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REIDSVILLE — They're just outside his office, though the city manager has forgotten about them.

More can be seen in the halls and lobbies of Reidsville City Hall, tucked away in corners. They are knee-high silver cylinders topped with a dish of kitty litter.

Ashtrays.

Of the few towns and cities regionwide that let smokers inside, only Reidsville allows them anywhere and everywhere in its government offices — places where you'd pay a water bill, file building permits and do other business.

City Manager Kelly Almond and Mayor James Festerman both said smoking tobacco in City Hall is a "nonissue."

"We haven't dealt with it, and I don't think I've ever had a complaint of people being allowed to smoke or not being allowed to smoke," Almond said.

Asheboro, Clemmons, Kernersville and Winston-Salem allow smoking in their city halls — but only in designated areas.

No other cities or towns in Alamance, Guilford, Forsyth, Randolph or Rockingham counties let smokers light up in their government halls, according to phone calls made by the News & Record.

Although Reidsville officials say it's no problem, state legislators consider smoking an issue.

Gov. Mike Easley signed a bill this year banning smoking in state buildings, and gave municipalities the power to do the same on their properties.

Effects of smoking and secondhand smoke are well-known: It causes cancer, premature birth, and kills more than 400,000 Americans each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Limits on smoking in public places, restaurants and elsewhere are spreading.

"It's a very inexpensive policy to enact, you just put a couple signs on the doors," said Mary Gillett, coordinator of Tobacco Prevention Coalition of Guilford County.

Guilford bans smoking from all its public buildings. Greensboro banned smoking in city-owned buildings and cars in August.

Don't expect to see smokers in Tobaccoville, either.

There's an ashtray outside the door to the village community center, Mayor Keith Snow said.

"But I've never seen anybody using it there," he said.

In Reidsville, tobacco isn't in the city's name but it's entrenched in local history.

There's a tobacco leaf on the city seal. On some fall days the smell of cured tobacco in the nearby Commonwealth Brands cigarette factory fills the air.

"When I first came, three members of City Council smoked during meetings," said Almond, Reidsville's city manager for 19 years.

"It was very common to be smoking."

Nobody smokes during council sessions anymore.

Occasionally, one can smell a burned cigarette in the lobby outside the chambers.

"If someone walks down the hall smoking a cigarette, it doesn't offend me. I wouldn't notice," Almond said.

Neither Almond nor Festerman plan to start noticing it anytime soon, either — both said they don't expect new resolutions on smoking in City Hall.

Contact Gerald Witt at 382-8522, or gwitt@news-record.com