By CRAIG FREILICH

CANTON -- Residents of 217 units in the two Riverside Drive high-rises and at the Law Lane housing complex will soon be prohibited from smoking in their apartment or just outside the building.

Many smokers in the Canton Housing Authority’s high-rise apartments are riled up over the plans to impose a smoking ban throughout the buildings.

“There are 80 percent that don’t smoke and 20 percent that do,” said Cindy Moore, housing authority director.

The 20 percent “are riled up. The smokers are against it, and the non-smokers are hopeful,” she said.

One resident, Priscilla Lucas, a smoker, estimates that more than half of the residents are smokers.

She said she was approached by some residents to circulate a petition opposing the no-smoking plan.

“Petition to Stop January ‘no smoking plan,’” the petition sheet says at the top. Below that, it says “We the undersigned do hereby protest the ‘No Smoking’ policy being implemented by the Canton Housing Authority. We feel it is an infringement on our Civil Rights and DO NOT WANT the policy instated.” She said she got about a dozen signatures in 15 minutes and expected to get more.

“The policy is not a law, it’s an option,” Lucas said.

“It won’t be long before it’s mandated at all HUD properties, not just in New York State but nationwide,” Moore said.

She said they are working with the Seaway Valley Prevention Council to provide materials for smokers who want to quit. “Patches, gum, workshops, whatever they need.”

Moore said she expects the plan to be finalized and explained in detail at the housing authority’s annual meeting in October.

Moore said of the total 217 apartments, 56 are family housing units, and the rest are for the elderly and disabled.

Authority staff passed out a letter to residents earlier this month, explaining that the proposed ban was “in order to provide a healthier environment for all residents. The harmful effects of secondhand smoke, increased maintenance costs, and fire danger caused by indoor smoking are simply too great to ignore,” her letter said.

The letter explained that smoking areas will be provided outside, at benches 25 feet from building entrances, or they can smoke in their vehicles.

She said the smoking spots might have cover to protect from the weather, but they won’t be heated.

The plan is to ban smoking inside as of Jan. 1, once the Canton housing board officially approves the plan.

“Some people may choose to move” out of the subsidized public housing for elderly, low-income and disabled people. “That’s why we’re giving people as much time as possible to choose,” she said.

People can still smoke in their apartments for the time being, but Moore is asking smokers to keep their doors closed and to stuff a towel under their doors to keep the fumes from leaking out.

Lucas, who is disabled and has lived in a Riverside Drive apartment for 25 years, said there had “never been a fire due to smoking.”

She said the housing authority said it had taken a survey to see how residents felt, “but neither my husband nor I got asked” to take part. “You are actually seeing people afraid of losing their homes, afraid to speak. And staff who smoke are too afraid to sign the petition.” She said she is afraid that people living at Law Lane “will leave their kids to go outside to smoke” once the new rules are in place.

Still and all, “I wish I could say I was a nonsmoker,” Lucas said.