Oct. 5, 2012 —     Persons leaving trash behind and creating safety hazards by standing in the street are degrading the value of Elizabeth Avenue’s residential properties, according to Adrian Swain.

    “My goal is not to get in anybody’s face but to get them out of mine,” said Swain.  

    Swain and his neighbors have been dealing with the issue since last summer when Morehead State University became a smoke-free campus.

    The corner of Elizabeth Avenue, among other residential areas, is across the street from the campus.  

    Swain took action when he and more than 570 others signed a petition that was delivered to MSU.  

    The university has received the petition, along with a letter that states:

    “Any positive impression to visitors that MSU is a smoke-free campus is squelched as soon as a visitor drives from almost any direction approaching campus.  MSU is giving the appearance of a dirty and trashy place.  The situation is an embarrassment to MSU.”

    Swain counted 25 persons on his way home from work Tuesday who were standing on the corner and in the street.

    He provided The Morehead News with photos of a left behind mess. In the photos, cigarette butts, a beer carton, soda cans and empty cigarette packs covered a grassy area between the street and a privacy fence.  

    Swain said some people who gather at the “smokers’ corner” will sit a can or plastic cup atop a privacy fence. The cans and cups get knocked into the yard of the home on the other side.

    “I’m sure inadvertently the university essentially kind of created a problem in the neighborhood in the process of trying to solve a problem they perceived they had on campus,” Swain said. “It began last year and has just gotten increasingly worse.”  

    Noise is a problem, too.

    “My son was visiting recently and was trying to sleep with the windows up and he went to bed maybe at 11 p.m. and ended up not being to do so and had to close the windows,” Swain said.

    The university should respond to his group’s petition by correcting the problem, according to Swain.  

    Madonna Weathers, MSU’s vice president of student life, did not return calls for comment before press time.  

    However, she was quoted in MSU’s student  newspaper, The Trail Blazer, as saying campus officials spoke with local residents before the smoking ban went into effect and there was no mention of having designated smoking areas on campus.

    “The whole premise on which we’ve gone to a tobacco-free campus are health reasons, and creating a healthier, better environment and healthy community, so that sort defeats the purpose,” Weathers was quoted as saying.

    Elijah Hartgrove, a sophomore studying art education, is a smoker who understands why petitioners want smokers to find another place to light up.

    “I think that they have a right to do this because a lot of people here are very loud and are very obnoxious and do trash the place,” Hartgrove said.  “I think that a designated smoking area would be good for the entire school and residents of this street. Also, the one thing that I see as a plus for the smokers’ corner is it does bring together a sense of community for the smokers.”

    Petitioners pointed out that “many other universities and hospitals have initiated the no smoking policy only to find the ‘ill will to the community’ and negative impressions to visitors are not worth the assumed smoking solution.”

    St. Claire Regional Center in Morehead is an institution that made an adjustment to its smoke-free campus policy after neighbors complained.

    “St. Claire Regional announced its commitment to go tobacco-free on Nov. 20, 2008.  Due to the tobacco restrictions producing a negative impact for our neighbors and patient safety concerns, we have since altered our plan by providing one designated location on our campus where tobacco products may be used,” St. Claire said in a statement.

    Valerie Campbell, St. Claire’s director of marketing and public relations, said the hospital will continue to work toward its goal “by offering positive and helpful intervention strategies and treatment resources” for its patients, staff and visitors.

    Swain is convinced MSU will take some kind of action to ensure his property values do not decline.

    “I’m sure that the university doesn’t want the community to think that the university would be comfortable with somebody getting hurt in the road,” he said. “I’m sure that’s not their intention. And I’m also sure the university wouldn’t want to be thought of as being insensitive to the neighborhood.”

    Nicole Sturgill can be reached at nsturgill@themoreheadnews.com or by telephone at 784-4116.