AIRPORT SMOKING BAN PROPOSED

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993                   TAG: 9303250213
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
AIRPORT SMOKING BAN PROPOSED
Air travelers who smoke, take note.
By July, most of the Roanoke Regional Airport Terminal is likely to be off limits for smokers.
Executive Director Jacqueline Shuck has proposed a ban on smoking in the lobby, passenger and customer waiting areas, hallways, restrooms, cashier and service lines, stairways, elevators and most other areas open to the public.
The ban would include the airline, rental car and ground transportation areas in the lobby.
The only exceptions would be the airport restaurant, lounge and gift shop.
Those businesses could establish their own rules, but they would be required to prevent any smoke from entering the no-smoking areas.
The restaurant now has smoking and no-smoking areas. Smoking is banned in the gift shop.
Mark Courtney, marketing director for the airport, said Tuesday the proposed regulations would take effect July 1 if they are approved by the Regional Airport Commission.
Courtney said air travelers or others interested in the issue may express their views in writing and deliver them to the executive director's office by Friday.
Any person who continues to smoke in a designated no-smoking area after having been asked to refrain may be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $25.
On another airport matter, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., announced that the airport has been awarded a $1.1 million grant.
The federal money will be used for construction of an apron for an air cargo center, airfield lighting, taxiway signs and the acquisition of a handicap passenger lifting device.
Courtney said all of the projects are under way and the grant was not unexpected.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB