The Onset Water Department will hold a state-sponsored smoking-education program and cigarette butts will no longer be allowed inside the department building, the Board of Health determined Wednesday night at a hearing in response to complaints that people were smoking inside the department's building.

The hearing brought members of the Onset Fire District Prudential Committee, Onset Fire Chief Howard Andersen Jr., and Water Department employees together to try to resolve whether smoking in the department's building is a persistent problem or something that has never occurred.

"It certainly is a dilemma," said Board of Health member Dr. Thomas Gleason.  "If you can't prove it [is happening], you also can't disprove it."

Water District Superintendent Paul Bokowski denied that anybody was or had been smoking in the building under his watch.

"There is no smoking in that building, there never has been in my time, none whatsoever," he said, pointing out that nobody had ever been seen smoking in the building, nor had the carbon monoxide detector in the building been triggered.

Health Agent Robert Ethier said that, nevertheless, he had to investigate the allegations.

"The complaints come in, keep coming in," Ethier said. "People are convinced it's going on."

He said that he's been to the building several times, and that each time the complainants insist smoking is happening inside the building while other employees insist that the smell is diesel exhaust from the trucks.

"Enough is enough," he said, advocating a resolution to the issue.

Prudential Committee Chairman Winna Dean said that in investigating the issue, she had seen a coffee cup with a cigarette butt inside left on the table in the break room.  An employee told her that she didn't want to leave cigarette butts outside on the ground, so she brought it inside to cool it down before disposing of it in the trash.

Prudential Committee member Marcine Fernandes wondered whether this habit might contribute to the tobacco smell in the building.  Others questioned whether employees smoking in their cars during the winter might bring the tobacco smell into the building on their clothes.

Eventually, the Board of Health decided that the water district should have a smoking-education program that is offered by the Department of Public Health and explains the rights of smokers as well as the laws concerning smoking in the workplace.  They also agreed that all cigarette butts should be left outside the building and that the district should provide appropriate receptacles for their disposal.

Prudential Committee Chairman Dean said she was satisfied with the result.

"Now everybody will be on the same page, and everybody will know the rules," she said.