Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, January 4, 2011,
Item 9A
9-a is to review and request grant programs regarding contracts and permissions to continue a, application to the Texas department of transportation to continue the underage drinking prevention program.
and the county attorney's office for a three year term.
>> judge, the reason why this probably could have gone on consent, but I wanted to make sure that the public understand this underage drinking program problem that we have here and what Travis County is really trying to do about it.
when I reviewed the backup and I saw that the witness in and reviewed it and the drinking problem among children, it was eye opening for me, especially with the children being ages -- 11, 12 years old.
I always thought that the drinking problem got more to the -- closer to the 21 age.
but anyway, underage drinking is something that we're looking at and anybody who is under 21 of course is in that particular category.
but when luke at this, you see elementary children that are involved in drinking habits of this nature, just kind of make you want to let the public know that we have some problems and we are looking into this and doing something about it per se and hopefully incrementally the way you measure this, the closer you get to age 21 of course, then that would be acceptable I guess at age 21, but anything under that is something that I just think is detailed and should be really highlighted I think as far as what this program actually does and so at this time gloria and folks in the county attorney's office, if you would briefly explain to the public what's going on and I know there's been some surveys conducted to look at this and so let me let y'all go ahead and say what you need to say about this to make the public aware that we have an underage drinking problem here in Travis County.
but anyway, I will let you go ahead and do what you need to do.
thank you very much for being here this morning.
>> again, thank you for your support over the many, many years.
and you are correct, Commissioner Davis, it is children that are drinking, but we are making a difference.
we have in '07 the federal agency that monitors alcohol and drug abuse by children had an onset of first use for about 12 years old.
and that included the state of Texas as well.
in '09, two years later, we're at 12.3 or 4 months.
so it's inching up.
we have a long way to go before we get to 21, but there is a difference.
but one thing that I want to make clear in Travis County is that when we amended our grant two years ago to go to the fourth and fifth grade into the elementary schools, we had had so many requests for that.
and I believe that that is where we are making the dirchlts we are getting an incredible amount of calls at the lower level and we're getting an incredible amount of calls at the high school level for seniors that are driving and just getting their licenses.
so in between is where we're seeing a gap there and those are the kids that are probably the most vulnerable.
but I believe that the early prevention statistics show that it's really making a difference.
we've seen that in the eanes isd survey, the pride survey that covered '07 and '09 where there was a decrease in the onset, the high school seniors were still reporting about a 50% use, but the younger kids were being deterred to other healthier activities.
>> okay.
and I guess -- and hearing that, there was some information also in the backup that discussed the involvement of the red cross as far as them doing a survey, but I guess it may have done something by actual drowning incidents or other incidents by children that maybe -- could you maybe explain that a little bit to us?
>> one of the statistics that we use when we profile Travis County is what is in our community and of course recreation, water is a major part of our community.
the red cross concluded in their survey that alcohol played a major point and you know that for the tragedies that we hear through the year that often times alcohol is a contributing factor to an accident or a fatality.
and those are the things that we're trying to look at.
also when we talk to parents in pta's that these are the things that when they're not watching their children and their children may be drinking as well.
so here in Travis County the water and the alcohol is a problem just like we have the drinking and driving over halloween and new year's eve.
so we're looking at those high risk times.
we've identified them as three or four times in the year where we step up our campaigns.
we had a major success for sober ride.
the free ride taxi ride for new year's eve.
and we had no fatalities on new year's eve.
a little bit of help from everybody, a.p.d., the sheriff's office, all the folks in the community that care.
so we have a great community here, a wonderful collaborative effort that everybody stepping up to the table with whatever they can contribute.
that may be a free taxi ride.
>> you mentioned school districts, eanes, there are other school districts within Travis County other than some of the ones you mentioned.
I guess they cross boundary lines, but if there are some school districts that have not -- maybe not aware.
and I guess my question is are all school districts especially at this level where we think that you need to intercede as far as early prevention, are they basically aware -- have been notified of such a program?
because I think the more involved the better off that we are.
and of course, this is grant money.
we put a little bit in too, but how is that outreach to the different school districts, how is that -- how is that orchestrated?
>> that outreach is done by me putting on my telemarketing hat and two or three times a year -- actually the spring semester, the fall semester and for summer school and back to school, four times we do a direct mail to all of the seven school districts within Travis County as well as the private schools and the religious schools.
we serve all of the seven school districts.
everybody is on board, so we -- nobody has fallen to the way side.
we support some other programs -- for example, in eanes they have some special programs that they bring in and we may not go out and present we support their efforts.
every school district in Travis County know our efforts and they know of our taskforce meetings that receipt meet on a regular basis as well.
>> thank you very much for your comments.
thank you so much.
>> anything from planning and budget?
>> unless you have questions.
>> move approval.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
show Commissioners Eckhardt, Huber and yours truly voting in favor and Commissioner Davis.
a unanimous court.
>> thank you.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, January, 2011 12:12 PM
