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• Somerset park commission may table cigar sales proposal 

The governing board of the Somerset County Park Commission could table a proposal to sell cigars at five golf courses managed by the agency, its president said Thursday.

The potential decision comes as a Somerset County task force is forming to investigate smoke-free policies for county buildings and grounds.

The commission had issued a request for bids for cigars and humidors, with responses due by Tuesday.March 16. Bid specifications indicated the commission wanted to resell the cigars at Green Knoll, Quail Brook, Spooky Brook, Warrenbrook and Neshanic Valley golf courses, with the anticipated expenditure not to exceed $15,000 per season in total. The commission stopped selling cigars in 2007 and doesn't sell cigarettes. . . .

Freeholder Director Jack Ciattarelli, an opponent of selling cigars at the golf courses, said "tabling the policy is not only meaningless, it's also a bit of a cop out."

The task force's job is to formulate possible smoke-free policies, not to make recommendations on whether governmental agencies should sell tobacco, Ciattarelli said.

"Even if the task force were to recommend that smoking be allowed on county golf courses and the freeholders were to endorse that policy, that doesn't license the Park Commission to engage in the retail sale of tobacco," Ciattarelli said. "Smoking tobacco and selling tobacco, obviously, are two distinctly different things."

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