August 19th, 2016 by WCBC Radio

Cumberland City Councilman Seth Bernard wants to see the city work toward creating smoke free zones. Currently, the percentage of U.S. adults who smoke cigarettes is 16.8% – that's down from 42% in 1965. He notes however that the western Maryland area has one of the highest  percentage of smokers in the country – 30%. A member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Committee, Bernard said he would like to help spread awareness of the disadvantages of smoking- with the  City of Cumberland  looking to curb this habit, in order to make the  city healthier and, in the process, cleaner (cigarette butts, etc). At this point the councilman hopes to see an informal discussion and to hear from the public about a proposal which could see smoking banned in various parklets as well as the Downtown Mall. He tells WCBC News that he doesn’t believe the proposal will be a tough sell…