Diabetes and Neuropathy Treatment in Venice, FL

In the Grand Palm Community in Venice, Mary Hollenback heard banging on her front screen door at her house on March 28.

"I thought it was somebody else who didn’t live here trying to get into the wrong house," she told FOX 13.

She wasn’t too concerned.

"I got off the couch and came around the door prepared to say you’re in the wrong place," she said.

Off Palatka Drive, she found an unwanted guest. It was a scaly one with a tail.

That’s when two thoughts came to her.

"One is, ‘Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house,’ and number two is, 'Oh my gosh, I have an alligator in my house; how am I going to get rid of him?" she said.

Grabbing her phone, Mary dialed 911.

"By that point, I was shaking so badly, I didn’t know who else to call. I don’t even think I could have looked up a phone number," she said.

The alligator made it from her hallway and appeared to get stuck in her kitchen.

It took a few Sarasota County Sheriff’s Deputies and officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to haul the 7’11 alligator away.

"I have to say those guys were awesome. They were so calm, so cool, so professional. They just acted like alligator in the house … no big deal. Case closed," said Hollenback.

If you’re wondering how the alligator got in, it pushed its way through Hollenback’s door.

"It’s just a magnet, but he was pushing on this and eventually just broke the magnetic connection and came through the door," she said.

It appears the gator didn’t have too far to travel. Hollenback thinks it came from a pond right across the street from her house.

"He had to go through two yards. Cross the street and come into my house, but nobody saw him, and it’s very surprising," she said.

Hollenback isn’t worried about any future visitors after getting the guest of a lifetime.

"Only in Florida are you going to get an alligator in the house," she said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told FOX 13 that the alligator was captured and transferred to an alligator farm.

You've heard of an alligator in the elevator, but how about the alligator in the kitchen?

That's what one Florida resident experienced firsthand recently when a nearly 8-foot alligator barged into her home and got stuck in her kitchen.

It's officially alligator mating season, so the giant reptiles are traveling far and wide, showing up in pools, golf courses and apparently, as dinner guests.

Mary Hollenback of Venice, Florida told USA TODAY that she thought it was a neighbor accidentally coming in her house when the screen door rattled on March 28.

"So I come around the corner expecting to tell somebody they were in the wrong place," she said in an interview. "And, lo and behold, there's an alligator at my front door!"

Mating season:Here's what to do if an alligator is in your yard, pool or neighborhood. No, you can't shoot it

Alligator stuck in kitchen 'very clearly upset'

Hollenback said she was shaking so badly at the intruder, all she could think to do was call 911.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed in a statement shared with USA TODAY that it sent a nuisance alligator trapper to the private residence on March 28.

Hollenback said her wooden floors are slippery and the reptile had trouble moving, but somehow it ended up stuck in the kitchen.

"He was just sort of creeping his way forward...and wound up stuck in my kitchen between the island and the refrigerator," Hollenback said. "He was very clearly upset."

She said she lives in a neighborhood with several ponds, and he might have wandered in from the pond across the street from her house.

The FWC said the gator was 7 feet, 11 inches long, and was transferred to an alligator farm. Video from the rescue shows it took four officials to get the gator into the bed of the truck.

April kicks off alligator mating season

Close encounters like this are going to be more common over the next few months, especially in Florida, home to approximately 1.3 million alligators.

Alligator mating season started in April and will last through June. During this time, male alligators get more aggressive and some kick weaker males out of their turf.

The alligators that get sent packing can travel hundreds of acres of land, making them more likely to turn up in residential pools, golf courses or yards.

Contributing: Lianna Norman, Victoria Brown; USA TODAY Network

VENICE, Fla. — In the quiet beachside city of Venice on Florida’s west coast, a new ‘freedom-based’ healthcare clinic is already making waves.

“I don't understand why people are so judgmental towards us,” said clinic co-owner Tanya Parus.

At the office, medical freedom is not just words on mobile billboard parked outside, it’s a guiding principle inside explained Parus, who opened the ‘We the People Health and Wellness Center’ back in September.

When Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone asked what medical freedom means, Parus responded, “The freedom to make your own healthcare decisions without being pushed or forced to do anything that you don't want to do.”

Parus, a mom of two and former EMT, said she was inspired to open the primary care clinic after what she witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People were not going to see their doctor because they were scared,” she said. “They didn't want to get vaccinated and felt pressured to do things that they didn't want to do.”

Parus, local chapter president of the conservative group Moms for America, is also part of a right-wing movement in Sarasota County that took off during the pandemic amid lockdowns and mask mandates. At one point, she helped hundreds of parents get signed waivers exempting their kids from having to wear masks to school.

“We had over 3000 people in line. It was insane,” she recalled about the anti-mask event.

Today, some of the same doctors and nurses who signed those mask exemption forms work at her clinic, and she said many of the families they helped are among their estimated 400 patients.

Patient motivated or politically driven?

Throughout the clinic, images of the American flag hang alongside pictures depicting freedom, liberty, and the constitution that inspired its name. In the clinic’s main hallway, a banner replicating the Constitution highlights the name of the clinic.

“There’s no political motivation,” Parus insists about the banner. This is not political, okay. To us, this means freedom,” she said.

It’s a crusade, she knows, draws public criticism and, she admits, distrust in mainstream media.

During our recent visit, a photographer suddenly started filming us and wouldn’t stop even after one of the doctors asked everyone to stop rolling.

Clinics touts ivermectin & hydroxychloroquine but says not to all vaccines.

At a time when freedom has become a popular catchphrase for conservative politics in Florida, Parus believes her clinic offers patients an alternative to government-controlled healthcare and what she calls government overreach.

The clinic doesn’t accept insurance. Instead, patients pay a monthly subscription rate that ranges from $50 for kids to $165 for adults over 65.

Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, malaria drugs touted by the right but not approved by the FDA to treat COVID-19, are welcomed and prescribed at the clinic, while medically proven vaccinations of any kind aren’t even an option.

“So, no flu shots,” asked Investigative Reporter LaGrone?

“No, ma'am,” said Parus.

“What about child vaccines,” asked LaGrone.

“We don't do any vaccines,” explained Parus who said patients are given informed consent about the clinic’s policies and practices. [Parus also said they will refer patients to the local health department for vaccines if the patient asks.]

“We’re being silenced and threatened,” said a clinic doctor who was terminated over controversial views.

“I spent my entire career as a promoter of traditional childhood vaccines,” said Dr. Renata Moon, the clinic’s pediatrician. Moon’s controversial views on the COVID-19 vaccine left her questioned, investigated, and even discredited by a previous employer.

“We're being silenced and threatened,” she told us.

Before working at the clinic, Moon was a licensed doctor in Washington State and a professor at Washington State University.

But after publicly questioning the COVID vaccine during a roundtable in DC last year that was hosted by COVID-19 critic U.S. Senator Ron Johnson, Washington State University didn’t renew her contract. In a letter from the college’s interim dean, Moon was called out for contributing to the “possible spread of misinformation.”

Today, Moon remains under investigation by the Washington Medical Commission.

“I would say the world changed. I don't think I changed,” she said about her views which are now critical of all vaccines.

Another clinic doctor has a problem past.

“These drug companies, they don't create cures. They create customers,” said Dr. Michelle Scott, who treats adults at the clinic. Scott said she was recruited after getting fired from an urgent care center for refusing to wear a mask during the pandemic.

“I was ready to leave anyways. I didn’t like the job,” she said about her termination.

Scott is a proud anti-vaxxer whose personal website is riddled with government criticism and unproven or unapproved treatments for COVID-19.

Patient perspective: “I’m not saying that all doctors are bad.”

Patients we spoke with buy into the clinic’s more natural approach, less government approach.

“I won’t ever take a vaccine again,” said the clinic’s oldest patient, Richard, who is 86 years old. “You can’t tell me God wants me to change what he created."

“I’m not saying that all the doctors out there are bad, but I think the insurance companies greatly influence what they have to do,” said Steve Martin Smith,” who joined the clinic with his wife after not going to a doctor for 20 years.

Is the clinic doing anything wrong?

But Dr. Steven Rosenberg, a Florida dermatologist who leads a state panel that determines if a doctor should be disciplined, has concerns.

When asked if the clinic is doing anything wrong, Rosenberg responded, “I guess it depends on how you define wrong,” he said. “By law, what they're doing is legal. Whether it is consistent with the standard of care is another question.”

“There's always somebody who's going to try to take advantage of those individuals who may not be sophisticated enough to really appreciate what is the appropriate treatments,” Rosenberg added.

“You believe that this is a group that's taking advantage of people as opposed to offering them something different,” asked reporter LaGrone.

“Well, they found a little niche for themselves of people who believe in this, and they're taking advantage financially,” said Rosenberg.

When asked what Parus would tell people who see her and her clinic as a group of conservative political activists offering quackery to patients, Parus responded, “I don't know about quackery. Just because you have a difference of opinion doesn't mean that you're not right in your own way. We have our own thing. Come take a visit, take a tour."

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"It's acrid and it becomes almost unbearable. It burns the eyes," one neighbor said.

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VENICE, Fla. — The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is looking into a report of a "pungent gas smell" coming from a concrete plant in Sarasota County.

The neighbors who live in the Toscana Isles subdivision located near Gene Green Road and Knight's Trail say they've been dealing with a lot more than the odor from several plants next door.

A sound barrier wall was built as a buffer between the neighborhood and a major industrial zone, but concerned neighbors say it's not doing much when it comes to keeping out noise, air, and light pollution from concrete and asphalt plants on the other side.

"There's three major factories here, from cement plants to asphalt plants and then there's also a third plant which is a rock crusher," Venice resident Vance Delong said.

Several neighbors said all of that, plus the several trucks that go up and down Gene Green Road, make their home environment a very noisy and uncomfortable place.

"In the morning when they start up, they use heat in whatever process they're doing and it creates a smell and odor," neighbor John Herlihy said.

Herlihy said he lives several streets from the buffer wall and doesn't get heavily impacted except when the weather plays a role.

"We can see the smoke from the plant in the morning and if the wind is in our direction we will get the odor," he said.

"Especially with the asphalt, it's acrid and it becomes almost unbearable. It burns the eyes and nose and you have to go inside or I oftentimes just leave," Delong said.

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The neighbors said they were also plagued with dust blown from the plant sites.

"I have issues with my solar system. I have to have it sprayed off quite frequently because the dust builds up. I have issues with my pool filter. It's pretty much black. I clean it monthly without even being used, it's just quite dirty," Delong said.

At least one neighbor frustrated by the situation has reported the matter to the State's Department of Environmental Protection for action.

"Concrete plant is running late into the night and producing a ton of pungent gas smell in the surrounding residential areas," the notice read.

10 Tampa Bay reached out to the various plants to find out what they knew about the complaint.

According to managers on some of the sites, they had not yet been notified of any complaint by the DEP or the county. They also added that they are up to code on emissions and follow the applicable ordinances for their operations.

The plants have been around since 1995 when the area was just swampland before the boom of housing developments.

"These people knew about it when they moved in. They signed a disclaimer that said they knew what was on the other side of that fence," Herlihy said.

"They notified us that there was the facility. They didn't tell us what the facility was. They didn't tell us about the smell. It was not made clear how much of an impact it would have," Delong said.

The residents are hoping the DEP can intervene to keep the pollution at a minimum or the area can be rezoned

"It's not nice to be around asphalt plants and cement plants. Eventually, civilization and urbanization are going to encroach on them and they'll have to move somewhere else," Herlihy added.

As part of its investigation, the DEP will be looking into the direct source of the smell that was reported last night as well as other complaints from the residents.

A Sarasota County spokesperson said they are yet to receive a notification of the complaint but representatives plan to reach out to the concerned citizen directly and conduct their own investigation.

Located off Jacaranda Road, the 216 units of this still-unnamed project are breaking ground now and slated for long-term renting.

South Sarasota keeps growing with new residents and new developments to match.

The Charleston, South Carolina-based multifamily developer and investment group, Middle Street Partners is breaking ground on a new complex in Venice. It’s the developer’s first project in Florida.

The yet-to-be-named 216-unit complex at 1000 Jacaranda Blvd. will be comprised of five four-story buildings, each with an elevator, and will have one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Square footage will range from 707 square feet to 1,250 square feet and prices will start at roughly $1,900 a month—or market rate, says Matt Sand, development director of Middle Street Partners.

The first delivery of units is slated for mid-year, 2025 with total completion in roughly two years.

The complex will include a 7,000-square-foot amenity center, pool and pickleball courts. There will also be more than 10 undisturbed acres set aside for nature walking paths along the existing pine flatwoods and mature forest, pond and wetland areas. No buildings need to be demolished to make space for the new development, as the land has been untouched for decades.

But that’s quickly changing. This new development is part of the South County growth that started taking root since 2020, when Middle Street Partners began seeking land in the area to develop.

The firm bought the 21-acre site east of Jacaranda Boulevard just south of East Venice Avenue for $8.64 million in February last year.

“Post-Covid saw tremendous migration to southwest Florida, and here in particular,” says Sand. “There’s a good job base with healthcare and hospitality and proximity to downtown Wellen Park and Venice.”

Middle Street Partners is active in other parts of the state and country, too, although other local projects aren’t yet in the works. But, says Sands, “we’re actively looking in the area.”

Indeed, multiple reports have placed nearby North Port as a top national relocation destination and nearby Wellen Park as a top 10 best-selling master-planned community in the country for several years in a row. Venice was also named a “Best Coastal Small Town” by USA Today.

More adjacent developments are also in the works, like Brighton, a single-family home community just to to the south of this one by Park Square Homes, which will cost an estimated $68.4 million to build.

“We’ve viewed the area as one of the top multi-family performers in the country when you look at rent, population and job growth,” Sands says. “By the time we deliver, there will still be a demand.”