News Highlights

Citywide alcohol summit postponed until February

Meeting will be in civic center

A citywide summit on high-risk drinking that originally was planned for Jan. 23 has been postponed until February.

2008-01-17
By Dan Nienaber, Free Press Staff Writer [published in The Free Press, Mankato, MN, 1/17/2008]

A Minnesota State University sponsored citywide summit on high-risk drinking has been postponed.

The summit, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was planned after a university summit last month that was prompted by the alcohol-related deaths of two women. One of the women was a student and had been attending a sorority function before she was hit by a car. The other woman had registered in the university's nursing program when she died from alcohol poisoning after a night of drinking.

It was potential public interest that forced university officials to push the summit to an undetermined day in February, said Michael Cooper, MSU media relations director. The meeting room that was set aside by the university for the summit would have been big enough for 300 people.

"People working on the summit from the city and the university didn't think that would be enough space," Cooper said.

The new plan is to move the event to a convention room in the city's downtown civic center. A convention room wasn't available Jan. 23, so planners are looking at possible open days in February.

One organization hoping to play a key role in the summit is the city's Anti Violence/Drug Committee, said Ed Waltman, committee member and Mankato Area School District superintendent. The committee, which was formed more than a decade ago, also includes representatives from area schools, law enforcement departments, prosecutors' offices, the district public defender's office, Blue Earth County Corrections, Blue Earth County Human Services, the local Mother's Against Drunk Drivers chapter and other organizations.

Each year, the committee chooses a "strategic goal," Waltman said. Last year's goal dealt with underage drinking. Before the two drinking deaths happened, the committee had expanded that goal to all alcohol abuse for this year's goal.

For more Free Press news go to www.mankatofreepress.com.

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