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THURSDAY JUNE 2, 2011 Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Inside Partly cloudy 69/49 Weather forecast 8B DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Still fighting Community members discuss homeless By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer A group of community members met Wednesday to dis- cuss the issues surrounding the homeless population and what can be done about it. Those present included individuals from agencies that provide services for the homeless, government officials and faith-based organizations. There are about 124 homeless people in Tehama County, according to a homeless survey conducted in January. The numbers could be higher because volunteers were not able to reach every person during that survey, said Gail Locke, chair of the Tehama County Continuum of Care. The public meeting was hosted by the Continuum of Care after it was approached by members of the Red Bluff Police Department who wanted to know what resources were avail- able to the homeless to get them off the streets. Law enforcement has received several complaints about the homeless, including concerns of sanitation, garbage, tres- passing and other violations, Police Chief Paul Nanfito said. He is seeking help from the community because if agen- cies such as The Poor and the Homeless or Continuum of Care reach out to the homeless first, it could deter some of the issues that law enforcement have to deal with. “We don’t want to go and enforce these laws to displace them somewhere else but we can’t continue to ignore fact that they violate laws,” Nanfito said. “At some point I just can’t not act.” City Manager Martin Nichols agreed that the city has had lots of complaints about the homeless. “There are significant issues about this population that needs to be addressed,” Nichols said. Nanfito wanted the group to focus on what can be done to help the homeless transition to housing. To do so, the group discussed resources that were avail- able and those that are needed. The group agreed the most important goal is to build a permanent homeless shelter. PATH has identified a site on Breckenridge Street where Courtesy Photo by Maryanne Russell Mike and Mary Gonzales of Red Bluff were honored May 11 in New York City at a fundraising dinner for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The couple caught the attention of dinner hosts Joan and Melissa Rivers.They have been pushing for a law to penalize Inter- net predators who push people to commit suicide. Red Bluff parents continue push for suicide prevention law By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer Red Bluff residents and suicide prevention advocates Mike and Mary Gonzales were given presti- gious honors at a dinner for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, May 11, in New York City. The 23rd Annual Livesavers Dinner hosted by Joan and Melissa Rivers raised close to $500,000 for the cause and honored individuals from politics, science, media, enter- tainment and business who work toward greater public awareness about suicide. The Gonzaleses, who have spo- ken to thousands about their daugh- ter’s suicide and are pushing a law that could punish Internet predators who assist in suicide, were given a Survivor Award at the event. Certain they looked out of place and terrified, the couple walked into the dinner at the Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center. The first person they met was Dorothy Hamill, the former cham- pion figure skater, Mike Gonzales said. Throughout the night, the cou- ple met other celebrities and digni- taries while bumping elbows with some 250 people who had each been touched in some way by sui- cide. Gonzales said he hopes the enthusiasm generated will promote their cause. “If we could transfer it to public interest, we would be happy,” he said. The couple’s fight began in 2003 after their daughter, Suzanne, a Red Bluff Union High School graduate who had a full scholarship to a Florida State University, committed suicide following the guidance of someone online. The predator, who gave explicit directions to Suzy on how to pur- chase and concoct a fatal poison and even proofread her goodbye note, is still actively promoting sui- cide as a positive solution to depres- sion. The man has said publicly that Suzy needed to die, Mike Gonzales said. No law prohibits what he did. “Suzy wasn’t his only victim and we couldn’t do anything about it,” he said. The man was part of an online forum to discuss suicide. Suzy was the site’s 14th “success story,” Mary Gonzales said. The group has been linked to at least 30 other suicides. Since Suzy’s death, the Gonzale- ses have worked with Rep. Wally Herger to create a bill that would make it a crime to use the Internet to encourage or promote suicide. The Suzanne Gonzales Suicide Prevention Act has been introduced in Congress three times already but failed to get enough support to pass. The newest version, HR 1183, was reintroduced for the fourth time March 17. Before Suzy’s Law was written, the vast majority of people didn’t know that Internet assisted suicide existed, Mike Gonzales said. Now, there’s been much more interest. New cases have been coming to light, as well. On May 4, a Minnesota judge sentenced a former male nurse on two counts of assisted suicide after he posed as a suicidal female nurse online to coax others to take their lives. The case gives the Gonzaleses hope. They will continue to work for a federal law that would support decisions like the Minnesota case. “We could either say nothing and hide or get out and talk about it and See STILL, page 7A it would like to build the shelter. In February the Red Bluff City Council approved the first reading of a rezone ordinance that would allow for the shel- ter to be built at the site but has been waiting for PATH to secure a $1 million state grant before voting for final approval. The grant has been approved, and the rezone ordinance should come before the city council at its June 21 meeting. A large crowd protesting the rezone and building of the shelter is expected to attend the meeting, Nichols said. Several people said a public awareness campaign should be launched between now and the June 21 meeting. Facilitators Roxy Williams and Cindy Gappa of the Tehama County Department of Education said while some good resources and solutions have been identified there is no coherent system of who can foster the connection between to two. “You’re raising good ideas, but whose job is it to move the solution forward,” Gappa said. Other issues such as garbage was addressed with the con- clusion that garbage bags could be given to the homeless to encourage them to keep their camps clean and pick up after themselves. The trash can be deposited in trash cans that are available throughout the city, said Wayne Owensby, from Bethel Assembly. Those receptacles are usually provided by garbage disposal companies through contracts with the city. Susan Harms of Church without Walls said her organiza- tion could supply the garbage bags and provide other resources to the homeless during their summer worship pro- grams set to start June 19 and go through August. Councilman Forrest Flynn said if trash bags were given to the homeless it was condoning the behavior. There were two groups of homeless people, those who have fallen on bad times and do want to turn their lives around and the chronic homeless who choose to live that lifestyle and don’t want to adhere to laws. Most in attendance said there is a common misperception that people choose to be homeless. Regardless of why a person is homeless, the problem is the location and visibility of the homeless population that bothers the people who complain to law enforcement, Nan- fito said. He pushed for relocation. “You have to create avenues for them to relocate,” Nanfi- to said. “Other citizens should have the right to go about without having to deal with homeless people.” Electric car fast-chargers coming to I-5 in Oregon GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A series of fast- charging stations for elec- tric cars will be installed this year along Interstate 5 in Southern Oregon to become one of the first links in a Green Highway stretching down the West Coast from Canada to Mexico. The Oregon Depart- ment of Transportation announced Wednesday that AeroVironment has been chosen to build eight level-3 DC fast-charging stations between Eugene and the California border under a $700,000 federal stimulus grant. The Mon- rovia, Calif.-based compa- ny manufactures unmanned aircraft and industrial charging sta- tions for electric forklifts and aircraft tenders. AeroVironment Vice President Kristen Helsel said the company hopes to start building by the end of summer and have the charging stations up and running before the end of December. Though fewer than 50 electric cars are driving 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Red Bluff Outdoor Power around Oregon, the instal- lation of fast-charging sta- tions will build acceptance for electric vehicles by making it possible for peo- ple to take trips beyond the typical range of 100 miles, said John MacArthur, a project manager at Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium in Portland. ‘‘It’s pretty exciting,’’ he said. ‘‘We’re in this kind of leading edge of electrification.’’ The AeroVironment fast-charging stations are separate from the EV Pro- ject, a partnership between the federal government and ECOtality of San Francisco, which is work- ing on installing 14,000 charging stations in six states and the District of Columbia, including Ore- gon, Washington and Cali- fornia. Level 1 car chargers use 110 volts, like a regular home outlet, and will charge a vehicle overnight. Level 2 uses 240 volts, like a home dryer or range, and will charge a car in three or four hours. Level 3 uses 480 volts and can take a Nissan Leaf’s 45 kilowatt battery from a 20 percent charge to 80 percent in less than 30 minutes, the com- pany said. It uses a universal con- nection on a cable that plugs into the car. The cost of using one of the charg- ers has not been set yet, said Helsel. The fast-charging sta- tions will be spaced 30 miles apart and located within a quarter mile of the interstate in places such as convenience stores and gas stations, still to be chosen, where a driver can find a rest room and other amenities, said project director Art James of ODOT. The governors of Ore- gon, Washington and Cali- fornia signed an agree- ment last year to create a Green Highway corridor so people with electric cars could eventually drive from Vancouver, British Columbia, to San Diego, James said. The nation’s first pub- licly accessible level 3 fast-charging station is in Oregon, said MacArthur. Installed by Portland Gen- eral Electric, it is located in the basement of the World Trade Center in Portland. The EV Project is installing about 1,000 level 2 charges chargers and a few fast-chargers in the Willamette Valley between Eugene and Port- land, said MacArthur. By 2012, fast-chargers should start showing up on the Oregon Coast, in the Cas- cades and along Interstate 84, he said. Ribs, Rods, and Rides Yankees, Athletics