FLOODING
THROUGHOUT
COUNTY CLOSES
BRIDGES, ROADS
PAGE A5
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
151st Year • No. 15 • 18 Pages • $1.00
BlueMountainEagle.com
ZERO SUICIDE
A new approach to an old problem
What Oregonians say about suicide
I have
thought
about
suicide
21%
■ US
■ Oregon
31%
EO Media Group fi le photo
Someone I
22%
know has
attempted suicide
34%
but didn’t die
Someone I
22%
know has
talked to me about
thoughts of suicide
Community Counseling Solutions Executive Director Kimberly Lindsay stands on a hill
above Heppner, which is home to the headquarters of the mental health provider that
services Grant, Morrow, Wheeler Gilliam and Lake counties in Eastern Oregon.
Grant County implementing national
program shown to reduce suicides
45%
Someone I
know has
died by
suicide
31%
I have worried
about the mental
health of
someone I know
33%
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
57%
70%
SOURCE: Oregon statistics based on an online-survey of 309 Oregonians
by DHM Research, Feb. 13-22, 2019. U.S. statistics based on 2018 survey
by Harris Insights and Analytics for the National Action Alliance for Suicide
Prevention.
Pamplin Media Group
Some behavioral health care profession-
als are optimistic about a new approach to
dealing with rising suicide
rates across the U.S., and they
place the onus on their own
profession.
The new initiative goes by
the name Zero Suicide, and
the Community Counseling
Solutions board of directors adopted the
approach at their February meeting.
“In March, I was able to connect with
Reynolds leaves behind giant legacy
By Richard Hanners
Blue Mountain Eagle
Grant County and the
state of Oregon lost a civic
leader who left a tremen-
dous legacy that his family,
friends and the community
can be proud of. Dennis
Reynolds died April 1. He
was 70 years old.
Reynolds was born in
the Zero Suicide institute for consultation,”
CCS Executive Director Kimberly Lindsay
told the Eagle, noting that CCS will hold
its fi rst Zero Suicide leadership meeting in
April.
“The process for fully
implementing Zero Suicide
is lengthy — most say two
years,” Lindsay said. “The
fi rst year is largely completing
organizational and workforce
surveys. The second year is
using the data to inform changes.”
See Suicide, Page A18
Proposed gun legislation
raises concerns for locals
Senate Bill 978
contains a variety
of provisions
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Eagle fi le photo
Julie and Dennis Reynolds ride in the ‘62 Days parade in
Canyon City in 2014.
Prineville in 1949 and
moved to John Day when
he was in fi rst grade. Grow-
ing up, he worked with his
father, Percy, doing ranch
work for Joe Oliver. He was
a distance runner at Grant
Union High School and
held the state record in the
javelin.
It was at Oregon State
University pursuing a
degree in forestry that Reyn-
olds started dating Julie
Elligsen, who also gradu-
ated from Grant Union in
1967 and was majoring in
education. They were mar-
ried at the St. Thomas Epis-
copal Church in Canyon
City in 1970.
After college, Reynolds
went to work for San Juan
Lumber Co. in 1972, which
later became Hudspeth
Lumber Co., fi rst as a road
superintendent and then as
a general manager at the
mill in John Day. His father
was a logging foreman.
In 1982, when Hudspeth
closed down, Reynolds and
his father went into custom
timber harvesting and for-
estry consulting as Key-
stone Ltd. until 1994.
County judge
Reynolds served two
terms as Grant County
judge, from 1994-2006,
surviving an impeach-
ment election in his fi rst six
months. In an April 2003
editorial, the Eagle asked
“several local natural-re-
See Reynolds, Page A18
The summary for Ore-
gon’s latest proposed gun
legislation, Senate Bill 978,
is two sentences long, but
the bill includes a 44-page
amendment tacking on sev-
eral new requirements for
gun owners.
The bill contains pro-
visions about gun stor-
age requirements, allowing
retailers to raise the mini-
mum age to buy a gun, reg-
ulating 3-D printed guns,
transferring guns and report-
ing lost or stolen guns.
A local fi rearms expert
said the bill could take guns
away from responsible
citizens.
“There are a lot of
law-abiding gun owners
— not right-wingers,” said
Marc LeQuieu of Mt. Ver-
non. “They just kind of want
to be left alone.”
The majority of gun own-
ers are “responsible and do
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Ten-year-old Jaime Vandehey of Canyon City shoots a
pistol at the hunters education fi eld test day at the law
enforcement gun range. ODFW instructor Mark Boss was
standing nearby supervising.
what they’re supposed to
do,” he said.
LeQuieu
has
been
involved in research and
development in the fi re-
arms industry over the
past 20 years and said he’s
worked with every fi rearms
manufacturer.
He’s a former profes-
sional hunter in Botswana,
Africa, and was a wildland
fi refi ghter for 14 years until
he was injured.
LeQuieu, who describes
himself as a moderate inde-
pendent, said there are about
20 points made in the SB 978
that raise concerns for him.
He said some would take
away rights, some points are
redundant and others make
no sense.
For example, Section 6
requires gun owners to place
a trigger lock or cable on
See Guns, Page A18