Wellington Police Chief Tracy Heath said his department has worked 152 cases of driving under the influence and 31 cases of minor in possession over the last two years.
    Heath said in 2007 alone, the department saw 62 cases of driving under the influence and 19 cases of minor in possession.
    The number of those persons charged with driving under the influence who were under the legal drinking age is unknown, Heath said, because their computer software would not allow him to track that information.
    However, he said of 30 cases manually checked, nine had involved minors.
    Just this past weekend, Wellington police charged 20 year-old Summer D. Hansen, 20, with driving under the influence, transporting an open container, and minor in possession of alcohol.
    With the Town Hall Meeting on Underage Drinking scheduled for this evening at 6:45 p.m. at Wellington High School, Heath said he was interested in taking a look at the new statistics so he can speak on the need for community-wide efforts to reduce and prevent underage drinking.
    In addition to booths from law enforcement and other concerned agencies, refreshments will be served and several door prizes will be offered, geared towards community members of all ages.
    “We are planning a fun and informative event to help strengthen our county's efforts to reduce and prevent underage drinking,” said Kim Hefley, who has worked to coordinate the grant efforts from the state which were provided for the town hall meeting.
    Hefley said she hopes the meeting tonight at Wellington High School is well attended by community members, parents, and youth from across Sumner County. 
    The Sumner County Community Drug Action Team is working with the state on a grant which could bring up to half a million dollars of funding into Sumner County over the next threee years to implement proven strategies to reduce underage drinking.
    Next month, community leaders will begin training with the state on these proven methods and build a strategy focused methods which will best work across Sumner County, which has been noted by the state as an at-risk area for underage drinking.
    According to the 2006 Kansas Communities that Care Survey completed by Sumner County and Kansas Students in the 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades — Sumner County youth ranked 6th in the State of Kansas for 30 day use of Alcohol at 36 percent, with the state average at 29 percent.  
    Sumner County youth also ranked 8th in the state for Binge Drinking with a 20.5 percent rate reported vs the state average of 15.6 percent, where binge drinking is defined as having consumed five or more alcoholic beverages at one time in the two weeks prior to the date the student completed the survey.
    “It’s great to have your youth ranked sixth or eighth in the state when it comes to academics or athletics, but not when they’re looking at alcohol use, binge drinking and other destructive decisions related to alcohol,” Hefley said.
    Sumner County is just one community across the state and nation aggressively working to prevent underage drinking.
    More than 1,600 town hall meetings will take place all across the country in March and April 2008, with 50 scheduled across Kansas.  These meetings are designed to raise awareness about new information on the public health risk that this problem poses as well as the steps that communities and individuals can take to combat and prevent it, according to the Surgeon General’s office.