Patchogue law will require cigarette receptacles

The Patchogue Village board of trustees unanimously voted Monday night to amend an existing code to require restaurant and bar owners to place cigarette receptacles at entrances and exits.

“We made a decision and a recommendation that by every entrance and exit to a restaurant we should have a receptacle that the patrons can use so that we don’t have cigarette butts everywhere,” said trustee Lori Devlin. “If you go out on almost any morning, but especially on the weekends, there’s a lot of cigarette butts in the planters and on the sidewalks.”

Shop owners have recently complained to the building department about ongoing littering problems as patrons, who aren’t allowed to smoke inside the establishments, discard cigarette butts on streets and sidewalks.

In turn, building department officials requested that the board set a public hearing to amend the chapter code requiring outside receptacles. The board discussed the issue earlier this month.

“We’ve been getting a lot of complaints from the community,” Mayor Paul V. Pontieri Jr. said.

Cigarette butts will end up where they belong once bar and restaurant owners place receptacles outside their establishments, he said.