Despite persistent lawmakers, bar age remains 19

By Kalyn Cooper

For the second time in two years, state representatives have declined the opportunity to raise the legal bar age to 21.

Rep. Paul Froehlich, R-Schaumburg, was the bill’s main supporter. He said he couldn’t get the bill posted to a committee, but he hopes it will be reconsidered for next year.

“The bill is dead,” Froehlich said. “I hope to at least do some testimony on it soon, but next year will be my next opportunity.”

If passed, the bill would have prohibited people younger than 21 years of age from entering establishments where liquor is sold, given or delivered. Currently, individual counties have made laws setting the legal bar age within their jurisdiction.

“Right now, some bars just let minors in knowing they’re going to drink,” Froehlich said. “Then they catch them and fine them for it. The general climate and environment in college towns is conducive to abusive drinking.”

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Froehlich said setting a legal bar age at the state level is especially important for college towns and that his main targets are Champaign, Carbondale and Macomb, which are home to universities.

He added that, citing a report conducted for University students, 61 percent of those on campus are binge drinkers – an increase from 41 percent in 2001.

“In reality, lowering the bar age is just lowering the drinking age,” Froehlich said.

Many local stakeholders said they did not expect the bill to pass, since similar bills have been threatened in the past without anyone following through.

Josh Thompson, manager at Joe’s Brewery, 706 S. Fifth St., said the bar’s business would be greatly affected if this bill ever were to pass.

“Most people don’t even turn 21 until the end of their junior year,” Thompson said. “If you had to be 21, we would immediately lose 60 percent of our business.”

The Champaign Liquor Commission deals with many issues relative to underage drinking, said Ryann Hubbard, graduate student and student representative on the liquor commission.

“This comes up almost every year, but there are many more things to consider besides underage drinking,” she said. “Will it actually happen? I doubt it.”

Hubbard said one reason she does not think these bills have passed is because of safety issues on campus. She said students are safer in a supervised bar than if they were drinking elsewhere.

“Forbidding entrance is not the solution to underage drinking,” Hubbard said. “At house parties, no one is watching, checking IDs or monitoring fire code regulations.”

But there are still many safety precautions that could be taken to reduce the amount of drinking outside the bars, Froehlich said.

“At some schools there is mandatory notification of parents when there is alcohol abuse, and that’s proved to be a good deterrent,” he said. “There also should be law enforcement aimed at parties as well.”

Hubbard said students would take the risk of drinking illegally no matter how old they were, and that more problems surface as a result.

“Freshmen students wouldn’t mind, because they wouldn’t know what they were missing,” she said. “The 18- to 20-year-olds would find fake IDs and new ways to sneak into the bars. They’d become a lot more creative.”

If Froehlich’s bill had become a law, Thompson said Joe’s and other campus bars would have increased security to prevent the use of false identification.

Hubbard said there has always been a buzz around campus that Champaign would raise the legal bar age, but there hasn’t been any action yet.

“The bottom line is that the cities of Champaign and Urbana make a lot of money off drinking tickets,” Hubbard said. “Losing that money from bar raids would but a huge hole in their pockets next year.”

Sgt. Scott Friedlein of the Champaign Police, who is also on the liquor commission, said each citation warrants a fine of $280. He added that Champaign issued 1,347 citations last year and 456 so far this year. Friedlein also said the fines generate between $200,000 and $250,000 annually for the city.

Froehlich also said economics had a lot to do with the results, despite the support of reputable organizations.

“Public health officials clearly know this is a good idea, because it keeps people safe,” he said. “But the bar industry makes a lot of money selling to minors, and apparently they have more clout.”