Juvenile Justice Service of Fremont County requested an extra $5,000 from the City of Lander this year to help cover an increase in alcohol citations among local youth.
“The Lander office has seen a slight increase in citations,” Youth Services Assistant Director Hattie Calvert told the Lander City Council this week. “Last year about this time we had 121, (and) right now we’re sitting at about 132, with most of those being an increase in alcohol citations.”
Many of the alcohol citations have involved youth who were driving while intoxicated, Calvert added, noting that, when she started working for Youth Services, “we did not see DUIs” at all.
This year, by contrast, she estimated there have been eight juvenile DUIs in Fremont County.
“That’s too many,” Councilmember Melinda Cox said. “That’s a trend that’s worth looking into a little bit. … That is certainly concerning.”
In-house services
The extra funding Youth Services requested this week would also help support a new probation officer for the Lander office, Calvert said, explaining that the agency is working on providing more services in-house in order to reduce costs for local families.
“Right now (we’re) sending our kids through what they call ‘Stay Free Forever’ courses,” she said. “Those have increased in cost, (and) we have a lot of families that can’t afford those.”
Lander has already budgeted $30,000 to support Youth Services next year, so if Calvert’s request is approved, that total will increase to $35,000.
The council will consider the Youth Services funding request as it develops its budget for the coming fiscal year.
For more information, call the City of Lander at 332-2870.