By By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS -- Gene Knutson doesn't even smoke and he's smoldering about a proposed ban at the new Law and Courts Building.
Knutson, a former NFL player, prefers candy bars to cigarettes, but he doesn't want anyone telling him to eat chocolate in his car and making him feel like a second-class citizen.
Knutson wants commissioners to consider "a spot out there someplace by the courthouse where the smoker can get behind some trees. When you ask them to go into their car, you're making them second-class citizens. I'm not a smoker. My wife is. She's worked in your Circuit Court longer than anybody. This September she'll be there 31 years and she likes to smoke. I like candy bars. I don't want my wife, Vicki, to tell me, 'Gene, if you want that candy bar, you get out in the garage and get in the car and eat it.' Consider a tailor-made ban for the benefit of our citizens who do smoke."
Vicki Knutson is the Circuit Court reporter. Gene played in the NFL for three seasons, 1954-1956, with the Green Bay Packers.
Vice Chairman Larry Malsch, R-Porter Township, who conducted the meeting in the absence of Chairman Johnie Rodebush, D-Howard Township, said the commission will be revisiting the issue, although he could not say when.