City Will Consider Ploppert's Proposal to Raise Fine, Demand Public Service for Underage Drinking in Geneva

In a topic appropriate to , Zachary Ploppert asked the Geneva City Council on Monday to consider tougher fines and community service for underage drinking violators in Geneva.

Ploppert, a young community activist who earned some public notoriety in a three-way race for the 1st Ward aldermanic seat in April, had suggested changes to the underage drinking laws in .

"I say it is time for the city of Geneva and the Geneva Police Department to raise the fine issued for drinking underage from $100 to $250," he said in the first opinion article and later added, "I believe this should be in addition to requiring 25 hours of community service to be done by anyone caught drinking underage.

"For those who do have to pay the fines themselves, this sends the message that underage drinking will not be tolerated in Geneva."

When Ploppert was done, 1st Ward Alderman Sam Hill sugggested the city go a step further and look into harsher fines or prosecution for adults who enable teen drinking.

Hill suggested creation of "an ordinance to assess fines to adults who knowingly allow teens to embibe alcholic beverages on their property, perhaps as strenuously as the fines that Zach has proposed, so we put some teeth in that."

Hill said adults who serve liquor to people under the legal drinking age should be "made examples of and fined seriously."

The discussion of underage drinking follows the Oct. 9 citation of at a Homecoming party at a home on Eighth Street.

The adult who allegedly allowed students to drink at his home, Robert Caruso, 49, of Geneva has a court date of 9 a.m. Nov. 15 at the Kane County branch court, 530 South Randall Road, St. Charles, according to police reports.