More affordable housing is slated for Inverness as city officials and developers from Green Mills Group begin to hash out plans for a second apartment complex project from the Fort Lauderdale-based company.

City Manager Eric Williams confirmed for the Chronicle that the south Florida company, known for its affordable housing projects, is eyeing Inverness again for another development, less than a year after completing Colonnade Park.

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That development finished last year and is a 106-unit apartment campus offering affordable housing on Colonade Street. It was completed in late 2020 and filled with new tenants within about a month. It boasts a pool, exercise area, and community center.

“This is all part of a bigger outlook on housing,” Williams told the Chronicle.

He cited the city’s progress in getting Wyld Palms back on track to development near Lake Henderson. That’s an upscale development. The city is also working to get state help for underdeveloped Inverness Villages and Inverness Acres to convert dirt roads to paved ones to spur single-home construction in those two subdivisions.

Williams said he is working with Green Mills to make the new, proposed development affordable, low income housing, but also modest income for families not yet ready to buy a home of their own but wanting an appropriate apartment in the meantime.

“They need a place to live too. You can’t have everything compatible with low income,” he said. “There is also a need for working families and seniors."

Shaun Mosheim, development manager for the Fort Lauderdale company, said the company's track record in Inverness warranted more investment.

"We’ve now developed two successful communities in Citrus County: Colonnade Park in Inverness, and Forest Ridge in neighboring Hernando," Mosheim told the Chronicle. "Both developments are fully occupied with waiting lists, so city and county officials recognize the need and they have confidence in our ability to build attractive, fully amenitized communities."

We’ve identified a property that would be well-suited, and the city’s been receptive, especially in light of Colonnade Park’s success," he said.

The proposed site for the new development is 6.5 acres between Forest Drive and Longwood Avenue, near the center of the city.

City officials have scheduled a public land use and zoning change meeting Tuesday, Aug. 17, and Tuesday, Sept. 7, to change the comprehensive land use from the current low density to medium density. Those meetings begin at 5:30 p.m. The city also scheduled a planning and zoning commission meeting on the proposed change for 5 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 11. All the meetings will be at city hall, 212 W. Main St., Inverness.

To help Green Mills get state help in the form of tax credits and other incentives, Williams said he will ask his city council bosses to approve a $340,000 loan to the developer for the project. The terms of repayment are still being worked out, Williams said, but the developer would get the loan after completion of the project.

Williams said the developer is more likely to get state financial help if there is local government buy in. That buy in can take the form of cash, waving impact fees and building permits, or a loan.

The loan would be the best option for the city, Williams said. That’s because if Inverness handed over cash, the city would be out the money. If the city waived impact fees and the cost of building permits for the developer, the city would still need to pay those to the city’s appropriate departments, he said.

A loan means the city would get its money back, he said.

The plan for now is for the apartment complex to have 80 to 100 or more units, Williams told the Chronicle.

The project is important because in addition to low income housing, Williams said he hopes it will also provide housing to many who do the county’s blue-collar jobs and services, Williams said.

Mosheim said that is still being worked out.

"We have yet to settle on a specific demographic and will heed community and stakeholder feedback, but we’re hoping to have homes reserved at affordable incomes/rents with some actually reaching a little higher into workforce/middle-income levels," he said.

Williams thiinks that will benefit the city in the long run.

That's because when the renters can start to afford their own single-family homes, Williams thinks their first inclination will be to stay and look for homes in the city.

“This is the city they’re getting established,” he said. “Not having that creates a transient (population) and that’s not good.”

There were still many unknowns about which route Florida Turnpike officials will recommend to extend the turnpike north from Wildwood, but one thing was certain among Inverness Council members after state transportation officials gave a presentation to the city Tuesday: They disliked the one closest to their community, and were not too happy with the others either.

Citing that three of the four proposed corridors lead to U.S. 19 from I-75, Councilwoman Jacquie Hepfer described them to FDOT officials making the presentations as “one congested mess (connecting to) another congested mess.

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In addition, Hepfer said that the southern most proposed route 2.5 miles from the city’s downtown would destroy environmentally sensitive lands.

Councilwoman Linda Bega told the presenting FDOT officials that the two southern routes “make no sense” because one nearest Inverness traverses areas often flooded and they both head immediately west towards the gulf and towards potential hurricanes.

Jeff Arms, one of FDOT’s project engineers, told the council that FDOT was already making improvements onto U.S. 19 so it would be better equipped to handle the new traffic.

As for proposed corridors heading west toward a potential storm, Arms said that the corridor would also run east away from the gulf.

Arms said FDOT was also looking 20 and 30 years into the future, anticipating traffic flows and needs. So while it will take years to fulfill the corridors, the planning now is still necessary.

The plan means reviewing four proposed routes and by the end of the year recommending one. From there, FDOT will narrow the single recommended route to its precise location.

Councilman Cabot McBride said that improving I-75 should be an option rather than only the four proposed corridors and “fundamentally changing these regions of the state.”

But Jennifer Stultz, also with the FDOT, said that the problem with I-75 was that when the highway was shut down because of congestion or an accident, local peripheral roads were unable to handle the traffic.

City Manager Eric Williams also expressed concerns that the nearest corridor to Inverness included areas which often suffered from standing water and a corridor there would be problematic.

Williams also asked Stults when would be a good time for his council to give its input and suggestions.

Stults responded that typically when a route is chosen, FDOT visits the area impacted to explain the next steps. But she also said the Inverness council could contact the state agency anytime to give input, but “sooner is probably better.”

Williams told his council bosses that they should be prepared to come together by May to send a unified message to FDOT.

After the presentation, McBride said that although a “no build” option was on FDOT’s table, in reality it was not a possibility.

But any corridor in Citrus County would have to be “a big bridge” because of the county’s wetlands, areas of standing water, and environmentally sensitive lands.

After months of declining coronavirus cases in Citrus County, the beginning of the new year is looking dark with the Omicron variant infecting residents at record levels.

During the week ending Jan. 6, 2022, the Florida Department of Health in Citrus County reported 952 new cases during the previous seven days. That was an increase from 375 cases just the week before.

The number of cases had fallen to 54 during the week ending Nov. 18, 2021.

Local health officials point to the latest wave of the new variant behind the spike in cases.

“We assume the jump in COVID positivity numbers is due to Omicron. Latest news reports indicate that 95 percent of the cases being reported in Tampa and South Florida are due to Omicron which is the predominant variant,” Ernesto “Tito” Rubio, administrator of the Citrus County Health Department, emailed the Chronicle about the latest case hike.

“We expect to see cases rise in Citrus County as they have risen in other counties,” he said.

Along with the rise in cases, deaths due to the virus have also spiked from one per week previously to now six during the week end Jan. 6.

Those new infections mean there have now been 22,366 Citrus County residents with the virus and 846 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.

Typically, deaths lag cases by a few weeks.

The rise in cases has also led to more hospitalizations.

During the week ending Jan. 5, there were 23 hospital admissions in Citrus County due to the virus. That was a 229 percent increase from the previous week.

COVID-19 cases now represent 4 percent of local utilized hospital beds and 62 percent of the local hospital ICU beds.

In addition, the percent of people testing positive after being tested has also risen to 18 percent. In November 2021 it had bottomed out at 2.8 percent.

The percent of eligible people in Citrus County vaccinated is 60 percent. The Florida average is 72 percent, according to the DOH.

The increase in COVID-19 cases in Citrus County is also being seen across Florida and the country.

In Florida there have been 4.63 million cases and 62,688 deaths, according to the New York Times, which tracks the data.

As of Jan. 9, there have been an average of 58,336 new, daily cases in Florida, according to the New York Times. That’s up 227 percent over the previous 14 days.

The daily average, new hospitalizations in the state rose to 8,791, according to the New York Times. That’s up 300 percent over the past 14 days.

Daily average deaths in Florida rose to 26, an 18 percent increase over the past 14 days.

The same is happening across the United States.

New, daily hospitalizations across the country is up to an average of 132,086, an 83 percent increase over the past 14 days.

Deaths have risen to an average of 1,562 per day. That is a 17 percent increase from the previous 14 days.

While the death rate for the new Omicron variant appears to be lower than other previous variants, that is being made up for by the rising case curve in the United States, and which could prove problematic.

Many hospitals could be more easily overwhelmed if the cases continue to rise because many facilities were already facing staff shortages. With the highly infectious nature of the new variant, more staff could get sick and reduce staffing even more, health officials fear.

Rubio said the types of precautions people should take hasn’t changed.

“As to what people can do to mitigate the increase in cases, it’s the same as on day number one: wash their hands, practice social distancing, wear masks, get vaccinated, get boosted, etc.,” he said.

The effects of the coronavirus continue to linger in Citrus County despite a falling number of new cases.

There were 179 new cases of coronavirus during the week ending Feb. 24 and 119 during the week ending Feb. 27, showing a continued toward trend, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The declining number of new cases is in stark contrast when just a month ago new cases for a week reached 1,140.

During the week ending Feb. 27 Citrus County saw eight deaths due to the virus, bringing the county’s accumulative death toll to 933 since the pandemic began in 2020. The eight deaths were more than a 50 percent drop compared to the previous week.

Citrus County now has had 29,318 cases, according to the CDC.

During the week ending Feb. 26 there were 23 hospital admissions of confirmed COVID-19 patients. That helped push hospital beds occupied by patients to 67 percent, with 8 percent being COVID-19 patients.

The county’s two hospitals’ ICU beds were 91 percent occupied during the week ending Feb. 26, according to the CDC. Of those, 18 percent were occupied by COVID-19 patients. Overall, there was an 8 percent increase in the number ICU patients in Citrus County during the week ending Feb. 26.

In Citrus County 61 percent of people eligible for a vaccine against the virus have been vaccinated, according to the Florida Department of Health. The Florida average among counties is 74 percent.

As patients fill local ER departments with the flu or coronavirus, local hospitals are feeling the effect and often diverting ambulances to other out-of-county facilities to help ease the demand for service.

Between Feb. 22 and Feb. 28, Citrus Memorial Hospital in Inverness issued divert notifications to all ambulances 10 times, according to Citrus County Fire Rescue, which operates the county’s ambulance service. Bravera Health Seven Rivers issued five divert notifications and Citrus Hills ER twice. The diversion notifications typically lasted several hours.

The trend in Citrus County is mirrored by what’s happening throughout Florida.

Florida during the week ending Feb. 27 had 20,077 new cases, a 44 percent decline from the previous week. The state had a total of 5,806,510 cases since the pandemic began and 70,084 deaths, according to the CDC.

Florida is seeing an average of 118 deaths per day due to the virus, according to the New York Times, which tracks and analyzes COVID-19 data.

Between Feb. 20 and Feb. 26, Florida saw 2,758 COVID-19 hospital admissions. Statewide, 80 percent of hospital beds were occupied, according to the CDC. Of those, 6 percent are COVID-19 patients.

In Florida, 77 percent of ICU beds were occupied during the week ending Feb. 26. Of those, 9 percent were COVID-19 patients, according to the CDC.

The Florida county with the highest rate of coronavirus cases as of Feb. 28 was Hillsborough, with 20 cases per 100,000 residents, according to the New York Times. Franklin County, with the lowest rate, reported 2 per 100,000 residents.

Nationwide, there were an average of 64,276 daily new cases as of Feb. 28. That was a 59 percent drop over a 14-day period, according to the New York Times. There have been 78.9 million cases in the United States since the pandemic began. The country is averaging 1,855 deaths per day as of Feb. 28 and a total of 948,855 deaths since the pandemic began in the United States.

About 60,000 people with the coronavirus are hospitalized nationally, down from about 160,000 in January, according to the New York Times.

Fred Hiers is a reporter at the Citrus Chronicle. Email him at fred.hiers@chronicleonline.com.

No Halloween plans yet? No worries. The Chronicle has compiled a list of family-friendly festivities around the town.

CMH to host ‘Boo Boo Bash’ trunk or treat

Citrus Memorial Hospital announced today that it will host its inaugural Boo Boo Bash event to provide free and safe fun for families in Citrus County.

The trunk or treat style event will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 29 in the hospital’s main parking lot, 502 W. Highland Blvd. in Inverness.

“We have a great event planned for kids and parents alike,” Citrus Memorial Hospital CEO Ginger Carroll said. “In addition to decorated trunks, we’ll have fun treats and giveaways, a DJ, coloring station, pumpkin decorating and children’s costume contest with new bicycles for best costume winners.”

Citrus County Fire Rescue will also be on hand with a fire safety house.

“It’s all about safety,” CMH director of communications and community engagement, Katie Myers, said. “Our caregivers have come together in a big way to ensure kids in our community have the opportunity to trick-or-treat in a safe environment.”

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FFRA to host haunted drive-thru

Mark your calendar for FFRA’s Halloween Haunted Forest Drive-thru from 7 to 10 p.m. Oct. 29 and 30 behind Howard’s Flea Market on South Lewdingar Drive in Homosassa.

Each night, an array of “scare stops'' will border the drive-thru lane and provide frights for everyone. Upwards of 20 scare stops are planned and attendees can vote on their favorite.

A $500 prize will be awarded to the first place scare stop with additional prizes of $300 for second and $200 for third place. Tickets are $20 per car, truck, bus or hay wagon visitors.

Special Halloween treats will be given at the exit. Follow the signs off West Cardinal Street near the Homosassa Walmart and get ready to be frightened on Halloween.

FFRA is a local nonprofit that supports intellectually and developmentally disabled (IDD) adults in Citrus County. This Haunted Forest Drive-thru is a major FFRA fundraiser.

For more information or to host a scare stop, contact Robert DeSimone at 352-628-5606 or iam4mentoring@aol.com.

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Attend Harvest Night at Calvary Church

Calvary Church will host their Harvest Night from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 29 at the church, 2728 E. Harley St. in Inverness.

This is a free event for all ages. For more information, visit calvary.online/harvestnight.

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Party with the Citrus Eagles for Halloween

Attend a Halloween costume party with the Citrus Eagles from 6 to 10 p.m. Oct. 30, 8733 E. Gulf-to-Lake Highway in Inverness.

Music will be provided by the band, Avalanche. There will be cash prizes in the amount of $150 for first place, $100 for second and $50 for third.

Food includes witches stew, pulled pork, potato salad, baked beans, pumpkin pie and apple pies.

For more information, call 352-344-5337

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Trunk or treat at Good Shepherd Lutheran

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church will host a trunk or treat event from 5 to 8 p.m. Oct. 30 in the church parking lot, 439 E. Norvell Bryant Highway in Hernando.

All are welcome. For more information, call 352-746-7161

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VFW Post 7122 to host trunk or treat

VFW Post 7122 will have a trunk or treat from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 30 in the post parking lot, 8191 S. Florida Ave. in Floral City. The event is open to all children in the community.

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Trunk or Treat with the Hills Church

The Hills Church will host a Trunk or Treat event from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 30, 2 Civic Circle in Beverly Hills.

There will be photo ops, food and candy. The whole family is invited to this free event.

For more information, call 352-746-6171.

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Harvest Fest open to all in Citrus Springs

Come enjoy the season at the Harvest Fest at North Oak Church from 3 to 6 p.m. Oct. 30, 9324 N. Elkcam Blvd. in Citrus Springs.

Free food, candy, games, music and bounce houses will be available to the community from. The events are planned for the north side of the property near the KidZone. Parking will be on the south side of the property.

All are welcome. No church affiliation is required. For more information, visit northoakbc.org or call 352-489-1688.

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Inverness First UMC to have Trunk or Treat

Come one, come all to the Inverness First United Methodist Church Trunk or Treat celebration from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 30, 1140 Turner Camp Road.

Children and adults are invited to come out in costume. For more information, call 352-726-2522.

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Haunted maze and graveyard a scary good time

The 21st annual “The Nightmare on Pine Bluff Street” haunted maze and graveyard will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Halloween night, Oct. 31, 8154 W. Pine Bluff St. in Crystal River.

The haunted maze and graveyard is back after skipping last year due to COVID-19. Come on out for a fun scare and good time. There will be bagged candy for the kids. Donations, cash and/or food will be accepted for C.U.B.

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Halloween kids party at VFW Post 4337

VFW Post 4337 will have a kids Halloween party from 2 to 4 p.m. Oct. 31, 906 State Road 44 in Inverness. Parents are welcome from 4 to 8 p.m.

The party features a snow cone truck, games and hot dogs. Children grades kindergarten through fifth are invited.

Call the post at 352-344-3495 so they can get a head count.