Two businesses in Washington face fines for selling tobacco products to minors. At Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting, city attorney Kevin Olson explained that the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, which also oversees tobacco products, provides funding for law enforcement to conduct checks. Law enforcement then hires a minor to go into a business to try to purchase tobacco products under the legal age. Olson says the state can then either keep the fine or the city can since it authorizes the local permits, “Part of the program is they’re paying us to do the checks, they want us to follow through the code section 453A.22, it’s in the resolution, that says they shall be fined $300 for doing this. So it happened December of ’18. The employee who sold plead guilty to the charge December 27th of ’18, so it’s pretty much a shut and dry case.”

The council approved a $300 fine for the Corner Stop. Olson said a second one will soon be coming for Casey’s.