In response to the Nixa City Council’s request for ideas on a new smoking ordinance, the city’s parks and recreation director submitted four proposals that could be considered as early as next month.

Matt Crouse’s Dec. 30, 2014 letter to the council, which was discussed at the Jan. 7 meeting, spelled out four possible bans that the city could implement and focused on two distinctions. The first distinction was whether the ban should be applied to all city owned and managed property or just city parks, entertainment and recreation areas, while the second distinction centered around banning all tobacco and nicotine delivery products, such as electronic cigarettes and non-smoked tobacco, or whether to ban just smoked tobacco products such as cigars and cigarettes.

The smoking ban is not on the agenda for tonight’s meeting, but could be placed on the Feb. 4 agenda.

Nixa is a suburb of Springfield, located about 12 miles to the south, and home to just over 20,000 residents.

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Patrick Lagreid

I strive to capture the essence of a cigar and the people behind them in my work – every cigar you light up is the culmination of the work of countless people and often represents generations of struggle and stories. For me, it’s about so much more than the cigar – it’s about the story behind it, the experience of enjoying the work of artisans and the way that a good cigar can bring people together. In addition to my work with halfwheel, I’m the public address announcer for the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks during spring training, as well as for the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury and previously the Arizona Rattlers of the Indoor Football League. I also work in a number of roles for Major League Baseball, plus I'm a voice over artist. Prior to joining halfwheel, I covered the Phoenix and national cigar scene for Examiner.com, and was an editor for Cigar Snob magazine.