Home Care In Shalimar, FL

SHALIMAR — Mark Franks, mayor of the town of Shalimar in Okaloosa County, is now serving as president of the Northwest Florida League of Cities, comprising representatives of cities across the Florida Panhandle from Pensacola to Monticello.

Franks moved into the role after being elected first vice president of the organization last year.

The nonprofit league works to assist municipal governments across the region by representing their interests in the state Legislature, as well as to the governor and state Cabinet members, state agencies and the Florida League of Cities, the statewide voice of Florida's municipal governments.

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The NWFLC also works to facilitate communication among municipalities, their communities, and their elected leadership; to foster cooperative partnerships with state agencies and the private sector in meeting common needs, to provide training and technical assistance to Northwest Florida municipalities and to promote effective municipal government throughout the region.

"It's an honor to serve as president of the Northwest Florida League of Cities," Franks said Friday, pledging that the organization "will move forward strong as we encourage local voices to make local choices."

"Over half of Floridians live in municipalities," Franks continued, "and our goal is to get people engaged in the decision-making on policies that affect each municipality."

The organization is committed to the concept of "home rule," Franks said, which is the concentration of governmental decision-making at the local level.

"We embrace it because we need the flexibility to craft our laws specifically to our unique needs," the mayor explained.

During his year at the helm of the Northwest Florida League of Cities, Franks said, the organization will be focusing on a range of issues including infrastructure, affordable housing and workforce housing, stormwater management issues and economic development, with the aim of attracting new business and high-paying jobs to the region.

SHALIMAR - To enhance tourism and recreational activities within the county, the Okaloosa County Commission has entered an agreement with the town of Shalimar to purchase a vacant 0.77-acre parcel off Eglin Parkway near the Shalimar Bridge with the hope of converting it to a new waterfront park.

Here's what we know.

What caused the agreement?

According to Deputy County Administrator Craig Coffey, it's no secret that the area around the bridge has seen some issues with vagrancy in the past.

Locals who use the bridge are unhappy seeing trash and unclean conditions.

“I’m very excited about this because this has been such an eyesore as we come over the bridge,” Commissioner Carolyn Ketchel said. “I think we finally have a win for the Town of Shalimar and for the citizens of Okaloosa County where we don’t have to have trash everywhere and the homeless on this particular piece of property.”

What's Coming?

As with most of southern Okaloosa County, water-related activities are the top draw for tourists and residents alike. As the area's popularity has grown, so has the demand for accessible waterfront locations. The new park could bring the following to the site:

How will this be funded?

The parcel has been valued at $900,000, well below a recent appraisal of $3 million. The preliminary budget for the project is $3 million.

The Town of Shalimar will carry 16.66% of the cost, while the county will be responsible for 83.33% remaining. Funding from Shalimar will come from the allocated tourism dollars that were given out in the Tourism Interlocal Agreement.

“Between the Town’s current balance of TDT collections and future TDD allocations, the Town has agreed to contribute up to $500,000 or 16.6% towards the project, which is approximately 10 years of the Town’s allocated TDD revenue,” Coffey said.

"It's a win-win," Shalimar Mayor Mark Franks said. "It's a long time coming. It's a beautiful spot; we're excited about what the park it is about to become. We are going to get Shalimar to where it needs to be, step by step."

What's next?

The county hopes to close on the purchase by late October or early November. There is no timeframe yet for when the project will be completed.

SHALIMAR — A message board created by past clients was one of the first things to go up on the walls of The Healing Impact’s new facility.

The board contains several letters of thanks, with one featuring a child’s handprints and the message “I feel safe.” Another created by a teen survivor of sexual trauma reads, “I don’t feel scared anymore.”

The nonprofit organization provides trauma-informed therapy to a wide range of trauma survivors, including foster children, veterans, domestic violence survivors, first responders, and more.

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Kaitlyn Abadia, LCSW, and Heidi Anderson, PsyD, founded The Healing Impact in 2019 to help address widespread needs in the community and lengthy waitlists at other mental health facilities. Anderson and Abadia experienced many of those needs firsthand.

Anderson’s husband is an active duty service member, and she worked as a victim advocate for several local nonprofits before starting her own with Abadia, who is a veteran and a former caseworker with the FamiliesFirst Network.

“We just realized that this community has widespread needs that aren’t currently covered. We’re very passionate about that from people we care about and what we’ve seen,” Anderson said. “We’ve noticed that there’s not many services that are able to wrap around all of it. I don’t know that any one person can, but we’re definitely here to give it a different approach.”

The organization has quickly grown with locations in Destin, Crestview, Fort Walton Beach, Niceville, Pensacola, and now Shalimar. The new facility at 4 Ninth Ave. Suite F officially opened its doors with a ribbon-cutting Aug. 19.

The building contains several therapy offices as well as a group room for children and a group room for adults. The children’s group room features a sand tray and several toys used in play therapy. A giant stuffed giraffe is often one of the children’s favorite toys.

“The giraffe is a pretty big friend around here,” said Anderson, who added that hundreds of children who have experienced some form of trauma have been wait-listed at other organizations in the area.

The Healing Impact already has taken 108 clients at its Shalimar location. Anderson said most of their referrals come from the Shalimar area. The location also puts them closer to Eglin Air Force Base and is only a few blocks away from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies.

“We’re hoping to just be more convenient of a presence over here,” Anderson said. “It was also somewhat more strategic, just based on the needs. We’ve noticed that a lot of our referrals come from around here, so we were trying to kind of meet that need.”

Clients are often referred by the FamiliesFirst Network or other community resources. Adults either reach out to the organization themselves or are referred by substance abuse programs, churches, probation officers or other mental health centers.

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Children also are commonly referred by concerned parents, teachers or pediatricians. Anderson said many of their recent referrals have been for children who have experienced sexual or physical abuse.

“Everybody that comes in here has had a specific form of trauma,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of it around here. We’ve got so many foster kiddos in this (judicial) circuit and then we’ve got so many military. With our local law enforcement and first responders, a lot of the care that they receive is either through an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) or they’re not receiving it.”

'Flourishing whereas they were just surviving': Treating trauma

Anderson said there is no “one size fits all” treatment for trauma. A person’s treatment needs to be catered to their own experience. Some people come in with acute trauma such as aftershock from a hurricane, while others have chronic long-term trauma that might have been carried over from childhood.

“We’ve had some chronic long-term trauma — people that had abuse as a child that then entered into a relationship with abuse or human trafficking,” Anderson said. “It has been going on for so long that it’s just a totally different environment of care that they need.”

The Healing Impact offers a variety of trauma-focused clinical therapies, which include things like play therapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The organization also does a variety of developmental and cognitive assessments, and hosts support groups for families, first responders, and teens every month.

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The Healing Impact accepts most insurance providers, but Anderson said grants also allow them to offer services at no cost to those who need them “because insurance doesn’t always pay for some of the trauma that these people have experienced.”

The nonprofit has seen more than 300 clients since it opened in 2019, and Anderson said the addition of several therapists and licensed providers has allowed it to continue to expand.

Having more locations and a larger staff helps the organization maintain relationships with foster children. Anderson said foster kids in the area will move an average of 13 times, and each placement creates another broken attachment.

“Neuroscience tells us that you only get so many broken experiences of attachment before you either end up with a personality disorder or some other maladaptive behavioral response like depression, anxiety, or anger,” Anderson said. “We’ve found that they need ongoing care throughout foster care, so we try to follow them.”

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During the past few years, Anderson said they’ve seen fewer foster children removed from homes and several success stories. One of her favorite notes on the message board is a letter from a previous client’s husband who said “Thanks for giving me my wife back.”

“They kind of dissociate. They kind of shut it down. They kind of lose who they are along the way,” Anderson said of trauma survivors. “We’ve had a few really rewarding experiences where somebody has kind of come back and said ‘Thank you' for reconnecting them. They’re flourishing whereas they were just surviving.’"

That type of feedback is what she said helps them continue on with their mission. Anderson said The Healing Impact plans to continue to accept clients and is excited to start offering services to more people in Shalimar.

To find out more, visit https://thehealingimpact.org/. People can reach out or make a referral by clicking on the “Contact Us” tab and filling out a short response form.

“If you reach out to us, we pride ourselves on getting back to you within 24 hours with the information needed to continue services,” Anderson said.

TM Real Estate Group obtained a $53.85 million construction loan for the second phase of the Shalimar Midtown apartments in Plantation, which are being developed on the former American Express site.

Truist Bank provided the mortgage to Shalimar Midtown Plantation East Owner LLC, led by Matthew Pellar, CEO of Miami-based TM Real Estate Group. It covers the 2.5-acre site at 8361 N.W. Seventh Place, formerly known as 777 American Express Way.

The project will have 240 apartments and 11,000 square feet of retail. Fort Lauderdale-based Stiles is the general contractor.

Amenities will include a pool, a fitness center, and a business center.

The first phase of Shalimar Midtown broke ground in September 2021 and will also have 240 apartments, plus 10,000 square feet of retail. That was funded by a $44 million construction loan.

The fact that the loan is 22% larger for a project that’s essentially the same size is a reflection of how much construction costs have soared over the past year. Yet, many developers continue building because rents in Broward County have also climbed.

The developer acquired the property for $33.5 million in 2014 and later tore down the former American Express office building there. Atlanta-based PulteGroup (NYSE: PHM) is also building townhouses on a portion of the site.

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The Air Force Enlisted Village in Okaloosa County is expanding. The latest addition to the military retirement community is Bob Hope Village 5. Residents will start moving in mid-August.

The Air Force Enlisted Village is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization in Shalimar right outside Eglin Air Force Base. It’s comprised of Theresa Village and Bob Hope Village, two independent living communities for widows of retired airmen, retired military couples, and mothers of active duty service members. In addition, an assisted living facility, Hawthorn House, is located on the property.

“It’s hard to put it into words and the only way I can express it is home is where the heart is, and this is home.”

That’s Alice Coffman; after her husband passed away she moved into the Village and has lived there since 2000. Coffman says the quality of life and freedom the community provides is wonderful for seniors such as her, “We can come and go as we please. But, they have a bus that takes us to the commissary that takes us to the BX. There’s a lady that drives the bus that brings our groceries into the house. I could just go on and on and on.”

The main philosophy of the AFEV is called the “Mom Rule.” All staff members are asked to keep three questions in mind while interacting with the residents. “Would I do this to my Mom?” “Would I do this for my Mom?” And, “Would my Mom approve?” therefore creating a culture where residents are treated fairly and with dignity.

The new addition has been in the making for 16 months. It adds four three-story buildings with 96 new apartments to the campus at a cost of $17 million.

To help with the cost, the AFEV’s original complex Theresa Village in FWB was sold for $4 million. And, in keeping with Florida’s goal of being the most military-friendly state in the country, state Senator Don Gaetz of Niceville says the Florida Defense Taskforce provided $135,000 toward construction of the new facility, “Northwest Florida is the greatest concentration of retired military of anywhere in the country. And the fact that people here are willing to make a commitment to care for the widows of service men, and the widowers of service woman and to create the services and resources necessary to do that makes our area special.”

Gaetz spoke at a recent ribbon-cutting for the new addition. Also on hand for the unveiling was Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force James Cody, “It’s a significant milestone. But, it’s a commitment; it’s a commitment that started way back when that carries forward today. It’s a commitment that’s in line with our Air Force. It’s a commitment to excellence.”

For Chief Cody, the occasion was bittersweet, as he recalled that the blood, sweat and tears was put into the project by former Chief Master Sgt of the Air Force Jim Binnicker, who was the CEO of the village when he passed away in March.

Echoing those sentiments is June Burkhart, a longtime resident of Bob Hope Village. She says she’s happy to see his vision come true, “This is a reality of a dream that he made happen. Chief Binnicker, the ninth Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force is Bubba to me. He always has been. That’s the way he treated all of us, like we were family. I look at it and I say, Bubba you did good.”

Looking on with a sense of pride is CMSgt Brooke McLean. McLean is retired from the USAF and is now the President and CEO of the AFEV. He says that this is not the final step in the process and there is more work to do in the future, “We have more widows who need our assistance. We’re coming together and this property fulfills the dreams of many of our predecessors. I know our dear friend Jim is looking down on us and he’s smiling. His vision is becoming reality. Chief Binnicker is remembered daily and always present in our hearts.”

The new addition provides residents with an improved level of comfort and safety with modern amenities such as a clubhouse, elevators, energy efficient living, and in-unit laundry facilities.

Dan and Claudia Stevens currently reside at Theresa Village and are moving into the new addition in late September. The Stevens are looking forward to some of the new features and to what the future holds for them while living at The Village, “Washer and dryer, and the extra half bath that’s the plus. And, the other thing is that we will be able to go from here, taking care of ourselves, and then if necessary we’re right here at the assisted living, it’s just right up the street here.”

With the new addition of Bob Hope Village 5, all residents will now be housed on one campus, with Hawthorn House, the assisted living facility right across the street. The residents will move-in in phases beginning in mid-August and continuing through October once construction is completed on the last three buildings of the complex.