SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 38
SECTION A
SEPTEMBER 2, 2016
$1.00
#stopsuicide
Mother strides
on fi ve years
after son's death
by his own hand
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
Conversations about sui-
cide are a minefi eld.
Take, for example, the most
basic terms we use. We typi-
cally say someone “committed
suicide.” It’s a statement loaded
with the type of judgements
routinely leveled against sui-
cidal individuals – weakness,
apathy, selfi shness and unwill-
ingness to pull oneself up by
the bootstraps.
“We’re trying to change
that universally, we’d pre-
fer people say someone died
by suicide,” said Shawn Lott,
a Keizer woman organiz-
ing Salem’s fi rst ever Out of
the Darkness Walk for sui-
cide prevention on Saturday,
Oct. 8. “You’re not commit-
ting something the same way
someone might commit a
crime.”
The past fi ve years have
been a crash course in Lott
educating herself on the tri-
als and tribulations of those
feeling more than sad. On
Oct. 27, 2011, her son, John
“Speed” Sommer, was found
dead from an apparent over-
dose on sleeping pills.
Lott had only heard about
her son’s struggles in the days
leading up to his death. She
had taken her fi rst day off of
work that year for the express
purpose of going to talk with
him. He was having trouble
Clark seeks
second
term
Michael Schwindt
PAGE A2
Man leads
cops on
7-hour
hunt
waxed at the time.
“They’ve been very, very diligent at
making sure that not only at McNary but
all schools in the Salem-Keizer district,
to make sure that every single source of
water is tested,” Jespersen said. “We are
absolutely committed to making sure that
all of our students, staff and community
members that have access to water, get
clean water.”
Clagget Creek Middle School also had
one fi xture reach the action plan as a sink
faucet in classroom 100 tested on July 27
A man found sleeping on a
lawn in north Keizer sparked a
seven-hour manhunt Monday,
Aug. 29.
Shortly after 8 a.m., offi cers
from the Keizer Police Depart-
ment were called to a report
of a suspicious person sleeping
in a lawn in the 700 block of
New Terrace Drive North, part
of the Terrace Green Neigh-
borhood Association in north
Keizer.
Two offi cers responded to
the call and made contact with
the subject who was identifi ed
as 29-year old Michael Allen
Schwindt. Within minutes of
identifying the man, offi cers
learned he had a warrant for
his arrest issued by the Marion
County Circuit Court. The
warrant, issued on Aug. 24, was
for 18 counts of identity theft.
While attempting to take
Schwindt into custody, he es-
caped from the offi cers fl eeing
on foot through the surround-
ing neighborhood. Several
other Keizer offi cers in both
marked and unmarked police
vehicles responded to the area
establishing a perimeter while a
K-9 team from the Salem Po-
lice Department responded to
assist with tracking the fl eeing
suspect. The search was called
off about 9:45 a.m.
By mid-afternoon, KPD
received another call of a sus-
picious person in the same
general vicinity of the ear-
lier call who was reported to
Please see WATER, Page A9
Please see HUNT, Page A9
Submitted
ABOVE: Shawn Lott and her
son John "Speed" Sommer in
better days. RIGHT: Sommer
decked out for racing.
coping with a break-up, but
that was very likely only part
of what led to his death.
On the surface, John ap-
peared to be doing routine
things – getting his phone
fi xed and doing laundry
the day of his suicide – that
wouldn’t lead many to believe
he was in danger.
“I think he hid it really
well, he masked his depression
with fast cars and drinking. I
think he hid behind impress-
ing everyone,” Lott said.
In the aftermath of John’s
death, Lott’s coping mecha-
nisms began mimicking her
son’s behavior. She took only
a week off work to grieve,
she brushed aside sugges-
tions to seek counseling and
she avoided talking about it
as much as she possibly could
because talking about it would
make it real.
“You feel ashamed, you feel
guilty – all the time. Several
months later, I had a break-
down at work,” Lott said.
Coupled with her notions
of what other people thought
of her, Lott was wrestling with
the, at times, contradictory
messages from faith commu-
nities.
“People would say that
John was in a better place or
that everything happens for a
reason, but at the same time I
knew that people who die by
suicide aren’t supposed go to
heaven,” Lott said.
Please see SUICIDE, Page A8
Lead found in water at Keizer schools
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
When testing for lead in the water at
all its schools, Salem-Keizer decided to
take out of service any faucets or drink-
ing fountains that measured at least 15
parts per billion.
One of those fi xtures is at McNary
High School after a sample came back at
800 ppb.
But the faucet in a sink in classroom
233, which Principal Erik Jespersen said
was used for a staff work area, was an out-
lier. Of the more than 70 water fi xtures
tested at the school, it was the only one
that contained 15 ppb. Two, a hallway
drinking fountain and a sink faucet in
room 245 were 10 and 11, respectively.
Nine fi xtures tested at less than one ppb.
The school district’s action level of 15
ppb is a more cautious standard than the
Environmental Protection Agency’s stan-
dard of 20 ppb.
Samples were taken by TRC Solutions
on July 30 and analyzed in a lab on Aug.
10.
Two fi xtures in the gym still need to
be tested because the new fl oor was being
New
Homegrown
play
PAGE A3
Band Camp!
PAGE A5
The race is on for city council
In November, Keizer residents will get the chance to vote on three open city council seats, but only one
will be a contested race. Keizertimes spoke with the candidates for Position 1, Allen Barker and Laura
Reid, about their visions for the city and what they think they can bring to a role on the city council.
er said.
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Barker is a retired tower crane op-
Of the Keizertimes
When Allen Barker was looking to erator with past experience in fi nance
relocate his family to Oregon a few and business planning, and said smart
years ago, he and his wife used Keizer development is going to be the key to
Keizer’s future.
as a base of operations.
“Right now my biggest concern is
As they investigated other towns in
the Willamette Valley and beyond, they that we are only able to get by on a
soon realized they enjoyed Keizer just budget like this because of the people
who live here, but Keizer
as much as any other place
is aging. If we’re going to
they’d visited. Soon they
maintain what we have,
were drilling down in to
we have to bring in new
what made the city so en-
blood, and volunteers, to
ticing.
the city through fresh de-
“I started asking ques-
velopment,” he said.
tions about how Keizer
While he doesn’t see
was doing so much with
volunteerism as waning
what seemed to be a very
in the city, he said it’s tak-
small budget. I wanted to
ing place in different ways
know how they were able
than the city used to count
to do it, and that's when I
on when constructing
discovered the city’s histo-
Allen Barker
the likes of Keizer Little
ry of volunteerism,” Barker
said. They moved to the Iris Capital in League Park.
“Police and parks are the top two
May 2015 and, not long after, Barker
volunteered for the city’s budget com- issues from the residents I’ve talked
mittee. In doing so, his respect for the with, and those are the same ones we
came up with when I was working on
city and its leaders only grew.
“We’ve done miraculous things the budget committee, so we have to
with only a little bit of money because fi gure out a way to fund those servic-
of our city staff doing an incredible es,” Barker said.
job of keeping expenses down,” Bark-
Please see BARKER, Page A9
Spa
Week
Oct 10-14
ize everybody has something to win
By ERIC A. HOWALD
and lose in any argument.”
Of the Keizertimes
Her bid for the city council is her
Teachers learn many things from
their students, but Laura Reid gleaned fi rst foray into public life, but she’s
one that she knows helped prepare been heavily involved in other aspects
of the Keizer community through her
her for a seat on the city council.
“I’ve had thousands of students work at McNary and her church.
Through her recent conversations
and met so many of their families, and
I’ve seen the support McNary (High she’s had with residents, in no small
part because she canvassed
School) gets from Keizer
to collect signatures, Reid
businesses. They’ve helped
discovered that one of the
me understand what it
more prevalent issues was
means to be part of a small
concerns about pedestrian
community in a large
safety.
school district, and I feel
“There’s a lot of people
like they taught me what
who are interested in safer
it means to live in Keizer,”
pedestrian pathways and
Reid said.
installing sidewalks in the
Reid has taught college
sections of town where we
writing and public speak-
don’t already have them,”
ing to Celtic classes for as
she said.
long as she’s lived in the
Laura Reid
She’s been paying close
city – 15 years – and she
would like to bring those skills to bear attention to recent conversations at
the city level regarding policing and
on the council.
“I am absolutely new to this, but I parks and has appreciated the at-
feel like one of my strengths is listen- tention to detail, especially when it
ing to people and weighing informa- comes to seeking input from city resi-
tion fairly to make good decisions,” dents while considering fees to cre-
said Reid. “That’s part of what I teach. ate dedicated funding for police and
Students have to appreciate the com- parks.
plexities of a variety of issues and real-
Please see REID, Page A9
Your passport
to Pampering
Celts face
Vikings
on road
PAGE A10
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your
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