On Tuesday night, Jeff Gorder spoke before an assembled crowd of about 100 outside the county administrative building. He said he and others were there to show support for a behavioral health facility proposal some county officials formally opposed last week.
That proposal has now been submitted despite those objections, said Kimberly Johnson, CEO of Arch Collaborative who also spoke to community members outside the county building last night. The nonprofit Arch Collaborative has been coordinating the application for state Prop. 1 funds to build the True North Behavioral Health facility for about a year. Her announcement that the forms had been submitted was met by rousing applause from the crowd.
About a half-dozen men, including Cottonwood Militia leader Dan Scoville, stood watching the crowd from the top of the steps near the administrative buildings. Asked if they were there to provide security in response to the protest, Scoville said the group was just “checking things out.”
Protesters stood streetside for nearly an hour before the evening county board meeting began on Oct. 28. Those who spoke to Shasta Scout expressed their concern about a decision by Supervisors Kevin Crye, Corkey Harmon and Chris Kelstrom last week to issue a formal letter of opposition for the True North behavioral health project.
Crye, who led the charge against the proposal late last week — just days before the grant proposal was due — said he opposed the idea because it would cost the county money and draw in people with mental health and substance use challenges from other parts of the North State for care here. Concerns shared by Crye and Health and county Human Services Agency director Christy Coleman were offered in the form of opposition letters that did not cite any data or evidence. While Coleman said last week that her support for the project was required for submission, publicly available grant materials appear to contradict that claim.
Community member Sharon Ferndandez, a retired teacher, told Shasta Scout during Tuesday’s protest that she’s angry that the meeting was called so quickly that she wasn’t even able to speak up before a decision was made to formally oppose the project. She wondered aloud why the board waited until the last meeting to call a special meeting to address concerns about the proposal, which has been in the works, and in the news, for many months. At the special meeting last Friday, Crye addressed this by saying he had “let this go for a long time.”
Another retired teacher, Alison Krupit, said she showed up to the protest because she’s concerned about access to mental health care, especially for children and families who she had trouble finding places to refer for help during her time as an educator. “It’s really important that money comes into our county for mental health because it’s really hard for our families to get help,” Krupit said.
“Building good future society members is important,” she continued. “It requires all the tools we have in our tool box, and mental health is a really important tool.”
Community member Francie Stater said she’s been concerned about the actions of the board majority for some time but came to the protest this week because she has friends and family members who have mental health issues, giving her firsthand knowledge of how scarce mental health resources are across the North State.
Traci Shields’ eyes dampened as she described why she was standing streetside to advocate for the proposed behavioral health facility. She said she’s not politically involved at all in Shasta, but mental health concerns have touched her both personally and professionally throughout her life. As a retired educator, Shields said, she’s lost one student to suicide and had a dozen more who survived suicide attempts. And as a family member, Shields added, she’s waited hours in local emergency rooms for care for her loved ones as staff are overwhelmed by behavioral health needs.
Jeff Gorder, a retired public defender for the county, spoke to the crowd at the midway point of the protest, saying he spoke on behalf of the group Save our Shasta, indicating that those assembled were there to show visible support for the behavioral health application despite opposition from Crye and two other supervisors.
He talked about the “massive transformation” of Shasta’s mental and behavioral health infrastructure that the new facility could create. If approved by the state, $150 million in Prop. 1 funding would be paired with a $50 million investment from the for profit psychiatrist healthcare provider Signature Healthcare Services to build a campus in Shasta with 72 beds and 35 chairs. It’s currently slated to be located in the City of Shasta Lake but would have to pass some planning and zoning hurdles to be built there, Johnson said.
The facility, which would be owned and operated by Signature, would include crisis stabilization services as well as social rehabilitation beds and an in-patient psychiatric facility. The design is focused on preventing individuals who are experiencing mental health and substance use crises from “languishing” in emergency rooms and jails as they await stabilization, detoxification and treatment. As Gorder noted in his comments, all zip codes within Shasta County are considered a mental health provider shortage area.
“This is just the next right thing,” Johnson told the crowd, “pressing send on this application was the next right thing. We have a long way to go in our community and in our region to ensure that access to care is available for individuals that are stuck in the crisis cycle.”
She said Arch Collaborative and Signature Healthcare Services remain committed to working with HHSA despite last week’s opposition from director Coleman, saying county staff are doing the best they can amid overwhelming mental health challenges.
What comes next is up to the state. The letter of opposition from county supervisors will be a challenge but it’s one that could be overcome. Over forty leading organizations and individuals across Shasta and the North State have submitted letters in support. The state will announce grant awards in spring 2026.
Do you have information or a correction to share? Email us: editor@shastascout.org.
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