On tap at most Utah County cities: proposals aimed at keeping alcohol out of teens' reach by requiring store clerks to get a county-issued permit to sell beer.

"This will give us another tool in our arsenal to deal with the issue of the sale of alcohol to minors," Provo Chief Administrative Officer Wayne Parker said this week. "This allows us to go after the clerk who sells beer inappropriately."

Launched in Torrance, Calif., in 1996, the Eliminate Alcohol Sales to Youth (E.A.S.Y.) program has spread to cities across the nation. Cedar City, which adopted E.A.S.Y. in 1998, credits the program with cutting its number of arrests for underage drinking by 62 percent. Layton and Brigham City have similar permit systems.

Most beer ordinances now target store owners. E.A.S.Y. is aimed more at clerks. The program requires clerks to take a 1 1/2 -hour class and pass an exam before getting a beer handler's permit, which they must wear at all times at work.

Clerks caught selling beer to underage youths will have their permits yanked for a year for the first two violations. Three strikes and the beer seller cannot get another permit for three years.

This is in addition to the fines clerks already face. Selling alcohol to minors is a class B misdemeanor and carries up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Utah County is getting $305,000 from the state to fund the training, beer badges and enforcement. Cities, stores and clerks pay nothing.

Under the program, county health officials team up with city law officers and underage police decoys for quarterly sting operations.

Pat Bird, county substance-abuse prevention manager, says the checks are crucial because Utah County teens seem to encounter few problems buying alcohol. For example, an underage decoy bought beer from two out of five stores in a recent county sting operation.

"There were 575 youth arrested last year in Utah County for consuming alcohol," Bird said. "Compliance checks in a number of the cities are just not happening."

Reaction to E.A.S.Y. is mixed.

Payson Market manager Phil Bair says the program will make cashiers more accountable. Provo Reams manager Jim Fischer counters that his clerks are already accountable enough.

"We already do a good job policing the sale of beer," he said. "We watch it very closely."

Provo's Felicia Winter, who lost her job in California a few years ago for unwittingly selling alcohol to a minor, says the program is too Draconian.

"Everyone makes mistakes," Winter said. "When I was fired, I was a single mother and had a rough time making ends meet for a couple of months. Sales clerks don't need a special permit to sell guns and ammunition. To require one just so you can sell alcohol seems like overkill."

American Fork Mayor Ted Barratt praises the program, but insists his city is doing fine without it and opted not to join.

"Our merchants are already doing an excellent job," Barratt said. "Our police chief recommended that this is a program that was not needed. This is not Cedar City; we don't have those kinds of problems."

Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills and Woodland Hills also are staying on the sidelines for now. Bird says those cities do not have stores that sell beer.

Utah County's other 18 cities either have already signed on or are expected to within a few weeks.

The training will begin for the county's 164 beer retailers and 4,000 clerks July 28. Once cities adopt the E.A.S.Y. ordinance, clerks have 90 days to get the permit.

meddington@sltrib.com