“The Velocity of Autumn” at OCT Pg B7 VOLUME 4 ISSUE 45
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NOVEMBER 10 - NOVEMBER 16, 2023
GOOD BONES
Restoring the old Hotel Marion enters its next phase.
Celebrating a century of physician advocacy By Kristine Crane kristine@ocalagazette.com
Left: A wing is shown on the second floor of the historic Hotel Marion that is being restored on North Magnolia Avenue in Ocala on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023. Bottom row (left to right): The lobby is shown in the historic Hotel Marion. The “Welcome To Historic Ocala” sign on East Silver Springs Boulevard is shown through a window. The historic Hotel Marion is shown on North Magnolia Avenue. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2023.
By Jennifer Hunt Murty jennifer@ocalagazette.com
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he restoration of the historic Hotel Marion began in the spring of 2022, and the “Gazette’’ recently popped in to see how the efforts to revive the landmark build are faring. The project to renovate the hotel, built in 1927, is being co-managed by local business
owner David Midgett and HDG Hotels. Midgett, who started the ball rolling on the project, said he first had to buy out tenants and then wait for them to move out. That took some time. Next, Midgett had to get The Florida Trust to sign off on the renovation plans. “This was required because the Trust holds a conservation easement for the entire exterior of the
building,” he explained. Recent demolition inside the building peeled back years of layers, giving the developers and architects a better idea of what was behind the walls. “We found no structural problems after extensive testing, coring and engineering reviews,’’ Midgett said. “We will have to do a significant amount of work on the exterior, primarily restoring and
matching the stucco finish that has delaminated over some posts and beams. Restoring the concrete decorative elements on the exterior will be a lot of work, but the bones of the building are in great shape, and the structure is very strong.” Midgett said the goal is to fully restore the exterior to its original condition. “All of that restoration will See Hotel, page A4
Misunderstanding between United Way and the Community Foundation How the two organizations worked out how to avoid “stepping on each other’s toes.” By Caroline Brauchler caroline@ocalagazette.com
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ithin the mission statements of both the United Way and the Community Foundation, both organizations express the same goal—building a strong community. In separate but influential campaigns, United Way of Marion County’s Annual Giving Campaign raised $1.4 million and the Community Foundation’s Give4Marion campaign raised $771,075 for area nonprofits in 2022. United Way plays an instrumental role in relief in case of disaster or emergency, so when the Community Foundation for Ocala/Marion County set up its own community fund in September, some concerns were raised internally about possible competition between the two organizations. In a letter addressed to Community Foundation Chair Frank Hennessy on Sept. 13, United Way leaders outlined a number of questions they had about the Community Foundation’s unexpected announcement of its community fund.
United Way’s board of directors felt “blindsided” by the announcement, given that their organization’s community fund has been a major player in nonprofit funding, public aid and disaster relief since its founding. “For the past 70 years, since 1961, Bonnie Heath and others have championed the United Way’s community fund. The United Way’s core purpose includes providing local disaster relief and addressing education, financial stability and health issues,” read the letter. The organizations held their annual meeting in November of last year. United Way said the Community Foundation outlined four programs but made no mention of its plans to create its own community fund. Since then, the leaders of both organizations say they have remedied any misunderstandings that arose from the announcement of the new fund. “We have been working together, between the United Way board and the Community Foundation, in terms of how we jointly help build our community and complement each other, and I believe
we’ve made some very good progress in that,” said United Way Chair Jim Henningsen. Hennessey at the Community Foundation said that after receiving the letter from United Way, he wrote back to respond and the groups have since had “meaningful conversations” to continue fostering a mutually beneficial relationship. “They made some assumptions and gave us the opportunity to meet with them to address those assumptions and to make sure that they were clear and understanding what our vision and what our mission was,” Hennessey said. Henningsen said the goal was to make sure “that we’re not stepping on each other’s toes” when it comes to the role and purpose of each organization. The United Way board also said in the letter that it intended to contact the Marion County Sheriff ’s Office and Emergency Management to clarify the organization’s status and ensure that it will continue to serve as the volunteer and donations supervisor in the event of an emergency. See United, page A6
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hen Doug Murphy, M.D., an OB-GYN, moved to Ocala in 1984, he joined the Marion County Medical Society. Like most physicians in town, he was in private practice and membership in the MCMS was a calling card to getting patients. Decades later, the rules of the game have changed: Most physicians are not in private practice but employed by corporate or state-run medical facilities. And social media’s influence has meant that physicians connect to each other—and their patients— online, oftentimes more so than in person. The COVID-19 pandemic amplified social media’s importance— and also, its paradoxically isolating influence. Like many organizations, the MCMS took a full two years off of in-person gatherings. But in 2022, the Society resumed monthly meetings as membership grew—perhaps, as some members say, in reaction to the isolation. This year, the Society celebrates its 100th year—without much public fanfare but with private reflection on what the Society does for physicians and community healthcare. Murphy, who served as president of the Society in 1994 and has been on the executive board ever since, said the goals of the MCMS have fundamentally stayed the same. “It functions as a way for physicians to network, discuss cutting-edge issues and do fun things to build rapport,” he said. The Society is also a conduit for sharing information on legislative issues and nominating its own members to serve as county delegates to the Florida Medical Association, a statewide physicians’ advocacy organization. Murphy, who is president of the FMA, touts some successful policy developments that came about because of the FMA’s advocacy. In the past year, they were able to replace Medicaid with Medicare reimbursement rates for people under the age of 21. “This moves kids to seeing more doctors who can take them at Medicare rates rather than get their care at emergency rates,” Murphy said, adding that Medicaid is generally a prohibitive program because it doesn’t pay enough for physicians to see patients. But even Medicare reimbursement rates have become low when compared to inflation. “More and more physicians are no longer accepting Medicare because they can’t afford it,” Murphy said. “It’s potentially disastrous, so we’re in the process of getting the Legislature to increase reimbursement for physicians.” The FMA also was able to get $35 million for new graduate residency See Medical, page A2
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