Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Suicide Crisis Intervention Lifeline group is confident that $6,000 earmarked by the county for the group will come through, and in the meantime is not relaxing its efforts to prevent suicide in Routt County.

E-mail glitches and a stretched human services staff citywide, Visiting Nurse Association Director Sue Birch said, led to the misunderstanding that $6,000 donated by the city of Steamboat had not been received by the group, although it has.

"We sent a $6,000 check to the group and it was cashed in April," City Manager Paul Hughes said.

SCIL coordinators do not talk regularly about the group's funding because the group is in the "bare bones" volunteering stage without an accountant or a staff Birch said.

Birch said it is a small error that the county check hasn't yet been received, but an official letter from the county promising the funds is as good as cash, and SCIL knows it can count on local governmental entities.

"Our local government has done as much if not more than any other organization in the state," Birch said. "We are so pleased that the governmental entities are partnering with us. And it really shows. There've been no suicides yet this year in Routt County."

Even with the promised $12,000 from Routt County and the city, SCIL still needs money, Birch said. The group, which provides training seminars to local organizations and teaches suicide prevention classes at the high school, uses an anti-suicide video made by the family of Josh Campbell, who committed suicide in Steamboat on Feb. 14, 1998.