INDIANA, Pa. -- A study done last year in the Indiana Area School District showed that almost 29 percent of all ninth-graders use alcohol on a regular monthly basis. For high school seniors, that number jumped to 43 percent.

Those numbers were enough to persuade Pennsylvania's Liquor Control Board to give the community part of a federal, $1 million grant to fight underage drinking in rural areas.

The other three sites in Pennsylvania that will each receive $253,000 to be spent over three years, include Lock Haven, Clinton County; Honesdale, Wayne County; and Wellsboro, Tioga County.

Pennsylvania, with the largest rural population in the country, was one of four states chosen to participate in this program, made available by the U.S. Department of Justice. Illinois, New Mexico and Nevada also are included.

Though underage drinking is a problem in every community, said Carrie Bence, Indiana's enforcement project coordinator, there are some aspects of it that are unique to rural areas. Among those are the lack of safe alternatives for minors and permissive attitudes by adults toward underage drinking.

Oftentimes, said P.J. Stapleton, a member of Pennsylvania's Liquor Control Board, parents will allow their children to drink in their homes because they figure that at least then they know what their kids are doing.

In 2004, the Indiana Area School District administered a Youth At Risk Survey to 753 students in the sixth, ninth and twelfth grades. In addition to the number who said they used alcohol monthly, many students also said they were willing to drink alcohol. Ten percent of sixth-graders said they were; almost 41 percent of ninth-graders agreed, and 58.3 percent of seniors said the same.

According to Bence's report, minors in rural communities drink alcohol at rates 33 percent higher than their urban and suburban counterparts, and they also have a 30 percent higher rate of binge drinking.

Though the grant has just been awarded, goals already have been set for the program. Organizers hope to reduce access to alcohol for minors; change cultural and social norms that drinking among teens is OK and enhance enforcement -- among youth consuming alcohol and establishments selling liquor to minors.

To increase enforcement of the law, local police officers will hold more DUI checkpoints and will do more compliance checks to see if bars and liquor stores are selling to minors.

Any establishment that furnishes alcohol to a minor is subject to a minimum fine of $1,000, said Indiana County District Attorney Bob Bell.

At the end of the three-year program, participants hope to have reduced underage drinking by 10 percent and reduce minors' attempts to buy alcohol by 10 percent.

One of the requirements of the grant is to get involvement from a variety of community leaders. Among those represented at yesterday's grant announcement were churches, schools, law enforcement, the county commissioners and officials from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

The grant will not be used to address underage drinking outside of Indiana Borough and White Township, Bence said.

Rod Ruddock, a county commissioner in Indiana, expressed some concern at that.

He suggested that all school districts distribute a similar at-risk youth survey to see what problems might be facing their communities. He also believes the results from the work done within Indiana will be able to transfer to other areas.

Mary Beth Wolfe, a staff member of the LCB, said the program is designed both to punish the children who use alcohol and those who provide it to them.

"Law enforcement is one of the best limiters of underage drinking across the country," she said.