A drinking ordinance to prevent underage parties, reminiscent of one Madison city officials implemented to crack down on nuisance parties, has passed in a nearby Dane County town and may spread elsewhere in Wisconsin.

The Oregon Village Board adopted without discussion a social host ordinance that would implement harsher penalties for adults who supply underage drinkers with alcohol.

According to Oregon Police Chief Doug Pettit, the ordinance is similar to a state law that prohibits adults from providing alcohol to minors, but it expands the locations for which adults can be cited beyond just their residence.

If cited, the ordinance carries a maximum fine of $2,000 – four times the maximum fine allowed by state law. However, Pettit said the maximum penalty would only be imposed in extreme circumstances, such as offenders who are cited multiple times or for adults who provide a large group of teens with alcohol.

Wisconsin statute states “no adult may intentionally encourage or contribute” to underage drinking. Prior to the ordinance, Pettit said an adult providing alcohol or allowing an underage person to consume it would typically face a $200 fine at most for a similar offense.

Pettit added that citations for the new law will not be issued for the first six months the ordinance is in effect in order to educate the community about the ordinance.

Oregon is the first community in Dane County to pass such a law. According to University of Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project Coordinator Julia Sherman, Two Rivers was the first community in the state to adopt a similar social host law.

Seventeen other counties in Wisconsin have passed similar laws, and the idea is gaining traction across the state, she added.

Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said the Oregon ordinance and the Madison equivalent, the nuisance party ordinance, differ slightly in terms of what audience each ordinance targets.

With the Mifflin Street Block Party approaching, Verveer said the topic has received renewed interest.

“It’s fair to say the police were interested in having the nuisance party on the books in advance of the May 5 block party,” Verveer said. “The social host ordinance is more geared toward discouraging parents from condoning underage drinking parties with high school students. But it seems to me that the recent Village of Oregon ordinance is similar to what we have here. The Oregon [ordinance] has received so much media attention.”

According to a 2011 federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration report, 33.8 percent of underage Wisconsinites say they drink and 24 percent say they are binge drinkers.

Sherman said the ordinance provides a means by which adults can be held accountable for hosting events where alcohol is provided to underage drinkers.

“These ordinances reach out further and say to the community, ‘We don’t approve of other people providing alcohol – or a place to drink alcohol – to our children,'” Sherman said. “It sets a clear community standard of how adults in that community expect other adults to act.”

Several other Dane County communities, including Stoughton, are now also looking at passing similar laws.