10 stories that shaped Ocala in 2022 (Part 2)

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Posted December 30, 2022 | By Ocala Gazette Staff
(Stories are in no specific order)

6. March tornado caused $15 million-plus in damages

A line of strong thunderstorms produced an EF-1 tornado that barreled through parts of southwest Ocala and Marion County in the early morning of March 12 causing more than $15 million in damages to buildings, car dealerships and homes in the Country Oaks, Saddleworth Green and El Dorado neighborhoods. 

No injuries were reported.

The Paddock Park Animal Care Center on Southwest 42 Street and the nearby Sullivan GMC and Cadillac dealerships had visible roof damage, with dozens of residents reporting power outages and damage to their homes and vehicles, along with uprooted trees, downed fences and other property.

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Jacksonville confirmed the tornado March 13 and said it started at 7:45 a.m. and traveled more than 25 miles from Dunnellon through Southwest Ocala before dissipating off Baseline Road. The tornado had a maximum sustained wind speed of 110 miles per hour and a 65-yard-wide path of destruction. 

In the storm’s aftermath, many Marion County residents wondered why they did not receive an AlertMarion text warning of the impending tornado. Although the National Weather Service issued a tornado watch at 3:30 a.m., no tornado warnings were issued as the storm approached the area because the radar at the Jacksonville NWS office was offline as part of a scheduled maintenance. Had it been online, however, the radar likely would not have picked up the tornado because of its relatively small width, officials said.

 7. Elections: Some things changed, and others stayed the same

After the partisan bickering over redistricting lines, local Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox oversaw a general election with significant changes to state level representatives but no changes to county commission district lines.

Longtime incumbent Marion County Commissioners, Carl Zalak III and Kathy Bryant won fourth terms as county commissioners. Both have served since 2010.

While Bryant ran without opposition in the primary, Zalak’s primary race drew criticism as he leaned heavily into the advantage he held as chair of the board during the election. This included giving a State of the County address prepared by county staff at both county planned events and political election forums and appearing in videos alongside the Marion County Sheriff, Billy Woods to imply endorsement.

Zalak raised over $157,000 for his campaign, a substantial portion of which came from local  developers, including developers of controversial projects he voted to approve such as the WEC Jockey Club while campaigning.

Zalak won the Aug. 23 primary, defeating challengers Rachel Sams and Keith R. Poole by only 1,371 votes, but then went on to easily defeat two write-in candidates, Brian Donnelly and Seth Posner, with 90% of the vote during the Nov. 8 General Election.

The Marion County Fire Union endorsed Sams, a former Ocala police officer, over Zalak-asserting Zalak was never a big supporter of first responders.

8. Community helps elderly widow

An elderly widow and lifelong resident of Ocala will soon have a new home built on land she has lived on for decades, thanks to the community and the Marion County Board of County Commissioners.

Allean Cunningham, 97, has resided in the modest home on Southeast 31st Street her late husband, Lester, built for them since 1963 but has struggled with its upkeep since his passing in 1992. 

The home has become so dilapidated in recent years that it was officially deemed beyond repair and unsafe to live in several months ago.

Soon, though, Cunningham will have a new home to put her heart into, thanks to a unanimous vote in November by the commissioners, who approved the legally blind resident for a new county housing program under the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) program.

Cunningham–a mother of 11, grandmother of 18, great-grandmother of 26 and great-great-grandmother of 12–thanked the county and the community for everything after the vote. 

The county commission vote means Cunningham will receive a SHIP loan up to a maximum of $150,000 to build a 1,350-square-foot home on the same lot her current home sits on. Cunningham will be required to pay $364 each month, representing 30% of her monthly income. Upon ownership transfer, the mortgage will be due to the county.

Walter Cunningham, the fifth of Allean and Lester’s children, and his wife, Audrey, along with other family members raised $40,000 through a GoFundMe campaign this year and will use the money for construction costs.

Marion County Community Services is assisting the family in choosing a construction company to build the home, and groundbreaking should happen early in the new year. Cunningham will be allowed to stay in her current home while the new one is being built. When it is finished, her old home will be demolished.

9. Historic downtown building will be restored to former glory

Lifelong residents of Marion County, history buffs and Ocala business leaders were elated following the March announcement that a historic downtown building would be restored to its former glory as The Marion Hotel. 

Local philanthropists and real estate developers David and Lisa Midgett hope to soon start construction on the exterior of the seven-story, 95-year-old landmark Marion Sovereign building at 108 N. Magnolia Ave., eventually turning it back into its original life as a hotel in the coming years.

The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. In recent years, it has been turned into office condominiums. 

The new boutique Marion Hotel will feature 48 rooms with painting by local artists, fine dining, a coffee shop/cocktail bar, a high-end boutique, rooftop deck and a second-story club lounge overlooking North Magnolia Avenue. 

Constructed in 1927, the 95-foot-tall Marion Sovereign building originally had 100 rooms and was the tallest building in the area until the Hilton Ocala was constructed in 1987. 

The Midgetts expect demolition and construction to begin in March 2023, and the new hotel to open in the fall of 2024. Construction costs are estimated at $1 million for the exterior and roughly $12 million to build the hotel. 

10. School capacity

In the spring of 2022, the discussion of school capacity started to come up in development decisions before the City of Ocala and Marion County Board of County Commissioners. 

Marion County school officials began to notice around this same time that enrollment at some of its county public schools, particularly in southwest Marion, was vastly higher than they had projected making some schools overcrowded.

West Port High School, for example, was at 112% capacity.

One rental development proposed across the street from Saddlewood Elementary, brought families to city council meetings multiple times to express concern about overcrowding and lack of road structure to absorb the car pick up line and hundreds on new residents using the same road. 

Despite the concerns, the Marion County commissioners and Ocala City Council members continued to approve new housing developments, mostly in that popular–and congested–corner of the county while they agree to work on their outdated interlocal agreement with the school district governing how they share development information and resources.

Around the same time, State Sen. Keith Perry, without knowledge of local school crowding but motivated by an instance in another county moved to amend statutes in an effort to protect developers in the instance of school capacity becoming a roadblock to development projects.

This change to legislation allows for developers to offset their development by paying the school district but would require the MCBCC and City of Ocala to implement school concurrency into their comprehensive land use plans, and they don’t want to. 

At a meeting of the key players in this drama in December, there was little interest shown by county, city or business leaders to bring back concurrency. 

To make matters more complicated, the school district experiences funding shortfalls and restrictions on spending that prevent it from meeting the need of increased enrollment.

The school district responded by implementing a study with the intention of supporting building impact fees, but that revenue is a drop in the bucket to the need and plans for redistribution of students.

Meanwhile, the people keep coming. By one estimate, 192 people are moving into Marion each week, and they are more likely to be families than retirees. Countywide, at least 34,000 residential units (single-family and multi-family) already have been approved for development.

The math to meet our need for school capacity, like other infrastructure needs, just doesn’t work. 

The question of how Marion County leaders square this circle will shape not just how the district fares in 2023 but for years to come.

On a brighter note, however, a tuition-free state of the art public charter school, Ina A. Colen Academy, established by The Colen Family Charitable Trust opened in August. The Colen family developed the retirement community of On Top of the World. However, the latest development venture, Calesa Township, is a residential family community being built at Southwest 80th Avenue south of 38th Street.

Click here for Part 1.