By Kinsey Johnson

It was a chilly night in January of 2017 when 19-year-old Robert Tarver woke up on a stretcher headed inside an Eau Claire hospital.

“I just remember being so terribly cold because of the ice water… because I was basically dying of alcohol poisoning,” Tarver recalls.

Earlier this year a recent study named Eau Claire, Wisconsin America’s “Second Drunkest City.” According to the study, Tarver is among 26.2% of adults who drink to excess with sometimes dangerous results. Some of the consequences that can result from excessive drinking include alcohol poisoning, short and long-term health risks and alcohol-related vehicle accidents. Because of these consequences, members of the Eau Claire community are taking steps to change the city’s drinking culture with a new city ordinance.