NATIONAL AG DAY SPECIAL SECTION PAGE A10
The
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
W edNesday , M arch 14, 2018
• N o . 11
• 20 P ages
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
L IFTING THE VEIL OVER
SUICIDE
Community screening could
reduce county numbers
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series about suicide.
higher-than-average suicide rate in Grant County has
mental health officials and community leaders look-
ing for answers.
Representatives from the Grant County Education
Service District, the Grant County School District,
the district attorney’s office and the probation office met with
staff from Community Counseling Solutions for a prevention and
round-table meeting on Feb. 15 as members of Grant County’s
Youth Suicide Response Team.
“It was a brainstorming session — what are we doing now,
what more can we do,” CCS Clinical Director Thad Labhart said.
The team reached consensus that the community needs to do a
better job of community screening, he said.
“One of the hardest problems is that, if we don’t know, we
can’t help,” he said. “We can help them once they’re in the door.”
A
Tracking the data
In 2014, the Oregon Legislature enacted a law calling for a five-
year Youth Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan to be in place
by 2015. The goal was to improve access to mental health interven-
tion, treatment and support for depressed and suicidal youths.
See SUICIDE, Page A14
14
Youth suicide rates, aged 10-24
12.97
(Rate per 100,000 youth)
Oregon
U.S.
12
Suicide
prevention
resources
• Community
Counseling Solutions in
John Day, 541-575-1466
• David Romprey Oregon
Warm Line, 1-800-698-
2392
• Oregon Youth Line,
1-877-968-8491, text
839863, youthL@linesfor-
life.org
• National Suicide Pre-
vention Lifeline, 1-800-
273-TALK
• Spanish Language Na-
tional Suicide Prevention
Lifeline: 1-888-628-9454
• Crisis Text Line: 741741
• Military Helpline: 888-
457-4838 or text MIL1 to
839863
10.96
• Alcohol and Drug Help-
line: 800-923-4357 or text
RecoveryNow to 839863
10
8
9.6
• Suicide Prevention Re-
source Center, sprc.org
The Eagle/Richard Hanners
Community Counseling
Solutions Clinical Director
Thad Labhart has been
working as a Grant
County counselor for
more than two decades.
6
7.16
4
2000
Source: CDC WISQARS
Sean Hart and Alan Kenaga/EO Media Group
’02
’04
’06
’08
’10
’12
’14
2016
• SafeOregon reporting
line: 844-472-3367 or tip@
safeoregon.com
Chester’s expansion means more jobs
Variety department planned for former King’s store
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Good news for the John
Day economy: Chester’s
Thriftway plans to expand into
the former King’s Discount
Store next door and open up a
variety department.
Six to eight jobs will be cre-
ated, according to Bill Wyllie,
operational manager for the
three Chester’s stores in Ore-
gon, and a wide variety of con-
sumer goods locals have been
asking for will be available.
“People tell me they miss
some things,” he said. “We
initially felt someone else
would fill that role.”
Wyllie said Chester’s was
also concerned about the
empty stores in the John Day
Plaza — King’s, the former
Mountains Department Store
and the closing Muzzy’s 123
Dollar Store — and how that
could affect their business. A
lifelong resident of John Day,
Wyllie said he was also con-
cerned about how the commu-
nity could be impacted.
“King’s being closed was
a company-wide closure,” he
said. “The location in John
Day was actually one of their
best locations for product
movement. This means that
King’s was a needed store in
John Day, and it is a negative
impact to Grant County losing
this resource.”
At this point, the plan is to
punch an opening through the
common wall near the back
of Chester’s, linking the two
stores. The door to the park-
ing lot at the former King’s
See CHESTER’S, Page A14
Eagle file photo
Operations Manager Bill Wyllie poses for a photo in
Chester’s Thriftway. The store plans to expand to provide
a variety department.
Longtime publisher Legislators to consider protecting retailers
who raise gun purchase age to 21
leaving the Eagle
By Paris Achen
Hart will serve as
general manager
and editor
Blue Mountain Eagle
After 14 years with the
Blue Mountain Eagle, Pub-
lisher Marissa Williams is
leaving the company for an
executive position at Silvies
Valley Ranch.
Williams, who most re-
cently served EO Media
Group as publisher of the Ea-
gle and the Wallowa County
Chieftain and regional ad
director for the East Orego-
nian and Hermiston Herald,
has accepted a position as
vice president of the Retreat
& Links at Silvies Valley
Ranch.
“I have enjoyed working
for EO Media Group and the
Blue Mountain Eagle for past
the 14 years. I appreciate hav-
ing had this wonderful oppor-
tunity to work within Grant
County,” Williams said. “I
have been fortunate to share
many of those years with the
great staff at the Eagle and am
confident the paper will con-
tinue to be a strong piece to
our communities.”
See EAGLE, Page A14
Capital Bureau
Oregon legislative leaders
say they are willing to change
Oregon law to protect retail-
ers that voluntarily restrict
gun and ammunition sales to
customers 21 and older.
Under state and federal
law, Oregonians 18 and older
can buy rifles and shotguns
and the ammunition for those
firearms. A person must be at
least 21 to buy a handgun and
handgun ammunition.
Oregon Labor Commis-
sioner Brad Avakian has con-
cluded gun retailers that have
stopped selling to customers
younger than 21 in the wake
of recent mass shootings
could be violating the state’s
anti-discrimination laws.
The decision could be
challenged at the Bureau of
Labor and Industries or in a
civil court complaint. Oregon
law has made exemptions to
the anti-discrimination law
for the sales of alcohol and
marijuana, in which case re-
tailers are required to refuse
to sell those products to peo-
ple younger than 21. In order
to raise the minimum age to
buy firearms, state lawmak-
ers would need to enact an
exemption in the next legisla-
tive session.
“The retailers’ policies
to deny gun sales to those
under 21 represents a com-
mon-sense effort to make
public places safer,” Avakian
wrote in a March 6 letter to
state legislative leaders.
BOLI employees plan to
submit a bill for the 2019 leg-
islative session to make the
exemption for firearms.
During an interview on
KATU.com Thursday, Sen-
ate President Peter Courtney,
D-Salem, and Republican
Leader Rep. Mike McLane of
Powell Butte said they would
support legislation to raise
the minimum age to buy guns
to 21 or to pass a law that al-
lows retailers to decide.
See GUNS, Page A14