Beer Busts Still Bustling

The teenagers congregate under the power lines of Spokane’s Indian Trail neighborhood and the pine trees of North Idaho.

They drink beer by the gallons, dump plastic cups by the hundreds and drive drunk by the dozens. Sometimes they get busted. Sometimes they wreck their cars on the way home.

Keggers are a summertime tradition in the Inland Northwest, and authorities are preparing for the onslaught that the end of school brings.

From Grant County, Wash., to Benewah County, Idaho, police, sheriff’s deputies and park rangers are on the lookout for high school students gathering to party.

Some kids are becoming more responsible by choosing designated drivers to take the intoxicated home. Others are abandoning the traditional drinkfests for indoor dance parties called “raves.”

But keg parties haven’t changed much over the decades, authorities say. Kids circulate the time and place through cheap fliers or word of mouth, get someone 21 or older to buy the beer, then party down.

“Things have not changed,” said Mike Waldron, a senior agent for the Washington State Liquor Control Board in Spokane. “Not from when I was a kid.”

Teenagers say drinking is prevalent throughout the year, but keggers become especially popular in the summer when boredom sets in and the weather warms up.

“What else is there to do in Coeur d’Alene?” asked one senior graduating this weekend.

Canfield Mountain, Beauty Bay, Hayden Creek and the Bumblebee Campground area are among the hot spots for summertime bashes in North Idaho.

In the Spokane area, parties are common at Riverside State Park, undeveloped areas in northwest Spokane, pullouts along the Old Palouse Highway and picnic sites near Newman Lake.

“It’s pretty widespread,” said one 16-year-old Coeur d’Alene girl who dropped out of school this year to pursue her GED. “There are people out there you wouldn’t think would be there - jocks and preppie people.”

Many of the parties are BYOB, or “bring your own beer,” but there are still keggers where people pay to drink.

Spokane police officer Bob Grandinetti recalls a recent eight-keg bash held in a barn where the organizers charged $10 a head. In January, Grandinetti raided a house party on the South Hill that drew nearly 300 kids.

“The parents were planning a weekend away, and the kids were planning a big party,” he said. “For 16- or 17-year-olds to get beer, they need a little time. They usually can’t get it in a couple of hours. Parents need to think about that.”

Teens no longer buy only cheap beer. Kegs of microbrew are popular, students say. Berry-flavored beer is becoming a favorite because girls like its sweeter taste.

Marijuana use is fairly common, and hard drugs like methamphetamine are starting to surface more frequently at the parties, students and authorities say.

But beer is usually the staple.

“For the most part everyone just drinks, laughs and has a good time,” said one 17-year-old Idaho senior. “When there’s a bonfire, guys will be stupid sometimes and try to walk through it.”

A graduating senior at Ferris High School said there is usually at least one person at most keggers who becomes too drunk to walk.

Some students like to show off their trucks by four-wheeling through mudholes - entertainment that authorities say has damaged the landscape in sensitive areas like Hayden Creek in North Idaho.

“The destruction and trash, that’s what really irritates people,” said Kootenai County sheriff’s Capt. Ben Wolfinger.

Grandinetti said people in the Indian Trail neighborhood of Spokane complain about drunken teenagers trampling through their yards and urinating in their bushes.

Gary Herron, manager of Washington’s Riverside State Park, agreed. “They always leave this big mess behind,” he said.

Of course, that makes it easier to identify spots frequented by teenagers and easier to bust them, he said.

“That clues us in that they’ll be back,” Herron said. “If they were a little bit smarter about it, and cleaned up after themselves, they probably wouldn’t get caught.”

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department used to mobilize a task force each summer that searched for keg parties.

Known as the Sheriff’s Kegger Attack Team, deputies and volunteers patrolled remote areas busting up keggers and citing participants for being minors in possession of alcohol.

The task force won’t operate this year because of staff shortages, said Lt. David Wiyrick, so deputies will be forced to bust keggers in between other calls.

That means fewer cops respond to a kegger, which makes it nearly impossible to cite most of the partiers. Kids tend to scatter when the authorities arrive, Wiyrick said.

Mass citations are not out of the question, though.

Last November, authorities cited 42 teenagers who attended two separate beer parties south of Spokane.

In Benewah County, Idaho, sheriff’s deputies work jointly with tribal police and the local school district to crack down on keggers staged off remote logging roads, Sheriff Joe Blackburn said.

Kids caught drinking beer are cited for being minors in possession of alcohol, which usually carries a small fine.

If they’re under 18, they also face losing their driver’s license, Waldron said. “That’s always a nice little kicker.”

Wolfinger said some teens who insist on going to keggers are trying to be more responsible to avoid tragedies like last year’s death of Jeffrey T. Seamons. Authorities said the 19-year-old Meridian, Idaho, man drove his car into Fernan Lake after leaving a party.

“Overall, a lot of young people really are trying to pick designated drivers,” Wolfinger said. “That doesn’t make it any more legal for them to be drinking, but I’m seeing more responsibility in how they manage it.”

Brandon Karubs, a student at Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School, gave up the party scene after he got a drunken driving citation coming home from a beer bash.

“I don’t like parties,” said Karubs. “It’s an excuse to get drunk and create new ways to get slammed.”

There can be other repercussions as well.

In the spring of 1996, nine students at Riverside High School in north Spokane County were suspended from their sports teams after being caught at a keg party.

Also last year, Ferris High’s Lilac Festival princess lost her crown and scholarship after being arrested for drunken driving.

Authorities are glad to hear some teenagers are getting the message that drinking can be dangerous.

But they don’t expect keggers or house parties to dry up. “Kids are going to be kids,” Herron said.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: REPERCUSSIONS Teens who attend keg parties and adults who provide the alcohol face a litany of charges if they are caught. Most teenagers are cited with being a minor in possession of alcohol, a misdemeanor that carries a maximum fine of $500. Multiple convictions can lead to a stay in the juvenile detention center for those under 18 or 60 days in jail for those between 18 and 21. Kids who leave parties intoxicated face arrest for drunken driving as well. Those who organize the parties also can be cited for the misdemeanor crimes of providing alcohol to minors, selling beer without a permit or possessing an unregistered keg. All carry maximum penalties of $500 fines and 60 days in jail.

The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Adam Lynn and Andrea Vogt Staff writers Staff writer Isamu Jordan contributed to this report.