News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Power of Putnam is about halfway through its annual compliance checks for licensed alcohol retailers in the county.
Director Bill Gibson said that the organization partners with local law enforcement to perform checks that ensure retailers are not selling alcohol to minors. He said that they go everywhere from liquor stores to restaurants.
“We’re not really trying to get anybody in trouble as much as we are trying to correct a problem,” Gibson said. “So when a retailer is cited or a clerk is cited they have the opportunity to come to a training. It’s a top-shelf training, it’s a certified alcohol training and it goes into proper ID checking and things like that.”
Gibson said that this year they’ve had a high pass rate with very few fails. He said that they try to make the compliance checks a positive experience, and make them more remedial than punitive.
Gibson said that these also decide where to perform compliance checks based on student knowledge. He said that they send out a survey every couple of years to kids aged 12 to 18 to learn about where they have access to alcohol without getting ID’d.
