made progress on the language for an electronic message center ordinance. We at the ConwayJournal.com would like to give council a big “attaboy” for the focus on objective measures (how big, how bright, how often it can change) instead of the grey area subjective (I don’t like it, what does so and so think) measures that often dictate these kinds of discussions.

Objective measures allow the city to avoid being blind-sided by new technologies like Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) signs that will be the standard in the very near future.

This kind of thinking and logical governing might not be much fun for the media. But it helps to avoid frustration and a perception of an anti-business bias by existing and future businesses. Bravo council, bravo.

Click the link below to listen to the audio of the Conway SC City Council meeting…