***ATTENTION STUDENTS AND PARENTS***
NEW COUNTY ORDINANCE: CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL BY PERSONS UNDER LEGAL AGE ORDINANCE
Purpose: This ordinance prohibits the consumption of alcoholic beverages by persons under the age of twenty-one (21). This will include the ingestion of, or physical condition of having ingested alcohol.
Penalties: A violation of this ordinance is a simple misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of two hundred dollars ($200.00) for a first offense, three hundred dollars ($300.00) for a second offense, and five hundred dollars ($500.00) for a third or subsequent offense.
Effective date: This ordinance shall be in full force and in effect from and after publication as required by law which will be approximately March 14, 2013.
The official ordinance can be seen after the effective date at:
www.jonescountyiowa.org
Ordinances; Title V; Chapter 13
Text 2 Tell
Back in May the Text2Tell program was very successfully launched in Jones County. As school is starting again, the Jones County Safe and Healthy Youth Coalition and local law enforcement agencies are reminding the community how important this new tool is in solving and stopping crimes. Text2Tell is an anonymous text messaging service that allows anyone with a cell phone and text messaging service to send text message tips to our local law enforcement agencies.
There are two more features to this new service, the first of which is a free smart phone application called TipSubmit Mobile. This service will also send your tip anonymously straight to local law enforcement. The first time after downloading it you will select Jones County Sheriff’s Office and after that it will pop up automatically. The other feature is to submit tips through the anonymous website www.jonestext2tell.com . The tipster may pinpoint exactly what the crime or suspicious activity is about, where it is occurring, and can even submit a photo for more detail.
Since the service was implemented in early May, over 30 legitimate tips were submitted and followed up on by the Anamosa PD, Monticello PD or Sheriff’s Department. At least 15 of those were alcohol and drug related, and more than half of those were youth related.
Just to be clear on how to text a message: Open up a new text message. In the “To” box, type the word CRIMES or 274637 (with some cell phones, the numbers do not correspond with letters). In the message field, the first word must be “Jones” and after that simply type your tip and hit send. Within seconds you will receive a confirmation message saying your tip was received and depending on the nature of your tip, law enforcement will remain in communication with you to obtain any needed information. At any time if you want to discontinue that particular tip and two-way dialogue with law enforcement, you type STOP and the line of conversation will be done.
As always, community members should continue to use 911 for emergencies and may call the Sheriff’s Office at 319-462-4371 to report non-emergency suspicious and/or illegal activity over the phone.
