ARNOLD – Typically, a sign of a community’s health is how it grows; for Arnold, this past Saturday, its growth was in its health. Two businesses joined the downtown Arnold, Nebraska family on a temperate late-February afternoon, and both, in their own ways, focus on Arnold’s wellbeing.
Touch of Grace Spa and Oakbrook Physical Therapy threw open their doors in a shared-space location in what once was Sandhills Motors. Now, however, the only oil you’ll find inside is essential: the Tickle family has transformed the interior of the old showroom into a space perfectly tailored for relaxation.
Touch of Grace’s owner April Tickle, though, says that the transformation was anything but.
“We came in and built six rooms in the center and the front entryway.” The Tickle family would complete those projects in three months.
The new rooms now house two physical therapy rooms, a massage room, a breakroom, and a 24-hour sauna: huge upgrades, Tickle says, from her previous HQ.
“I went from two rooms, with my desk and office in the first one, and the other as a massage room. So I went from two rooms to six.”
Tickle had been working her massage-only operation out of those two rooms in the basement of Arnold’s Hotel Custer for the past 12 years, and says the added space allows her to provide her community with more areas of her health expertise.
“When I was over in the other location, massages were the only thing I offered at that point because I didn’t have the extra space. Once I expanded over here, now I can do body wraps, the sauna, and foot detox. I’ve definitely expanded.”
Tickle even has expansion plans for the building’s basement. “Eventually, I’d like to get into essential oils and herbs, and maybe have an apothecary down there where people can come in and make their own teas.”
Josh Magill, Oakbrook PT owner and coop partner of the new building, says that expanding into the former Sandhills Motors building is a perfect spot to help his business grow.
“You couldn’t get a better building, even if you were going to build one; as far as finding a building in this town, I don’t know if you’re going to get a better location.”
Magill’s time in the physical therapy field has led him from Broken Bow to North Platte, and now to Arnold, where he hopes to apply his broad experience locally to keep his community moving.
“Here what we do is a lot of low back pain, neck pain, balance, sports rehab: just kind of the stuff that a community needs so they have the option to stay here in town. It’s just easier to come here instead of traveling two or three days a week.”
Magill also stresses that despite how nice their new facility is, one shouldn’t expect to find him or his team camping among the amenities.
“We’ll go to people’s houses; we’ll see them in their homes if we need to. With people you know, you’re just trying to help them where you can.”
Neither business will require appointments; a keycard system will soon be implemented as part of membership packages that should allow community members to use parts of the facility at any time. Both Touch of Grace and Oakbrook PT can be found at 119 South Walnut Street in Arnold.
