Protect and Serve
When I first identified Lanark as a possible site for my coastal retirement home, I created a Google Alert for the neighborhood to get a feel for what life in the Village was like. Google Alert is a tool that continuously monitors the internet for specific terms, and setting one for Lanark Village would send me local news stories via email. Those, I figured, would give me the information I needed to either move forward with a townhome purchase or scratch Lanark off my list.
Since the Forgotten Coast isn’t a very populous place, the Alert wasn’t triggered every day. But I was patient and curious, and eventually a small collection of reassuring stories about the area started accumulating in my inbox.
I particularly enjoyed Pat’s weekly column in the Apalachicola Times, which covered the Village’s social, charitable, and governance activities. Events such as spaghetti suppers, pancake breakfasts, yard sales, cleanup days, and the like made Lanark sound like a seaside version of Mayberry. Most people who reside in the area are old enough to get the reference.
And if you do, you’ll surely remember the show’s star, Sheriff Andy Taylor. Capable, kind, and strong, Andy was the embodiment of the law enforcement motto to “Protect and Serve.” A community leader who looked out for underdogs and outsmarted bad guys, he was always on the side of what was moral and right. It’s hard to imagine a Mayberry without the steadying force of Sheriff Taylor’s hand.
If a place like Mayberry still existed, as Pat’s columns suggested it might, maybe a lawman like Andy did too. I first suspected this was the case when my Google Alert produced a story about Sheriff A.J. “Tony” Smith’s search for missing Lanark resident Mickey Majerus. She had wandered away from her house in a confused state of mind and lost her way in the thick surrounding forest. Sheriff Smith was doing everything in his power to find her.
Her neighbors had reported her missing, something my neighbors in anonymous suburbia would never do. I have cordial relationships with them, but we go weeks without seeing one another. They wouldn’t think to worry if I disappeared. I disappear all the time, and my comings and goings are nobody’s business but mine.
It’s Atlanta, after all. That’s what cities are like.
But Lanark is more like Mayberry, so Mickey’s neighbors knew something wasn’t right. She was blind and didn’t drive. While she might take a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood, she wouldn’t intentionally go far, and she wouldn’t stay gone long. She was clearly in danger and needed help.
The neighbors contacted Sherriff Taylor Smith to report Mickey’s disappearance, and he quickly rallied help from nearby agencies and organizations. Volunteer firefighters from the Lanark and Carrabelle Fire Departments turned out in full force. A dive team from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived along with K-9 search dogs and their handlers from the Franklin County Corrections Institute, drones from FSU, helicopters, CERT members, and even (I am not making this up) a mounted posse of horsemen from the nearby Bay County Sheriff’s Office. Someone stumbling onto news of the operation could be forgiven for thinking the missing person must be a movie star or high-ranking elected official rather than a beloved neighbor and friend.
It was impossible to be uninvested in the outcome, and I found myself anxiously checking for updates on the story, hoping for news of Mickey’s safe return even as I feared the worst. And I tried to imagine living in a place where a single human life was valuable enough to warrant such a response.
It would feel safe, I decided, and I was right. It does.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Department is a major contributor to that feeling of safety and community. Follow their Facebook page and you’ll see Sheriff Smith and his deputies handing out candy at Lanark’s Trunk or Treat, honoring teachers with visits from the Ice Cream Patrol truck, building ramps for the elderly and disabled, coming to the aid of motorists who run out of gas or lock their keys in the car, and encouraging pet adoptions through the local Humane Society.
You can regularly catch Sheriff Smith on live stream, urging Franklin County citizens to be their best selves - to watch out for pelicans downed by strong winds, seek non-violent solutions to disagreements, and take advantage of the resources available to address addiction and other mental disorders if needed. To help one another out.
In the end, it was a friendly local motorist, Shawn Chisholm, who picked Mickey up and brought her to safety after she popped out of the forest onto Lake Morality Road. That doesn’t minimize the work of the Sheriff’s Department; in my many years of reading the news, I can’t recall another instance of such an all-out effort to rescue a vulnerable person. It’s heartwarming.
It’s something you’d see on Andy of Mayberry, not something you’d expect to happen in real life. And yet, it did. Right here in Lanark Village.
