Stephen Dazey donates $200,000 towards his $1,000,000 Pledge for a New Hospital in Garberville

Left to Right: Gillian Brown, Development Assistant; Laura Mojica, Pediatric FNP; Corinne Stromstad, SoHum Health Board Chair; Chelsea Brown, Development Director; Carolyn Hino-Bourassa, Foundation Board Chair; Suzi Schultz-Dazey; Stephen Dazey; Matt Rees, SoHum Health CEO; Pat Neighbors, Foundation Vice Chair, Meghan Joyce, SoHum Community Park Board Chair; Ross Huber, Foundation Board Member
Press release from SoHum Health:
Stephen Dazey is donating $200,000 towards a $1M pledge to SoHum Health Foundation to support construction of a new hospital in Garberville. New statewide seismic requirements are going into effect in 2030 and Jerold Phelps Community Hospital is unable to meet them. SoHum Health Foundation began a fundraising campaign three years ago to construct a new hospital and clinic that will meet changing seismic requirements and continue to provide life-saving emergency, diagnostic, and preventative healthcare to the community.
“Southern Humboldt is a small community, and we were unsure if we would be able to raise the $4,000,000 needed for the building loan. Stephen Dazey’s initial pledge of $1,000,000 was the catalyst that gave us confidence to move forward with our campaign. We are so grateful to Stephen for taking that initial leap of faith to make this project happen,” says Carolyn Hino-Bourassa, Foundation Board Chair.
As a long-time Southern Humboldt pillar, Stephen founded Dazey’s Supply in Redway in 1974. Since then the company has grown to 7 locations and approximately 100 employees. In 2016, he made the decision to sell the company to the employees under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (aka ESOP). Employees accumulate stock options annually and are paid out when they retire or leave Dazey’s Inc. employment for any reason. Stephen also founded Southern Humboldt Community Park, a 431 acre regional park and 501(c)(3) non-profit that offers hiking, birding and many other recreational activities and opportunities. The SoHum Health Foundation Board of Directors extends a sincere thank you to Stephen Dazey for his commitment to the wellbeing of the Southern Humboldt community.
Stephen is hoping that by making his pledge public it will inspire and encourage others to strengthen their generosity to advance this spectacular effort. He understands that even when the initial goal is reached there will still be ongoing investments needed to assure the success of a modern hospital in a small rural community and hopes others will also realize this. Anyone interested in making a donation can do so at sohumhealthfoundation.org/give or by mailing a check made out to SoHum Health Foundation to 733 Cedar Street, Garberville, CA 95542.
To learn more about SoHum Health Foundation and their capital campaign, visit sohumhealthfoundation.org or contact Development Director, Chelsea Brown at (707) 223-6630, [email protected].
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A big thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Dazey for your generosity.
Is it $4M just for the empty building? ?
He gets a great tax deduction for his “generosity”, after extracting that money from his community. You do realize that, right?
I’m sure he is doing it for the tax deduction, but at least a part of the money he’s extracting from the community he is giving back. He built a business and good for him. How much money are you donating to help build a hospital for the community when you need it, or would you rather not have one in 8 years?
4 million just to qualify “for the building loan?!?”
yes.. 10% is the down payment, so $4 million. The loan will be for $40 million. It’s not an ordinary building. It’s a hospital with massive amounts of permits, specialty construction features etc.
Phase 1 was approximately $1 million for the building and surrounding area on Sprowel Creek. Phase 2 is $4 million which is for a 10% down payment with the USDA loan for the construuctio of the new hospital of $40 million.
Phase 1 was $1 million for the purchase of the land and buildings on Sprowel Creek Rd. . Phase 2 is the $4 million that is needed for a down payment on a $40 million loan from the USDA for construction of the new hospital.. Stephen’s $ one million pledge helped immeasurably.
So $40M for a hospital. How many stories/sq ft? Is this a fully equipped hospital or just the empty building? In either case $40M is outrageous to say the least.
Guess I won’t be spending anymore money at Dazey’s. What a waste. I bet the money is going toward Matt Rees’ newest company car or another trip to Hawaii.. How many do they own now and how often do they get used for personal use on our tax dollars; fishing, crabbing, hauling horses, etc.
SoHum buys the cars and pays for the fuel, what a nice perk for a CEO that doesn’t even live in the district.
And the nepotism in that place, beyond unethical. Ask anyone that worked there and you will hear story after story about all of Matt Rees’ schemes to rip off the tax payer and line his own pocket.
My equally unfavorable comment did not pass muster ?
I can guess who wrote this based on the rancor. If I was the CEO of SoHum Health a new car should be affordable, and if I chose to spend some of my hard earned salary on a horse or two.. well that’d be my prerogative. Don’t forget who used to run the place and practically ran it into the ground. I applaud Matt for his excellent contribution to our medical community and his vision that is manifesting a new hospital. No mean feat! And the pharmacy is fully functional and so necessary too. Go So Hum Health!
Wow, go Steve!
wonderful family
Haters will hate…. Donators will donate…. Thank you for the donation Mr. Dazey:) solid
Sorry, I need to correct the following statement:
“Stephen also founded Southern Humboldt Community Park, a 431 acre regional park and 501(c)(3) non-profit that offers hiking, birding and many other recreational activities and opportunities.”
Nope, that is a bald face lie. in 2000 It was the Southern Humboldt Working Together (SHWT), an non-profit and tax exempt organization (501c3) that raised funds and gave Bob McKee $650k, which was made up of private loans with compounded interest and donations as a down payment for Bob McKee to buy the whole Tooby Ranch at $500 an acre. Then Bob McKee sold what would become the SoHum Community Park property, down on the Tooby Flat, back to SHWT for $3,333 an acres, thus creating the Park. In 2009, both Bob McKee and Stephen Dazey (who was on the Park Board) entered into a lot line adjustment with the Park Board, to split off 80 acres to Bob McKee and 80 acres to Stephen Dazey, of which neither paid a dime for, including the LLA or escrow.
So maybe, before you start rewriting history about the Community Park, maybe get your facts straight. Its all documented. Its time Dazey paid back what he took and then some…
Yes, Stephen did not found the park, he co-founded it.
Oh Ed, always to be counted on for an attack on the park. Let’s hear it from the people who were actually there, or are on the board now. Peter Ryce, Tim Metz, Carol Van Sant, Carolyn Bourasso, Meaghan Anderson, Bob’s kids, to name a few.
I refute your statement that SHWIT gave Bob $650K. SHWIT, as in Paul Encimer and co? I never heard of that kind of fundraising going on.
All I know is the funding from Bob and Steve and multitudes of us people who actually live here created this incredible gem of a community park.
Sorry Ed, I know you don’t live here, but have decried the park since its inception. I’ve never understood why.
If that’s all you know, you don’t know jack. Check with Doug Ingold or Barb Truitt for starters. Or you can read this (see link below), it would give you a better idea of what happened from the horses mouth. In the early 2000, SHWT consisted of Doug Ingold, Dian Pecora and Lanie Lewis, not “Paul Encimer and co”. Dazey did not want people to know their little dark secrets. You have no clue do you. Maybe look at the SHWT tax returns from 2000, 2001 and 2002, see how they transferred ownership of the Park property over to the SHCP in 2004, with enough debt to choke an elephant. By the way, I’m from Garberville/Redway , lived there from 1961-1979, had the family home their till I sold it in 2015. And you are right, you will never understand why, only the Park Board, Dazey, McKee, Metz, Rice, Lobato, Huber(s) and Eric V. Kirk know why, ask them. Bottom line, the Park scam was a land grab, plain and simple. Merry Christmas….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lLzIsyxXrlhLbKYHoWD3WevzrKZl2ckz/view?usp=sharing
Ed has been trying to shut down Randall’s Sand and Gravel since at least the 90s. He thought he could somehow get to Randall’s through the park. It was about the fact that the “county quarry” which is across Sprowel Creek from Randall was part of the Tooby/Park deal. His beef goes back long before the Community Park was formed. His attacks are supposed to be about the environment but its really a personal grudge.
Mary Xmas Dave, as far as alternative facts go, you are the man, but at least you use your name, which I appreciate. Thanks for putting me on the couch Dave…
Did you mean Merry Christmas? Its ironic that two of the main critics of the local healthcare and community improvements live in Lake county. And as for “Brainwashed” how many names is this for you?
Ed is right…
The corruption a reflection of the state of the country via a snapshot of the elite of SoHum.
Nice try Dave, NO I am not “Brainwashed”!!! Ask Kim…
You can move from one place to another, Dave…
Lake County and Humboldt County might as well be two neighborhoods of the same town…
Garberville is dying because it is unable to change. The hospital only exists because the Federal Government won’t let it die.
The earthquake codes have already been pushed back, and they will be adjusted until your hospital is either replaced or closed.
Nobody should think that the corruption existing within SHCHD is the only example… There’s a tiny hospital in Cedarville CA that should be the model for a PhD program in community apathy and totally corrupt management… They are actually still in business after the whole shooting match was to be sold to a con-man…
The current administrator there, “borrowed” $30,000 from the general fund, and, he also bought a used CAT-Scan from somewhere for $200,000, a machine that doesn’t work and for which they have no suitable place to set it up… The administrator there is a serious alcoholic, and their HR Director was arrested down in Santa Barbara County for Possession of sales-quantities of Methamphetamine, and Marijuana Cultivation…
In Garberville, you can move the hospital, but if you don’t change the cast of characters in charge, you shouldn’t expect long-term improvements. A hospital is not a building, it is the people who work there… Hopefully SHCHD will eventually get this…
OH, and, your own administrator doesn’t even live in Garberville, and, he actually hired his own daughter to work there… And, Dave, the Medical Director at SHCHD, lives in: Lake County!
It amazes me Dave, that you have the temerity to criticize others, when it’s YOUR town that is curling up and dying…
Lake County has its own problems, but, it’s about the last place in California with some affordable real estate, and, when I need medical care, I travel to Santa Rosa, Woodland, or Yuba City, and for serious stuff, I would be showing up at UCSF.
SHCHD is a study in corrupt and incompetent, frosted with greed and locally flavored with nepotism and stubbornness..
Garberville was probably a good place to live, 50 years ago, but now it is just a bad habit, one which I found easily kicked…
I only came there by accident, one day in 2012… I wish I had stayed on the 101 headed South, but I did learn plenty, and I loved living in Lower Redway for 5 years…
Without people traveling to work at SHCHD, it would be in sad shape indeed, but SHCHD has a tendency to hire for the short-term anyway, and you should expect people to move on…
You don’t have to be rude. I’ll stop trying to communicate rationally with you as over the years I’ve witnessed first hand the vitriole you spew for the park and our community as a whole. What I see is dedicated, hard working, committed community members who’ve gone to enormous lengths to create and maintain the community park.
Here’s the thing, I can back up everything I post, can you? And its not being “rude” its the truth. This whole Park scam was not to “create and maintain the community Park”, that was the deception, and it worked hook, line and sinker. Dazey and McKee only wanted the best part of the Park for themselves and have public donations pay for everything and it worked out better than they ever thought. I’m just keeping the record straight, unlike you, living in denial. And as the photo shows, you have 2 present and 1 past Park Board members involved with the JPH Foundation, moving from one dodge to another! Happy Holidays…
“By the way, I’m from Garberville/Redway, lived in here from 1961-1979…”
Still unpacking, Ed?
At $200 to $400 per lb, who can afford to donate? Oh yeah Stephen Dazey. Where everyone spent their money this summer. He should donate!!!!?
He sold Dazey’s to his employees.
You The Man Steve…
$200,000 isn’t quite $1,000,000.
Matt Rees lives in Fortuna.
SHCHD is actually operated by Kent Scown, who benefits in many ways.
The nepotism/corruption/conflict of interests at SHCHD is real, but the apathy in SoHum is manifest and marked.
Dazey donated, I donated, but, the thing may still never be built.
Thanks to Ed Voice for trying to keep the record straight.
Those of us who moved to SoHum and tried to help and then were shown the door for our trouble, we salute you, but until people like Scown and Stromstad and Rees are removed, nothing will change in GBV…
Get your vaccines, because nothing has been built yet, and you don’t want to be housed in the tent!
Matt Rees is just another empty suit, promoting himself while driving out of town every night, just as Harry Jasper drew his fat salary and screwed everyone over for 7 years…
SHCHD is a prime example of Northern California District Hospital corruption, greed, real estate shuffling and deception… They say one thing, do another, and churn staff and board members while the community yawns, rolls a doobie, and ignores the whole thing…
It’s great, for a few beneficiaries, but the damage done to the folks who use the place and the folks who just wanted a place to work, is huge…
Bad will is not good for business, but the US Government and Medicare, Medicaid and marijuana cash seem to keep them afloat, just like Eastern Plumas Hospital, Modoc Medical Center, Surprise Valley Hospital and many others… Mendo Coast was finally turned over to Adventist Health, Watsonville Community is going under and may close, so nobody should take their local little hospital for granted…
Get involved, give some money, insist that the crooks be kicked out, force Corrine to retire, get some men on the board, and, get this place under control, because those payments to the USDA may very well end the SHCHD forever… And Matt and Kent are intent on burying your hospital in debt, while taking as much money out, as they can get their hands on…
So it seems pretty decisive in here. What’s the Dazey’s do to chap your hide?
Big Thanks to Steve Dazey for both the hospital contribution and ongoing Community Park vision!
Some prattle, some do.
Ed will never stop not being an obstructionist bully. Does nothing for this community.
Steve puts his money where his mouth is. Simple.
Ed is pointing out that endless ‘development’ is not possible with a finite water source…sorry he has good points about the corruption of it all.
Hooray for the Negative Nancys, they serve well as an example of the dregs of humanity, and they make the rest of the folks feel better about themselves.
As for the “tax deduction” angle, I’ve found that a tax deduction is the most expensive thing that can be bought. I wouldn’t care if the Mafia made a donation, we need a modern new hospital in our community. A hospital is one of the foundations of a basic infrastructure.
As someone who has used the hospital since Dr. Lowen days, you might guess that I have seen some changes. Without belaboring the negative, and I have seen some heartbreaking negatives, I will say that the most positive changes in years has been under the current administration.
Matt Rees has made a dramatic improvement in the direction of the healthcare in SoHum. Plus, anybody that likes horses has to be a good guy.
And… Thank you Steve Dazey!
Ernie Branscomb
What Ernie said!
Amen
Ernie, is this new hospital worth not having water in Garberville? The plans for the new hospital call for using more than 5 million gallons of water per year. Putting a very large burden on GSD and the South Fork Eel River. Given the historic low river flows and drought in 2021 and that GSD only has 3 million gallons a year in reserve out of its 80 million gallon a year water budget, do the math, that does not leave much water for future development, cannabis cultivation or fire prevention. And that does not count the continued water usage from the old hospital after its repurposed. No one ever looks at the long term cumulative effects, which effects everyone…
Here are the water usage spec’s for the new JPH:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VpEpYFaPoICMXeC8SgqBJCPIMp_v-OUZ/view?usp=sharing
5M gal per year = about 13.7k per day. That’s 9.5 gal/min every min 24/7/365. Does that even seem logical to you for 15 hospital beds? And there’s no need for irrigation – it’s simply wasted water used to make things look beautiful. There are other ways to landscape that don’t require water.
Ed, I know you, you are a very intelligent nice guy, So why do you persist in leaving out the whole story?
If the Hospital draws 5 million gallons of water from the river/water table, close to 5 million gallons of clean filtered water, through the sewer system, goes back into the river less than 1/4 mile downstream.
Please stop appearing like mainstream media and only telling the side of the story that does the most damage to the opposition. We are not your opposition.
Thanks Ernie, glad you asked. If you read the link I included above, with what JPH sent GSD, it does disclose the amount of waste water the new JPH will generate and GSD does have the capacity at its sewer treatment plant. However, the waste water is treated before it is allowed to percolate back into the South Fork Eel through a series and stages of chlorine treatment and sedimentation ponds. So its not like GSD just kicks raw sewage into the river, at lease not as far as we can see.
Ernie, as far as “opposition” is concerned, in a way, since you are promoting the new JPH, without looking all the pro’s and con’s with respect to water usage, I am just reminding you and others of the scarcity of water in Garberville, especially from May thru October, it needs to be analyzed and looked at through a process and public meeting. Sorry you feel you are the “opposition”, because you are not!
Ed, been to Garberville lately?
As far as where the water will come from, let’s see, starting at Napa Auto parts, think hard about this, Ed.
Kathy Eplings bookstore is unoccupied, Sicilitos is closed, the Vets Hall is closed, the Blue room is closed, the House of Burgess is a bank now,
Cecil’s is closed, Souji house is closed, Tranquility Lane is a clothing store, Bank of America is closed, the Frame shop on Maple is closed, seems like everything between The Hemp Connection and Redwood Properties is closed, the Bon Bistro is closed, GettiUp Coffee is closed, Chuck Studebakers Hamburger restaurant is no longer a restaurant and might be closed,
Hand to Land is no longer a nursery, the Texaco is closed, the Sherwood Forest is closed, downstairs of yours and mine is closed, the old plaza restaurant is a smoke shop now, the Theater is closed, Il Forno just opened after being closed for many years, The trees restaurant and the cellar ar long gone.
26 businesses are gone, or are no longer significant users of water, Ed.
How many gallons a minute is that?
I know it doesn’t affect the South Fork, but you should see the snow pack to the East
Cut us some slack, just a bit.
Times are hard.
God bless you, Ed, and Happy Holidays.
Those would be questions for GSD, only they can tell you why. Go to the next GSD Board meeting on December 21 with that same information and ask them. Only GSD controls the water in Garberville, not me. Thank you for putting together that information and Happy Holidays as well.
It’s not about “why” it’s happening, it’s about “that” it’s happening, and the extra capacity it leaves for serving ‘additional’, or just ‘different’ customers.
You say that the hospital’s water demands won’t leave enough water for “future development”.
But the hospital is “future development”.
What would you find preferable?
What would you find preferable?
To keep as much water in the South Fork Eel River, to support its Wild & Scenic habitat, that’s what’s “preferable” to me…
That’s evasive.
I’ve identified 19 businesses in Garberville that have ceased to exist.
Considering the Sherwood Forest must have been at least 20-25 rooms, all businesses mentioned that have closed should more than offset the additional water usage created by building the hospital.
What kind of, “future development”, if not the hospital, would you prefer?
No “future development”, whatsoever?
Are you advocating for “zero growth”?
Or that we waste away, bit by bit?
Would you like to see Garberville become a, “Ghost Town”, someday soon?
That sounds pretty fatalistic.
With any luck, our hospital stays afloat and is able to relocate, and it will help keep us all from becoming, “ghosts”, for a little while longer.
Or would you object to that?
First off, I am not creating this situation, I’m just pointing it out, I have no control of who uses water in Garberville. These are all good question you should ask GSD.
Here, read this, it maybe able to answer your questions, it shows the GSD water budget from 2020, including future development, the 2021 water budget will not be made public until April 2021.
https://www.garbervillesd.org/files/71e1065bb/2020+Water+Source+Capacity+Analysis_COMPILED.pdf
“That’s evasive.”
No, what’s “evasive” is communicating with a ghost, someone ashamed of using his or her real name in this conversation!
Get stoned and watch Hot Tube Time Machine or Back to the Future, that might answer your question about Future Development you asked above in your earlier post!
Hey Ed, it’s Ed. (AKA Ed) (I’m not a ghost, yet).
And yes, your being evasive.
If you would like to see some sort of, “future development”, in Garberville besides the hospital, name it.
If you would prefer no growth, express that.
Simple.
These are not questions for the GSD, or ones that they can answer. They are for you.
My point is, you suggested that the hospital’s water use would not allow for “future development”.
But the hospital is “future development”.
So the only thing that makes sense is that you would prefer, say, new housing, over the construction of a hospital.
Or maybe you would prefer nothing at all.
So, which is it?
The water will be allocated for, “future development”, just the same, unless you are for zero growth.
Pick your poison.
Stop waffling.
Cheers.
If you have to put a label on me, I’m trying to protect the South Fork Eel River, by keeping as much water in the river that benefits aquic species and other wildlife habitat in the watershed, not human non-beneficial needs. So if you cannot wrap your head around that, Merry Charismas and Happy New Year
Triple “negative” up above that exclaims “Ed will persevere to NOT be an obstructionist bully.”
https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/not_stop_doing_something.html
Excellent! Right in Stevo!
Let’s see, local man creates successful business, fulfills the socialists dream by handing over the business to the employees, uses proceeds from successful business to put back into the community and people still find ways to bad mouth him.
What’s better, directed resources that create local benefits or taxes to the state and fed that get squandered on paper and bombs?
Or… Local man creates con, needs the cover of a tax exempt organization to launder the money and keep the con legitimate. Local man gets SHWT (Doug Ingold) to cover as the 501c3. The local man is appointed to handle all donations (cash), and tells the community to bring all donations to local mans buisness, tells the local community, if they donate $4,000, they can own an acre of the new Park (symbolically), con works, $5000 or more cash donations coming in every day, with paper trail or no public accounting of said cash donations and no SHWT Board meetings are made public. After sale of said Park property, local man carves out his own land of said Park property (APN 222-241-010 & 222-091-009) and thru a Lot Line Adjustment, said Pak land is conveyed (2009) to local man, free and clear, all paid by local man’s communities donations and they lived happier ever after…
Read early news article of local man’s interview, thoughts of new local community Park:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18ghqLKJZUgL-KJ_VJeAd_U98rNJD6GZC/view?usp=sharing
Hi Ed! I’ve always appreciated your concerns for our river. You have been spot on about about wasteful water behavior when others attacked you. I know SoHum enough to recognize the bizarre gaslighting patterns when their sacred cows are scolded lol!
This business about the Community Park? You should put it all together in a short book. I remember much of it and I appreciate your memories of the real estate maneuvering around it. But whenever I see you here on Kym’s blogs I have to jump around to your comments and references and fill in between with my memories….I think it would be great if you could put it all together in one comprehensive narrative- with your references! I’m sympathetic to your viewpoint. You might even be 100% correct. Weird stuff happens around here and people sometimes rally around who they should not- again Lol! And I don’t think anybody is without their dirty laundry- (I’m not a fan of Steve Dazey’s mega-grow enviro-destruction, even if it was “legal”) but Tim Metz? You bring his name up. How did he scam everybody and the environment? I’ve met him a few times and I like and respect him. He’s done some good restoration work. Is he a villain also?! Or did he just fuck up one time (like many of us have)? What part did he play in that Community Park boondoggle?
OK Farce, you asked and here is just a taste about Tim Metz aka Restoration Forestry and his involvement in the purchase, management, operation and overall control of the Parks 501c3 Corporation.
Metz was on the 1st Park Board, nominated by Dazey in 2001. Metz served as Park Board President from 2002-2010 after the Park formed their own 501c3 Corporation. Nothing happened without Metz knowing about it or approving it, nothing. Metz also held private loans against the Park property before and after they formed as a Public Benefit Corpoation in 2002. All with high compounded interest, of which the Park is still paying him. He was paid $63,310.42 directly from the USDA NRCS for an EQIP contract with the Park, of which was never disclosed in Park tax returns, since the Park Board use to brag how they got a USDA grant for restoration work at the Park. Metz knew about all the dirty deeds and dark secrets that took place in the beginning and was as knee deep in the hoopla as Dazey. Metz also signed the Park Board Resolution conveying Park property to Dazey in 2009, of which was never made public, until I got the paperwork thru the County Records office. And you do have to remember, the public was never given allot of information about what was going on at the Park or with the Park Board, other than their 990 tax returns, which were always a day late and a dollar short. They still don’t have Board meetings open to the public. It was also Metz that approved the Park sell 20 acres to Cathy Randall in 2007 for $1 Million, where Randall’s Bulk Soils operation is now. And it still could not pay off all the debt the Park had incurred through private loans and interest, one of them being Metz for $92k with interest. That is just the tip of the iceberg about Metz role in the Park. And don’t get me started on all that restoration work and timber harvesting Metz was involved with at the Park and after they finished the property in the south/west corner, was given to Dazey, including all the timber. Just like the two large redwoods cut down in Tooby Park, with Metz claiming they were a danger to the Tooby Park play ground, over 100 yards away and we never saw where that milled lumber was taken or used. BTW, a book has been in the works for a while now, but the Park Board keeps adding to the story with even more lies, misinformation and deception. To be continued…