The reason I am sending this is to help tee-up and move
forward some positive pro-active legislation that didn’t get completed by the
end of the last Board’s term and that is a Local Law raising the age for
tobacco purchases from 18 to 21. Discussion in the Human Services committee
began last May. It moved along from there with direction given to the County
Attorney to draft a Local Law that would make this happen. We had a lot of good
information and statistics presented, asked questions that were answered, and
late last year we timed out by not having the needed actions in place to adopt
it by the end of our term. I just attended another presentation on the subject,
along with many of you, the Tobacco 21 Luncheon at the Crossroads Center. Even
more in-depth than what we had received before with a very impressive group of
panelists. There are many reasons why we should do this now and none as to not,
but I think the biggest for me is this – Allegany County’s leading cause of
death is Cancer, we stand out ahead of other small rural counties in this
category. We shouldn’t be waiting for the State to act, we shouldn’t exclude
any group in this age range, we should be taking care of our own backyard on
this issue. We can send a positive message to the people of Allegany County and
beyond that we care about changing the leading cause of death in our county.
Everyone one the Board past and present would quickly step up and praise Cancer
Services for the work they do, here is a real opportunity to take action and help.
I will be asking the Human Services Committee to take this up at their next
meeting, on March 7 and vote to move forward with the Local Law. The
Introduction of the Local Law and Resolution setting the date for the Public
Hearing would be addressed at the March 26th Board Meeting and the Public
Hearing would take place and Local Law would be voted on at the April 9th Board
Meeting. I appreciate your support for this important legislation.
Sincerely,
Curtis W. Crandall, Chairman
Allegany County Board of Legislators
