Inside the Moon
Duck! A3 Issue 665
Moon on a Spoon A4
Traveling Moon A9
The
Island Moon The voice of The Island since 1996
January 12, 2017
That Sinking Feeling A16
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Around The Island
Granada
Development Gets New Life
By Dale Rankin Apparently when the temperature drops below 32 degrees water freezes! Who knew!?
Islanders awoke last weekend to find frozen water – apparently known as ice – in their birdbaths, random buckets, blowing in tiny bits off the top of breaking waves, and in some cases flowing fountains. We islanders are on a first name basis with ice, but the kind that is found in margaritas and not birdbaths. We scoured the Island Moon archives for the last time a pollywogkilling freeze swept across our little sandbar and came up empty. It’s been a while, and this one didn’t get cold enough or last long enough to kill all the pollywogs but every little bit helps. The latest a freeze has ever occurred in Corpus Christi – records are not available for The Island – is February 16. Historically the coldest day of the year in South Texas is January 11 which this year had a high of 82 degrees (inland) and a bone – chilling low of 66. Oh the humanity! A few years ago we had cold fronts with high winds – some up to 80 mph – that lasted for several weeks. However in the past two years including this one our cold fronts have been passing affairs. The last truly cold winter we had was 1978 when the mean temperature for January was 47 degrees making it the coldest month on record here. The mean temperature for that entire winter was 53 degrees. That is the Island’s version of the Polar Vortex which at that time was centered around Two Seas Bar & Grill where they had the coldest beverages on The Island. There were two freezes in 1989— in February and December - which killed an estimated 17 million finfish mostly in the upper and lower Laguna Madre. The oldest reference to a freeze in the Coastal Bend was in the early 1500s when Cabeza de Vaca wrote in his book La Relacion — The Account of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca after he was shipwrecked on the Texas Coast that the native people on the coast took advantage of “the season when the fish come to die.” Think of it as a Karankawa smorgasbord. The weather is expected to stay warm through the weekend. The fish are biting, the mosquitos are not, the Winter Texans, well, that’s denture dependent so who knows. Beach driving is great along with the weather so get out there and enjoy it everybody. Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
After years of problems twentyseven new overnight-stay units planned By Dale Rankin
Tony Amos shows the crowd one of his beloved Green turtles that is about to be released back into the Gulf after it’s’ rehabilitation. See page A11 for more photos by Miles Merwin.
After four changes of ownership the development on Granada Street now known as The Villas of Padre is being rebuilt and expanded into a 27-unit townhome property to be offered to the market as overnightstay facilities, if permitted by the City of Corpus Christi
Water Exchange Bridge Going to Bids! Estimated Cost $8.5 Million
By Dale Rankin Twelve years after voters approved funds for a Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge linking Lake Padre to the existing Island canal system bids on the projects are scheduled to be in the hands of potential builders on Tuesday, January 16.
underground water – exchange culverts required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Permit held by developer Paul Schexnailder - would provide $2.1 million to construct the bridge. However, a cost estimate on
under construction, a 300-room hotel currently under design, and a dry boat storage facility. City officials released a schedule on the project this week which calls for bids to be opened on
Sources said the cost of the bridge is expected to be about $8.5 million, down considerably from a previous high estimate of $11.5 million, presumably due to modification of the design and lower building costs due to a slowdown in local construction work since the higher bid was made. The bridge, as currently designed, consists of three spans of forty feet each, the center span covering a waterway, the two adjacent spans covering pedestrian and cart paths. The plans call for fourteen feet of water depth with concrete sides and floor to prevent erosion, and fourteen feet of boat clearance from the waterline to the bottom of the bridge structure. The bridge would be located along SPID where canals to both sides are already in place as well as bulkheading on the Lake Padre side. The idea for the bridge originated in 2004 when a $50 million bond package contained no Island projects and then-District 4 City Council member Mark Scoot proposed adding a $1.2 million item to the bonds which, according to his plan, when combined with the estimated $900,000 cost of building
the project was not done until much later – 2012 – which eventually led to the current $8.5 million price tag. The bridge was/is the lynchpin in connecting the 104-acre site around Lake Padre where excavation work is nearing completion and planned development around the Schlitterbahn waterpark on the west side of the roadway. Access to the Gulf of Mexico from the existing Island canal system, under the bridge, would be through a 3600-foot canal which would include retail, commercial, residential, and office space, along with a marina currently
February 1, City Council approval by mid-March, and construction to begin by the end of March with scheduled completion by April, 2018. However, there are still some potential hurdles, for instance; how to proceed if all of the bids received are over the $8.5 million estimate. City staffers told the Island Strategic Action Committee in November that there is $6.5 million available from bond money left over after completion of other projects. The remainder of the bridge funding
Bridge cont. on A2
A recommendation to allow the zoning change necessary to expand the project went to the City Planning Commission after we went to press on Wednesday. The city staff in documentation to the commission recommended approval of the application by SuperElite, LLC. The zoning change if approved by the Planning Commission would be subject to approval of the Corpus Christi City Council. The development was originally built with four large townhomes each with open roof decks accessible by individual elevators from all floors with each unit priced in the mid$500,000 range. But the original build out in 2010 was followed shortly by a market decline and the building was never occupied. It was purchased by a single out-of-state owner who said he planned to convert it into a walled compound for his personal use and after changing hands again it sat vacant through 2015 as problems with the roof design allowed water into the interior. In early 2016 a complete renovation and remodeling of the original units began and is still underway which has eliminated the rooftop patios. According to documents submitted with their application SuperElite, LLC, plans to “develop the Property in accordance with The Villas Planned Unit Development (PUD) Guidelines and Master Site Plan. The development of the Property is to consist of 27 townhouse units and common area amenities. The PUD
Granada cont. on A2
A little Island history
How a Small Town in Duval Country Spawns a Manifesto That Threatens War Between the United States and Mexico
By Dale Rankin
By the end of August of 1915 South Texas was in open warfare with the Mexican government of Venustiano Carranza who was trying to consolidate his power and win the Mexican Revolution.
See the special Winter Texan news on pages 14-15 in this issue!
Live Music A18
There was a full battalion of U.S. Army troops stationed in Kingsville and more then 5000 troops deployed throughout South Texas. U.S. Army Major General Frederick Funston who was in charge of the U.S. Army in South Texas, had only recently hired a spy to find out what was behind the sudden surge in crossborder violence which had sprung to the nation’s attention in August when a group of more than 40
raiders crossed the river from Mexico and attacked the Norias headquarters on the King Ranch.
The usual suspects Funston and officials in the State of Texas had assumed the raids were simply the usual cattle rustlers and bandits that the border area was used to. Then a ranch hand on the King Ranch who had been kidnapped by the bandits and forced into duty as their guide for the raid was questioned by the Army and told them that at least half of the men in the raiding party were of Mexican decent but born in Texas. Funston now realized he had a irredentist movement on his hands - defined as a policy advocating the acquisition
San Diego, Texas train station 1910 of some region in another country by reason of common linguistic, cultural, historical, ethnic, or racial
ties. In short, as many Mexican Americans in the Rio Grande Valley
History cont. on A2