Inside the Moon
Barefoot Mardis Gras A2
Moon on a SpoonA7
The
Issue 669
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
February 9, 2017
Around The Island
Free
Weekly
FREE
Photo by Ken Jaschob
Volunteer for the Turtle Patrol! By: Donna J. Shaver, Ph.D.
By Dale Rankin Our Facebook page lit up the past two weeks with questions about greatly inflated water bills that hit Island mailboxes, as in double and triple amounts. We queried the City Water Department and here is the response:
National Park Service, Padre Island National Seashore E-mail: Donna_Shaver@nps.gov Padre Island National Seashore is excited to announce the 2017 sea turtle nesting season spring volunteer training events scheduled in March. Each year, more than 100 people from the community volunteer with our sea turtle nest detection and protection program. Volunteers are essential to the success of our program, and if you have some time to donate and are interested in volunteering at Padre Island National Seashore to help with the Kemp’s ridley restoration program this year, this article contains information on how you can participate.
"There have not been any changes as to rates for utility services. In order to assist the customer(s) with their concerns, the defined address would be needed. However, please note, accounts are only discussed with the account holder(s). If you need further information, please let me know. Thanks, M-------" We can only speak from experience. Our bill went from well under $100 to $194 in one week, largely due to and $87.55 hit for Waste Water. When several Islanders questioned the higher bills they were told, “You must have a leak.” We’re not plumbers but if you have a leak in your waste water line isn’t that the same as a sewer leak and maybe should be investigated. The question is whether we believe the Water Wonks or our lying eyes.
Kemp’s ridley sea turtles nest in
Volunteers collect a clutch of Kemp's Ridley eggs at P.I.N.S.
Barefoot Mardi Gras Season is Underway
Next event February 17, Big day is February 25
We’ve hit the sweet spot of the Island season everybody, the Winter Texans are in town, temperatures up, gas prices down, and rent holding steady. Get out there and enjoy it, and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
This weekend...
Help Clean Up Our Beaches... Find out how on A4
Vessel Turn-In Program Ends Saturday
Last year's Barefoot Mardis Gras King and Queen, Blake Morin and Gabriella Castro, will pass the crown on February 25th By Debbie Noble Barefoot Mardi Gras isn't just a party - it is a party with a purpose. We are proud sponsors of the Big Brother, Big Sister's program and the Island Foundation Schools. Last year we were able to donate $5,000 to each charity and with your help we hope to do even better this year!
They bought a 26-foot sailboat that needed about 25 feet of love and care and Justin took it apart and put it back together in a slip behind a condo on Fortuna Bay. For months Justin worked through the night until finally, one beautiful morning we stood there on the dock and watched them sail down the Main Canal and make the turn into the Great Unknown wishing all the while we were going with them. Now just a short three years later they have more than 20,000 miles behind them leaving Martinique two years ago bound for Fiji where they now are temporarily at anchor. We’re not sure if we will ever see them rounding the point at the Padre Island Yacht Club again but with true seafarers you just never know and that’s part of the fun. In this issue we include an update on their journey from Meredith.
Turtle Patrol cont. A4
February 7-11
Coconut woman About three years ago we had the occasion to meet a couple on The Island with a dream of sailing off into the sunset and to keep right on going. It is a dream most of us had had at one time or another here on our little sandbar tucked away here in the corner of the Gulf of Mexico. But the difference between Justin and Meredith and the rest of us is they did it.
Extension of Hunting Limit is Lame Duck By Dale Rankin When the Island Strategic Action Committee held its first meeting at the Padre Isles County Club in 2010 there was a long line of citizens who showed up to complain about duck hunters blasting away at their prey near Island houses.
About the Program Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is the smallest and most endangered sea turtle species in the world. For more than three decades, Padre Island National Seashore has aided with a global effort to help recover the populations of threatened and endangered sea turtles, particularly that of the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle. More than half of the Kemp’s ridley nests found in the U.S. each year are located at the National Seashore.
Vandals hit The Island A group of knuckleheads decided Friday night would be a good time to tip over four port-a-potties on The Island and destroy the sign in the parking lot at Michael J. Ellis Beach. We take this a bit personally here at the Word Factory since Mike was the founder of this publication and a good friend. City Beach Foreman Billy tells our Pete Allsopp that 50% of his crews’ time is wasted on cleaning up beach vandalism. The sign is now repaired and the port-o-cans back with their business side down after being tipped for the second time in recent weeks, the first by high winds. All we can say is that if you are using a beach port-o-potty after dark you might want a lookout.
Fishing A11
Pacific Islands A7
The Island Foundation consists of the Seashore Early Childhood Academy, Seashore Learning Center, and
Seashore Middle Academy and has been serving our Island community for 20 years. The three schools currently serve 530 students from 390 families. The elementary and middle schools are free public charter schools, but receive substantially less funding than the traditional public schools, and no facilities funding at all.
The Texas General Land Office (GLO) is partnering with the City of Corpus Christi and Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) to offer local coastal Texans the opportunity to remove inoperable and derelict vessels through the Vessel Turn-In Program (VTIP) free of charge. Designed to provide owners with a voluntary method of disposal, interested boat owners are encouraged to participate if the vessel is less than 26 feet long, with longer boats being accepted on a case by case basis. The vessel maybe delivered to the drop off point February 7th to the 11th, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday night at the latest meeting of the ISAC there was a long line of duck hunters complaining that the group was discussing asking the City of Corpus Christi to extend the 1000foot prohibition on hunting near Island houses.
Ducks cont. on A4
Pirates of the Caribbean
Islander Hijacked by Pirates off Honduras
By Michael Brown Captain “Reflections” “Reflections” is moored in Houston, Galveston and Port Aransas and also in Key West, Florida With ties to Annapolis, Md. It was Friday January 13th, of all days and after picking up a dive instructor from Puerto Cortes, Honduras I was struggling against an Easterly wind which forced me closer to the Honduran coastline. After ten hours, I had gained only about 13 miles east and was approximately 5 miles off the coast. Just before sundown the pirates attacked and boarded “Reflections” around 5:30. Coming from the setting sun and the rear of the boat they appeared and boarded with weapons drawn. In just seconds six pirates were onboard, two of which were holding semiautomatic weapons on me. They positioned themselves a distance from me covering themselves with both weapons. Two remained in the boat they came on.
The Big Brother, Big Sister's program is a nationally recognized
"The Vessel Turn-In Program is proud to provide Corpus Christi area boat owners a voluntary method to dispose of their run-down vessels
The first minutes were extremely intense, they were scared and one was ready to shoot and held my full attention. Once I realized they were not intent on killing us and all they just wanted was valuables
Barefoot cont. on A2
Turn-in cont. on A4
Pirates cont. on A4
A little Island history
The Porch in Flour Bluff was a Popular Gathering Place
By Bobbie Kimbrell The once popular Porch bar in Flour Bluff no longer exists because it was demolished a few short years ago. The Porch started off as a bait stand and bar which was located on the water’s edge of the Laguna Madre just east of where Yorktown Boulevard ends at Laguna Shores Road and was called Rex Allen’s Place. Rex rented skiffs for sport fishing and kept most of the skiffs on dry land and some staked out in the edge of the shallow water on cedar stakes. Old timers from the Bluff said that Rex had a blind white horse that he used to pull the skiffs into the water, but quit using the horse because of public sympathy for the blind horse.
The Porch in Flour Bluff Rex owned about a block of land south of his place and in about 1945 or 1946 he had a U-shaped channel dug into the property, then moved the building at the base of the U a little off Laguna Shores Road and also put in a boat ramp for launching outboard
boats. Rex rented out docking space in the channel to commercial fishing motor boats, most of which were 30 to 40 feet long tunnel stern. Short cedar posts were driving into the bank of the channel for the motor boats to tie up to,. Later on short piers were built
and rented to sports fishermen. After the building was moved a porch was added and the building pretty much became a bar and the porch had tables and chairs where you could sit and drink your beer or soda water. At that time in history a lot of young neighbor kids bought soda water and candy and played on the porch. The porch offered a beautiful scenic view of the Laguna Madre. You could see the mullet jumping out of the water and a constant flock of seagulls flying in the air with their loud squawks and screeches. You could also see the boat traffic and tug boats pulling barges up and down the Lagoon with Padre Island in the background. After many years Rex Allen retired and rented out the property to quite a few
History cont. on A4