CARRABASSETT VALLEY -Recreation Committee members are recommending that all town recreation facilities be tobacco-free.

Selectmen gave the group permission to draft a policy that would prohibit tobacco on the town’s recreation areas, which include athletic fields, picnic areas and basketball courts.

Recreation Director Deborah Bowker said she would also approach the board governing the anti-gravity center owned by both the town and Carrabassett Valley Academy, a private ski school.

The idea is coming from the people, Bowker said. She presented the proposal for the town to adopt a tobacco-free policy to selectmen on April 14.

“It’s hard,” she said because the facilities are used by both children and adults. The committee recommended the policy after a comment was made last summer about children attending day camps who were spending time picking up cigarette butts off the recreation areas.

“We’re going to self-monitor it,” Bowker said. The committee would work with softball coaches and day camp staff and others to educate the people about the tobacco-free areas.

Statistics show, Bowker said, that 90 percent of the people support tobacco-free areas.

The idea has received “great support” from the Recreation Committee and most people, Bowker said.

dperry@sunjournal.com