Utah County commissioners have agreed to award a $4,225.12 grant to the Gateway Village Homeowners Association. It will be used to craft, promote - it includes holding a support-building barbecue for residents - and distribute a policy banning smoking in the 136-unit development.

But the price tag - it includes $550 in attorney fees - had commissioners wondering.

"I hope they can find some attorney to craft this out of the goodness of his heart," Commission Vice Chairman Larry Ellertson said.

The county's tobacco-prevention specialist, Tyler Plewe, said the cost is justified because it pays for writing a lawsuit-proof policy.

And the association's chairwoman, Amy Cardon, said: "According to the Clean Air Act, we cannot fine people who leave their butts around."

The money also will pay to record the new restriction on property deeds and cover the cost of mailing notices to each homeowner.

She said if the group can do it for less than the original grant, she would try to return the surplus money.

Plewe said the money comes from the National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Such grants are awarded twice a year to groups working on smoking-prevention policies, he said.

"The CDC wants us to focus the grants on polices that, when the grant money is gone, will remain," Plewe said. He said the national centers rejected one group's request to use the money for nicotine replacement - patches and gum - because that would not produce a lasting result.

In Gateway Village's case, the grant isn't just about printing "No Smoking" signs and plastering them up around the common areas.

The idea, he said, is to get people to buy into the idea rather than just grumble about another decree from the homeowners association.

dmeyers@sltrib.com