Smokers and vapers puffing away near the entrance to the county government center now must take a walk downhill.

The county commissioners voted at their Wednesday meeting to approve a tobacco use policy that replaces the one instituted in 2008.

The new policy states that all county workers and anyone visiting the government center must now smoke or use their e-cigarettes in a covered area on the north side of the building near the tier parking garage.

The small three-sided metal “smoker's shed,” which has a picnic table, is against the building in the parking lot on that side of the building.

County Solicitor Julie Graham said the county government building did not have a designated smoking area in the previous policy.

She said smoking no longer will be permitted near the front entrance, where many visitors smoked, or in a covered area to the north of the front entrance, where many employees smoked.

Leslie Osche, commissioners chairwoman, said the new smoking area also prevents smokers from stepping onto the property of the government center's neighbors to smoke.

“It's better to have a space that's out of the way, so (smoking) doesn't affect others,” Osche said.

Graham said the policy also includes e-cigs, cigars, pipes, dissolvable tobacco and smokeless tobacco products. The policy also prohibits tobacco and other uses in all “county-owned, leased or rented buildings or structural facilities and all property immediately adjacent thereto, except in designated open-air locations.”

Smoking and the use of tobacco and tobacco substitute products also is banned in county-owned vehicles, according to the policy. The county prison and park system have separate tobacco policies.