Limiting Youth Access to Alcohol, Safe Communities Coalition of the Red River Valley

	Limiting youth access to alcohol

The problem of binge drinking among Fargo's youth has generated many headlines in recent months. The coalition uses alcohol compliance checks to help limit youth access to alcohol. The checks involve an underage person attempting to purchase alcohol from local liquor establishments. The monthly checks are conducted in Fargo, West Fargo and Cass County, North Dakota and Moorhead and Clay County, Minnesota with the cooperation of local law enforcement agencies. A random pick determines which establishments are checked. City of Fargo Compliance Check Failure Penalties for Licensees
First Offense–$500 penalty- may be waived if the server and the management have had server training. Mandatory Server Training for all management and staff not trained. Second Offense–$750 penalty Third Offense–$1,000 penalty and 1-2 day suspension of liquor sales. Fourth Offense–3-5 day suspension of liquor sales. Fifth Offense–7-14 day suspension of liquor sales. Sixth Offense–10-20 day suspension of liquor sales. Seventh Offense–Revocation of liquor license. The foregoing penalties for failing compliance checks will be those offenses occurring with in a one-year period. Said one-year period commences to run and is calculated (365 days) from the first offense. Businesses that passed all their compliance checks in 2009 received an award of excellence from the Safe Communities Coalition.