Polls show support tepid for bag ban

A Town Council subcommittee met last Thursday night to discuss the results of the polls, conducted by FreeportUSA and the Greater Michael Kors Outlet Online Freeport Chamber of Commerce. Town Manager Peter Joseph said prior to the meeting that the subcommittee might meet again about whether to make a recommendation to the Town Council, which is considering the ban.

The Town Council does not have the matter on any upcoming agenda, he said. “Something will come out of the subcommittee process, but they can make no recommendation, too,” Joseph said. FreeportUSA, Coach Purses which promotes Freeport as a destination shopping community, and the Greater Freeport Chamber of Commerce have overlapping memberships, yet their results differed. FreeportUSA received 26 responses, 46.2 percent of which favored the ban, and 26.9 percent opposed.

The same percentage of businesses – 26.9 percent – were not sure. The chamber poll got 105 answers, showing 51.4 percent against a plastic bags ban and 48.5 percent in favor. The chamber poll did not allow for an undecided vote. “I would say the ‘yes’ is similar across both of them,” Joseph said. “It seems pretty neutral.

It seems pretty close with what we have seen talking to residents across town.” Elly Bengtsson and Meredith Broderick, 2014 Freeport High School graduates, brought the matter to the Town Council on July 1. The Coach Outlet Online council voted to send the plan to the Ordinance Committee for review.

“The way I look at it, there aren’t a lot of people who are up in arms about (the ban), but there isn’t a majority in favor, Coach Handbags either,” Joseph said.Sande Updegraph, the chamber’s executive director, said that more than 70 business owners attached comments to their opinions.“It was a very interesting and, I think, productive survey,” Updegraph said. Both the chamber and FreeportUSA also asked their members If they are using plastic bags at their businesses.

In the FreeportUSA survey, Coach Factory Outlet 44 percent said they do not use plastic bags, 32 percent said they do, 20 percent said they use them occasionally and 30 percent responded that they use them during inclement weather. Among chamber survey respondents, 80 percent responded that they do not use plastic bags, 14 percent said they do and 6 percent said they use plastic, but have paper bags as an option for customers.