The Fort Frances Curling Club put a motion on the floor to become a smoke-free facility effective Nov. 1 at its semi-annual general meeting last Wednesday night.
“This has been a big issue and we’ve discussed it a lot,” club president Bill Gushulak said. “There are some [curling] clubs in Northwestern Ontario who have already gone smoke-free.
“We’re going to try it,” he added.
The motion will be put to a vote at the club’s general meeting in September.
“We know these decisions won’t come in overnight,” said Gushulak. “If the community comes up and says it should be smoke-free, then we’ll follow suit.”
While curling season ended two weeks ago, the building will continue to allow smoking for parties and weddings booked this spring and summer.
Gushulak said it was unfortunate only 15 of the club’s 500 members attended last Wednesday’s meeting, but he hoped the non-smoking motion will spark more interest on the issue.
The curling club is the second local business in a week to announce a trial run at a smoke-free environment due to pressure from the Northwest Health Unit since January.
At last week’s second public meeting on a proposed bylaw to ban smoking in all enclosed public places in town, Robin’s Donuts announced its downtown location would go smoke-free for a six-month trial period starting May 13.
In other curling club news, those board of directors whose two-year term had expired all were re-elected last Wednesday night, including Gushulak, Tom Fry, Shannon Jackson, and Dave Johnson.
Maureen Thomson, Kathie Jack-son, Ted Stewart, and Derek Jack-son still have one year left in their current terms.
Preliminary plans for a fundraising garage sale May 11 of items donated by club members also was discussed at the meeting.