The Beach House At Wiregrass — The Residence For Assisted Living & Memory Care!

From shuffleboard to swimming, movies, dining and more, residents at the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch Assisted Living & Memory Care on S.R. 56 can enjoy the ‘attrition of life’ in style.

The bright and spacious halls of Beach House Assisted Living & Memory Care at Wiregrass Ranch are coming to life, with an influx of new residents calling it home since the community opened in April 2018.

Located just two miles east of the Shops at Wiregrass on S.R. 56, the 93,000-sq.-ft. facility offers 100 residential units, ranging from studio-type apartments of 450 sq. ft. to two-bedroom/two-bath units of up to 796 sq. ft. Homes at Beach House can accommodate single residents or couples, living in either the assisted living or memory care areas.

In the eight months since it opened, 59 residents have moved in so far.

Callie Sears, the director of community relations for the Beach House at Wiregrass, says the number of residents who have already chosen to call Beach House home is well above what they had anticipated at this time, and that those residents are already shaping the programs and features that make it such a special place to live.

At the Beach House’s grand opening in 2018, community relations director Callie Sears (left center) and executive director Linda Mena (right center) were joined by regional marketing and sales director Kim Hayes (far left) and regional operations manager Kim Nadwodny.

“We tailor and cater activities and social aspects of the community to the residents who live here,” says Sears. “The innovative, out-of-the-box thinking, and catering to residents’ wants and needs is how we’re able to really make it their community.”

She says this includes bringing the surrounding Wesley Chapel community into Beach House, with volunteers from Wiregrass Ranch High, for example, and other events designed to draw people in.

This month’s “Battle of the Bowls” is a chili cook-off today from 2 p.m.-4 p.m. There will be live raffles, chili, hot dogs, beer and desserts. Sears says everyone is welcome to enter their own chili in the cook-off.

“Our philosophy is to bring the outside community into these walls,” Sears explains. “We want to embrace Wesley Chapel and New Tampa and bring them in to understand what we’re about. Our residents are vibrant and have things to look forward to every day.”

Another way the Beach House brings in local residents and business leaders every month is by hosting Women of Wesley Chapel (WOW) meetings. The group of as many as 100 North Tampa Bay Chamber members and their guests meet at the Beach House on the first Friday of each month at 7:30 a.m.

WOW chair Mollyana Ward says, “They say great minds think a like and both (NTBC CEO) Hope Allen, myself and Linda Mena were all on the same page when it came to hosting WOW at the Beach House. When Linda gave Hope and I a tour, we were in awe. Not only is the facility beautiful and classy, but so accommodating. The staff prepares a light breakfast for the ladies of WOW on the first Friday of every month. We love having a place to call home!”

Meanwhile, Sears says the Beach House community also includes the family members — and even furry friends — of its residents. Pets up to 30 pounds are welcome, and visiting family members often bring pets to the facility’s dog park.

“We have a good rate of family involvement,” Sears says. “We want them to be here and give them 24/7 access to come and go.”

She says mealtimes are often when families gather. 

“We see a family member sitting with three or four residents, or a couple of families sitting together,” Sears says. “Some families are drawn to those residents who don’t see their families as often. They almost have adopted grandparents.”

Residents eat restaurant-style for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with chef-created recipes to accommodate any dietary needs. In fact, a monthly Chef’s Showcase gives residents the opportunity to sample new recipes or submit their own favorite recipes for the chef to try out. Then, the residents get to vote on which items they want added to the menu at the Beach House.

With its location close to shopping and dining, families often embark on multi-generational outings. Residents also choose where to have a weekly “lunch bunch” in one of the area’s many local restaurants.

There’s also plenty to do without leaving the Beach House. There are indoor and outdoor gathering spaces for wellness activities, games such as shuffleboard or pool, movies, arts & crafts, and a salon. 

Happy hours, which used to be once a week, are now three times a week, and include weekly live entertainment. 

“Our happy hours are so popular,” Sears laughs, “we need to order more furniture.”

She also says that the memory care residents have group kitchens where staff members lead activities such as baking cookies, which many residents have enjoyed doing all their lives. 

“It’s a shared activity, where one person measures and one person mixes,” explains Sears. “We can always smell it when they’re baking cookies.”

Like Home, Only Better

Sears says people are attracted to the name Beach House, which is intended to evoke fond memories of years gone by, such as summers on the beach.

“People come in because they like the name, and then they see that Beach House has a calming sense to it,” says Sears. “Some places almost feel sterile, but they did a great job here of creating a sense of warmth and an inviting atmosphere. People feel drawn to it.”

As the first full-service assisted living and memory care facility located in Wesley Chapel, the Beach House offers many different accommodations and services to its residents. 

For assisted living residents, the Beach House staff provides help with a variety of daily activities, such as shopping and medication management. The separate memory care area is available for those who need it, such as for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

The Wesley Chapel location joins two existing Beach House facilities in Jacksonville and Naples, FL. They are all owned by Prevarian Senior Living, LP, which is based in Dallas, TX, and also has similar communities in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona.

Day-to-day operations at the Beach House are managed by employees of Life Care Services, a Los Angeles, CA-based company serving the needs of more than 33,000 senior citizens at facilities throughout the U.S.

To deliver services to residents of a wide range of abilities, the Beach House is licensed as an Extended Congregate Care (ECC) facility. That means a spectrum of care is offered, from limited assistance to total help with many basic needs.

“We have nurses around the clock,” says Sears. “That sets us apart from most places.”

Overseeing all aspects of the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch’s daily operations is executive director Linda Mena, who has more than 25 years of experience working in senior housing. She explains that the range of care helps Beach House residents of all abilities, and as their abilities change over time.

“They truly can age in place in our community and that’s important to residents,” Mena says. “With the attrition of life, their needs become much greater and they don’t want to have to move or make a transition at that frail part of their lives.”

Residents at the Beach House pay privately, as insurance plans and Medicaid are not accepted. However, if families have long-term care insurance, a staff member will assist with providing billing information to the insurance company for reimbursement.

To learn more about upcoming events at the Beach House at Wiregrass Ranch, including the “Strut Your Mutt” doggie fashion show, go to Facebook.com/BeachHouseatWiregrassRanch. To enter your chili or RSVP for the Battle of the Bowls, or, for more information about the Beach House (30070 S.R. 56), visit BeachHouseWiregrass.com, or call (813) 508-6677.

Has Viera Done Enough For Tampa’s District 7? His Challenger Says ‘No’

Quinton F. Robinson says he is not pitting New Tampa against the rest of the City of Tampa’s District 7 in his attempt to unseat current city councilman Luis Viera.

What he says he is saying is this: while Viera has accomplished a lot for New Tampa in his two years on Tampa’s City Council, Dist. 7 needs someone who can do the same for the entire district, and he’s that guy.

“Equity in governance,” Robinson simply says, and it is a prevalent theme on his Facebook page, which uses hashtags like VOTEEquity, BeEmpowered and, naturally, VoteRobinson (on Tampa’s municipal election day — Tuesday, March 5).

Viera is running for his first full term. He has served since 2017, after defeating Jim Davison in a special election to fill the seat of Lisa Montelione, who resigned for a failed attempt to run for the Florida House of Representatives. Viera, with an endorsement from Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, defeated Davison in the run-off by 65 votes.

Quinton Robinson

Robinson, 42, says Viera doesn’t have a plan to fix the problems plaguing much of District 7, and is aggressively fighting to win against what many feel are insurmountable odds. Viera, a Hunter’s Green resident, is popular in New Tampa and elsewhere, and extremely active in the area. 

He helped spearhead a renewed effort by local political activists and community members in a fight to get the city to approve funding for an addition to the New Tampa Recreation Center and another fire station, as well as designs for a sensory park that would be the first of its kind in Tampa. 

Viera has championed more than a dozen local causes, from getting potholes filled to advocating for safer roads, and organized a handful of town halls so residents could engage with city and county leaders.

Robinson — who was born and raised in West Tampa, graduated from Hillsborough High and Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and is the former president of the Hillsborough County Black Caucus — doesn’t dispute any of that. In fact, he says it bolsters his pitch to voters.

“My opponent has made strides for New Tampa, and that’s great for New Tampa,” Robinson says, “but the quality of life could be enhanced throughout North Tampa. Look at his accomplishments. Not one thing has benefited all of North Tampa. My goal is to enhance, educate, empower and elevate all of District 7.”

While Robinson, who has lived with his wife and two children in the University area since 2012, does support line item funding to build a Tampa Police substation in New Tampa, many of his goals are centered around what he feels are the forgotten areas of District 7.

He would like the North Tampa area in and around Sulphur Springs, Busch Blvd. and Fowler Ave. to be designated a Community Redevelopment Area, to reinvigorate the area economically. He favors beautification projects along Nebraska Ave. and Busch Blvd., needed street repairs and the repaving of 30th St. He wants flooding issues in the area addressed.

Robinson also wants a “modernization” of Copeland Park & Community Center, including a kitchen, computer lab, rebuilding of the boardwalk and lighting for the existing trail. 

“I just don’t believe the North Tampa community should have to wait another 20 years,” Robinson says. “Unfortunately, that has been the case. Often when people run in this district, they only focus on the area north of Fowler or west of I-275. We need a councilman that is able to build that bridge to all of District 7, not just those in New Tampa.”

Viera bristles at the accusation he has ignored the rest of District 7 because he is preoccupied with delivering for New Tampa.

“There is an old saying – you are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts,” Viera says. “I have been active in all parts of the district.”

In fact, he may be the most active member of the current City Council.

One of his first tasks was to create the North Tampa Veterans Association, and he has remained involved in a number of veterans activities and created the Warrior Games Promotion Committee to promote attendance at the 2019 Warrior Games coming to Tampa in June.

In Forest Hills, Viera says he helped organize residents to fight to preserve the Babe Zaharias Golf Course from potential redevelopment threats, and also supported funding for the maintenance of the golf course in the City of Tampa budget. He pushed for more street lighting and updated striping and signs in the area. Like he did with creating the New Tampa Council, to better organize the area neighborhoods, he did the same with the Forest Hills Council. And, he says he worked on facilitating more than $1 million for the Forest Hills Community Center, as well as flood mitigation improvements.

Not to mention, he adds, the six town halls he hosted in the area.

Along Busch Blvd. and Fowler Ave., he says he promoted a number of safety improvements in what he calls a “corridor of neglect,” helped organize a Hurricane Prepardedness Task Force to help with post-hurricane relief efforts in North Tampa communities, secured funding in the City of Tampa budget for additional lights at Copeland Park, is working on a formal crosswalk for Chamberlain High students on North Blvd., north of Busch Blvd. and has championed other safety projects and improvements on area roads.

“I have to remind people sometimes that I’ve only been in office for two years,” Viera says.

Wesley Chapel’s Earth Fare opens Wednesday!

For those in Wesley Chapel who are not wowed by new restaurants, fast food chains, big retail outlets or fancy new intersections, this one might just be for you:

Say hello to the area’s first green grocer – Earth Fare.

The popular and quickly-growing organic food franchise will open its doors to Wesley Chapel on Wednesday, February 20, just before 7 a.m., and if the grocer’s previous grand openings are any indication, folks will be lining up long before the sun rises at the new store’s location at 25535 Sierra Center Blvd., across S.R. 56 from Tampa Premium Outlets and behind the Ford’s Garage..

There is a VIP sneak peak on Tuesday. Check out our video coverage HERE or HERE.

Virtually everything new that opens in Wesley Chapel gets Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce, excited. But this, she says, is a different kind of buzz. An all-natural organic buzz, perhaps?

“It’s our first one, the first organic grocery store to land in Wesley Chapel,” Allen says. “There’s been a big demand for it. It’s going to be pretty exciting.”

The Wesley Chapel store will have an Heirloom Café & Juice Bar, where shoppers can buy smoothies and coffee, and lunch and dinner are offered from selections that include a salad bar, hot food bar, pizza station and sandwich counter.

Wesley Chapel does have Publix and Winn Dixie supermarkets offering organic selections, as well as the Nutrition Smart on Bruce B. Downs, which currently offers the area’s widest range of organic foods, vitamins and supplements.

But, Earth Fare is bringing 24,000 sq. ft. worth of the stuff — and roughly 100 jobs — to its new location in the Cypress Creek Town Center on S.R. 56 (at 25535 Sierra Center Blvd., across from the Tampa Premium Outlets).

The Wesley Chapel location will be Earth Fare’s third in the Tampa Bay area, joining stores in Oldsmar and Seminole.

Overall, ours will be the 12th Earth Fare in Florida.

The most recent Florida opening took place in Viera, FL on Jan. 9, and there are more to come, the company says, as it pursues aggressive expansion into Florida.

“We’ve made a concerted effort in recent years to help Tampa-area shoppers have more convenient access to cleaner, healthier foods— the kind of food that will help them live a longer, happier, healthier life,” said Frank Scorpiniti, president/CEO of Earth Fare, in a statement.

Earth Fare holds grand openings in the same way popular new businesses like Chick-Fil-A do, with long lines of early arrivers hoping to grab some free swag. 

Last month, nearly 800 people showed up for the 6:45 a.m. opening of the 11th store in Viera, and the first 500 received a mystery gift card worth as much as $1,000, followed by other giveaways, food samples and contests.

Those who show up at the Wesley Chapel opening can expect more of the same thing.

Each person who signs up with the Wesley Chapel/Lutz store’s Healthy Rewards program will receive a free re-usable bag, while supplies last.

“I think we’ll see a lot of people (at the opening), because eating healthier foods has wide appeal,” Allen says. “I think that will add an extra layer of excitement to this opening.”

Earth Fare touts a selection of items that specifically do not contain things like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial fats, colors, sweeteners, or preservatives, or meats that were bred with antibiotics or growth hormones.  

The chain has a “boot list” — a long list of banned ingredients it does not allow in anything sold in any Earth Fare store.

Frank Scorpiniti

Founded in 1975 and based in Asheville, NC, Earth Fare’s tagline is “healthy food for everyone,” as the green grocer claims to offer “clean” food at prices every shoppers can afford.

The company’s 50th store opened last month in Steel Creek, NC, and Scorpiniti has said there could be as many as 100 locations in a few years.

Like most green grocers, Earth Fare offers some distinct goodies to shoppers. The Wesley Chapel store will have an Heirloom Café & Juice Bar, where shoppers can buy smoothies and coffee, and lunch and dinner are offered from selections that include a salad bar, hot food bar, pizza station and sandwich counter.

Earth Fare also offers a small seating area with free Wi-Fi for those who want to sit and enjoy their purchase. Painted on the wall is: “Have A Seat, Stay Awhile.”

Staying awhile is something you may just end up doing at Earth Fare. The store will carry a substantial selection of craft beers, one of its more popular characteristics, and also offers more than 1,000 private brand food products. There also will be a large offering of Wellness & Beauty products, like self-serve, scoop-your-own body scrubs.

“We are passionate about helping our community make the connection between clean food and living longer, healthier, happier lives,” Scorpiniti said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to become the newest member of the growing Wesley Chapel community and to continue to bring the leanest, healthiest options for years to come.”

Earth Fare will open in Wesley Chapel first, but construction of a Sprouts Farmer’s Market in New Tampa is under way across Bruce B. Downs Blvd. from Hunter’s Green and will be the second large green grocer to hit the area.

After 25 years, still delivering news and entertainment in new ways

So, now that we’re officially part of the Google News Initiative — one of only 23 U.S. companies to receive financial support for their news operations from the world’s largest tech company — a lot of people have been asking me what to expect in terms of our promised new formats and new online programming.

Some of what we’ll be doing with Google’s funding — in addition to making major changes to all of our online content (more on this below) — will be business as usual, there will just be more frequent releases.

We will still have News Desks with yours truly and former Bay News 9 reporter Susanna Martinez. I also will continue to provide Neighborhood Dining News and Entertainment segments. We’ll also have more North Tampa Bay Chamber (NTBC) Featured Business segments with our Featured Business host Mollyana Ward (see top right photo), as well as occasional news updates from the Chamber itself. For example, Mollyana recently interviewed Chamber president & CEO Hope Allen (photo below) and those segments have been getting a lot of views, both on YouTube and on Facebook. 

But, we’re also working on a lot of new stuff, too, like the recently posted fun new segment featuring Jennifer Ames, the administrator of the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page, which has more than 16,000 members. This is our first effort to tap into the power of local online resources outside of our own website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com), “Neighborhood News” Facebook page and our WCNT-tv YouTube channel.

Jennifer’s first segments have just been released and I think you’ll really enjoy them. Her personality is a big part of why the Wesley Chapel Community Facebook page is so popular and it definitely shines through in her first interview with me in front of the camera. Jen’s “Chappie Chatter” segments will be a light-hearted look at what’s been “blowing up” her Facebook page and I’ll be really surprised if Neighborhood News readers and Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television viewers alike don’t love the “Chatter.” 

Our senior video producer Gavin Olsen and I also have released the full video of each of our recent interviews on our WCNT-tv YouTube channel and then cut the videos into individual segments for release on Facebook, Instagram and our current website. 

One thing we really want you to do is subscribe to our YouTube channel and start watching the full-length videos there.  

As for our other programming ideas, we’re keeping them under wraps for now, but you can expect several more announcements about those new video/online segments in these pages very soon.

25 Years, Eh?

Yes, on February 25, 2019, yours truly will celebrate 25 years as the owner, publisher and editor of the Neighborhood News. Milestone or no milestone, I recognize that the state of the print business is changing and (even though “niche” publications like ours are the ones people will still read today), the fact is that if we don’t change some of the ways we do things, we could go the way of not only the dinosaur, but also of daily newspapers and general interest magazines around the country.

 As I touched on in my last page 3 editorial, a big part of the changes to come this year is that all of our videos, “Neighborhood News” Facebook posts and our news magazine’s website will soon fall under one new umbrella — NeighborhoodNewsOnline.net, the “Online Network Serving New Tampa & Wesley Chapel.”

The new website currently only has a basic landing page, but we hope to roll it out in full to coincide with my 25th anniversary at the helm of Neighborhood News next month.

HE JUST WINS

Tennis players Kanishkh Ramesh and Destiny Okungbowa (left) and soccer players Jake Bierhorst and Malcom Lewis (right) flank their coach, Dave Wilson (center).

Tampa Bay is littered with high school coaches who have built sports dynasties, at places like Plant and Armwood for football, Tampa Jesuit for baseball and St. Petersburg Lakewood for basketball.

Rare, however, is the coach who not only builds one dynasty, but simultaneously builds two.

In fact, the only boys soccer and tennis coach Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH) has ever known, Dave Wilson, may be in a class by himself, especially in Pasco County.

Wilson, who also is the school’s athletic director, has guided the boys soccer team to the state playoffs this season and the Bulls haven’t dropped a regular season game to a Pasco County opponent since January of 2013, a streak of 50 games. That run includes five trips to the Regional playoffs, including a State semifinal appearance in 2015. 

Last month, Wilson’s Bulls beat Steinbrenner 2-0 for the 200th win of his career.

Meanwhile, the tennis team, which opened its season Feb. 12 against Cypress Creek, has been even better. The Bulls are currently on a 125-match regular-season winning streak, including 96 straight wins against Pasco County competition since a loss to Land O’Lakes in 2010. That run includes State championships in 2014 and 2015, as well as a runner-up finish in 2017.

Kanishkh Ramesh (and his brother) have been a part of the Bulls long winning streak.

When it comes to playing its local competition, the taste of defeat is an unfamiliar one for Wilson.

“I think about it, but I don’t think our guys think about it all that much,” Wilson says with a chuckle, adding, “except for the fact that I don’t think they want to be the team that has that first loss to a Pasco opponent.”

An Athletic Background

Wilson is a Falls State, NY, native, who grew up as a multi-sport athlete and attended the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Cortland (aka Cortland State) in Cortland, NY, where he was a regional All-American soccer player, played basketball and competed for the track team in the triple jump.

Competition has always been a part of Coach Wilson’s life. But coaching? He says that is, and always has been, where his true passion has burned. 

“I never wanted to do anything other than coaching,” Wilson says. “My brothers both took great jobs and make lots of money, but that was never a draw for me.” 

He adds, with a chuckle: “Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be rich and everything. But, I enjoy every day of my life, coming to practice and going to the games. When you’ve been an athlete all your life, and you still get to wake up in the morning and say, ‘Alright, it’s game day,’  there is nothing better than that.”

Wilson, 54, got his first coaching experience as a senior in college, when he joined the Tompkins Cortland Community College (in Tompkins, NY) basketball staff as an assistant, he moved from there to SUNY Binghamton (in Binghamton, NY) where he was the head women’s basketball and soccer coach for 10 years, before moving to Florida to serve as the head women’s basketball coach at Saint Leo University outside of Dade City beginning in 1999. 

However, after a few years at Saint Leo, with a wife and young children, the travel for games, long hours and recruiting trips started to wear on Wilson. 

He knew he wanted to make a change, so he stepped down from coaching at Saint Leo in 2002 and spent four years as an elementary school physical education teacher. The itch to coach competitively, though, never went away, and when WRH opened in 2006, he jumped at the chance to get back into coaching. 

For someone who sees coaching as a calling, there can be no bigger challenge than launching a program, building a tradition and finding success. Wilson got that chance when he took the job as both the boys soccer and boys tennis coach at the new school.

And success? That has not been a problem for Wilson and his team at WRH. He says that winning never gets old.

In the Bulls’ dramatic 3-2 District 5A-7 semifinal win Jan. 30 against second-seeded Plant, Wilson got caught up in the celebration after Justin Amis scored the winning goal with roughly 30 seconds remaining. 

“I think I hurt my ribs,” he said, laughing. “I’m getting old.”

The next night, the Bulls gave Wilson his first district title since 2015 with a 1-0 overtime win over No. 1-seed Steinbrenner. The Bulls eventually bowed out of the state playoffs this season in the second round.

Off The Field Success, Too

Success for Wilson isn’t just what happens on the field — it comes in the legacy of a program, its growth, its traditions. The biggest point of pride, according to Wilson, is seeing those early players return to give back to their former programs, while his current players buy into the athletic culture they are helping to shape. 

“The continuity of our program and the consistency started with the first group, that group being around for four years, set the bar,”  Wilson says. “They started coming back after they graduated for summer stuff and supported the guys they left behind.”

“That’s so important having those players come back and let the younger guys know what this time here meant to them. Letting them know that the memories they had of high school (athletics) was the most fun they had and that’s trickled down. Every group after them has tried to raise the bar another level.” 

(l.-r.) Devi Ndrita, Jori Ndrita, Malcom Lewis, Maurice Lewis, Camilo Torres and JP Torres pose with the District Championship trophy the Bulls won on Jan. 31. It was the school’s first district title since 2015, a team Devi, Maurice and JP all played on. (Photo courtesy of The Wiregrass Ranch Stampede school newspaper.)

Chris Madden, a member of Wilson’s first soccer team at WRH in 2006 and the current Competition & Development Director for the United Soccer League, remembers the first year of soccer at the school, playing without a senior class, and the struggles that squad had to overcome. Even then, Madden noted,  the players knew Wilson was preparing them for successes ahead. 

“We had a rough go that first year, but Coach Wilson, in all the years I played for him, always instilled a desire to be our best,” Madden says. “I think that is rare these days. I think he really understood the desires of young players and how to make them want to play and become better players.”

Four years later, the Bulls soccer team won 18 games, finished as the District runner-up and made the program’s first state series appearance. 

For Madden, it was Wilson’s dedication to the kind of people his players would become, that shines over their successes on the field or courts. That, he says, is what has brought him back to his alma mater for the last 10 years to help out as an assistant coach for the Bulls. 

“Getting to coach with him for about the last 10 years has been really important to me, because if I were to give credit to someone for helping me in my career in soccer today, I’d credit Coach Wilson, for sure,” Madden says. “You can tell he cares about you off the field, and when you are looking for someone to be that mentor, that’s very important. He made us want to play for him.”

Wilson’s third “coaching” job at Wiregrass Ranch comes as the school’s athletic director, and he approaches that position the same way he does his role as leader to his student-athletes. 

“My belief, and what I preach to all of our other coaches here at Wiregrass Ranch, is that the experience has to outweigh the outcome,” Wilson says. “You can win a state title, but if you are being screamed at and made miserable the whole time, then it’s really not worth doing. We really focus on things so when these kids look back on their high school athletics in 10 years, this really was the best time of their lives.”