• March 28, 2024

I’d walk three miles …

 I’d walk three miles …

People will be disappointed if they try to buy tobacco products in the US town of Greenwood, Nebraska, according to a story by Kevin Cole for the Omaha World Herald.
A gas station/convenience store closed about four months ago, leaving the Cass County town of about 680 people without a tobacco retail outlet, village board member Kevin Gerlach said.
And the Uptown Saloon, a bar and restaurant, quit selling tobacco products several years ago, according to a woman who answered the phone at the business.
“It’s just the way the cards fell,” Gerlach said. “If someone wants to buy tobacco, there are gas stations about three miles outside of town on the local interchange.”
Last summer, the board made the village park a tobacco-free space and now, if a business wanted to start selling tobacco in town, it would have to get approval from the board.
“I’m a third-generation Greenwood resident, and I think [approval] would be pretty unlikely,” Gerlach said. “In the town’s heyday, back in the 1950s, there were five bars and two or three stores that all sold tobacco. Those days are over.”
Meanwhile, Autumn Burns, of Tobacco Education and Advocacy of the Midlands, said Greenwood was the first town she had heard of in Nebraska without any tobacco sales. She applauded the town’s decision to make its park tobacco-free because it’s “a great role model” for the community’s youth.
“I think it’s really inspiring,” Burns said. “They’re showing small communities can take the lead making tobacco-free spaces. I’m also impressed with Cass County as a whole because Greenwood, Elmwood, Weeping Water and Murray have all implemented tobacco-free parks.”