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Inside the Moon

Barefoot Mardis Gras A2

Moon on a Spoon A7

Panama A7

The

Issue 671

Island Moon

The voice of The Island since 1996

February 23, 2017

Seashore Happenings A9

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FREE Major Island Projects Move Ahead

Courtesy of P.I.N.S.

Around The Island

By Dale Rankin It was a Big Week on our little sandbar. Tuesday turned out to be the Day of Days around here as all the news hit at once.

Tuesday morning crews lit up the new traffic light at the Aquarius/SPID intersection even as they put the finishing touches on painting the crosswalks. By Tuesday night our Facebook page, theislandmoonnewspaper, had over 50,000 hits on the subject – some in favor some not so much. The first day didn’t go so well as the 25-second cycle on the light both ways on SPID had cars backed up to the base of the JFK Causeway in one direction and to Verdemar in the other by 2 p.m. and by rush hour the new light had claimed its first fender-benders.

By Wednesday morning things were much better as the light was on a 20-second red cycle on SPID and a ten-second cycle when the sensors saw a vehicle entering SPID from Aquarius. We have a request in with the city’s Traffic Engineering Department to find out what the permanent timing will be. The sign warning that there is a light ahead is now installed at the base of the high portion of the JFK which takes drivers over the Intracoastal but it isn’t what you could really call a whopper of a sign; it’s about the size of a stop sign with some white flashing Christmas lights.

There has been concern voiced a b o u t whether For more on the light t h e see page A4 location of the light will back up traffic at peak hours and cause wrecks on the JFK Causeway, as they say in television news, only time will tell. But as of Wednesday it appeared that Island drivers had adapted well to the new light, and if it slows down traffic on our main artery and allows residents on the Northside of The Island to turn on the JFK without having to play chicken with oncoming traffic then all will be well.

Ask us in September.

Showers and Restrooms Funded for Packery Beaches

Water Exchange Bridge Gets Final Funding

By Dale Rankin

By Dale Rankin After thirteen years of starts and restarts at City Hall it took less than two hours on Tuesday to clear the way for the building of restrooms and showers on the beach on both sides of Packery Channel.

“We’ve kicked this ball down the field long enough,” said Greg Smith, District 4 Councilman and Chairman of the Tax Reinvestment Zone #2 board. “We have the money and we have the knowhow, let’s get this done.”

The push to build the Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge on The Island took a giant leap forward Tuesday when members of the Board of Directors of the Tax Reinvestment Zone #2 approved the final $4 million needed to build the long-planned bridge between Commodores and Whitecap.

Barefoot Mardi Gras This Saturday is the time to grab your beads and head for the beach as the Barefoot Mardi Gras Parade hits the sand followed by the Barefoot Mardi Gras Festival at the Briscoe King Pavilion. Then Miss Neesie & the Earfood Orchestra take the stage at the Veranda for the King & Queen's Ball. We’ve known Neesie and Jim since Ronald Reagan’s first year in office and they have been bringing the show to the Barefoot event since it was held at Briscoe King and before there was even a parade.

Tickets are $25 on-line at barefootmardigras.com at Schlitterbahn, the POA office, or from a PIBA member, or they can be had for $35 at the door and include food.

It’s time to go Barefooting everybody, we’ll see you there, and say hello if you see us Around The Island

By Dale Rankin For the past six years near the end of each of the monthly meetings of the Nueces County Coastal Parks Board Parks Director Scott Cross would give an update on the progress of the application for a share of the $20 billion settlement in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

And with that the board voted unanimously to approve money from the TRZ budget for three projects:

The $4 million, in addition to $7 million from city bond issues in 2004-2008, is the final link in in the funding chain for the bridge providing a total of $11 million for the bridge which city engineers estimated will cost $8.5 million. Questions of the final cost of the bridge will be answered at 2 p.m. on March 15 when bids on the project are opened.

Four restrooms on the beach, two on each side of Packery Channel, with accompanying showers

The funding approved Tuesday came with three caveats: one the $4 million from the TRZ is not

But there were more than 200 governmental agencies across the Gulf of Mexico applying for $1.1 billion of the funds in this round and the admonition from board members usually went somewhat along the lines of, “Don’t spend too much time on this Scott, our chances of getting any of that are very small.”

Showers cont. on A4

Bridge cont. on A4

Funds cont. on A4

State Closes One Mile of Beach to Traffic

With no public hearings nor notice state crews on Wednesday went to the site and installed the row of bollards blocking vehicle access to the beach north of Newport Pass Road. Prior to Wednesday traffic from either Newport Road or Access Road #3 could drive north on the beach to the Fish Pass Jetties.

A Parks & Wildlife official at the work site as the bollards were being put in place Wednesday said the decision was made at the regional level. He said no public announcement was required since the property has always been part of Mustang Island State Park. In the future any member of the public wishing to get to the beach north of Newport Pass Road will have to enter through the park’s gate and pay the $5 fee.

By Dale Rankin Two weeks before Spring Break 2017 Texas Parks & Wildlife on Wednesday permanently closed more than a mile of beach to vehicular traffic between Newport Pass Road and Beach Access Road 3 north of Packery Channel.

The closing means the throng of spring breakers

that traditionally have packed into the three miles of beach between Beach Access Road #3, north of Newport Pass Road, to the north side of Packery Channel will now be packed into a much smaller space between Newport Pass and the North Packery Jetty to the south. Access Road 3 will become a dead end at the dune line.

Police Captain Chris White, who is in charge of the Spring Break traffic plan, said he was notified of the closure several weeks ago and has adjusted his plan accordingly.

“We will allow for two-way traffic on the beach from Zahn Road to Newport Pass Road,” White said. “The beach north of Newport was often

Beach cont. on A4

New Traffic Light Goes Active

The new traffic light at the Aquarius/SPID went active this week to mixed reviews. Comments on our Facebook page theislandmoonnewspaper varied from praise to a petition to have it removed.

Meanwhile downtown…

Meanwhile, downtown Tuesday a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Island Tax Reinvestment Zone was underway where two longtime and potentially game-changing Island projects took giant leaps forward. The board voted to provide the last of the funding for the proposed Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge, and also to fund the long promised public amenities around Packery Channel.

Combined with the announcement last week of $7.5 million in oil spill money for our Island parks it’s been quite a week around here.

Island County Parks on the list for $7.5 million in grants from British Petroleum Oil Spill

The light was originally placed for two reasons: one; to allow easier access to SPID from Aquarius; two, to accommodate an anticipated 105-room hotel east of the intersection which, as of this writing, has been removed from plans.

The original cost of the light and reconfiguring the intersection was $625,000 with the developer of the adjacent property paying $426,000. The final prices was $1.2 million with city taxpayers making up the difference.

For diagram of finished intersecton see page A4

Coming This Weekend...

Barefoot Mardi Gras February 25 It’s almost time to kick off your shoes and hit the beach for the Barefoot Mardi Gras Beach Parade which will hit the sand on Saturday, February 25, 11:00 a.m.

Floats and fun for the whole family will make their way from Whitecap Beach and run south down Padre Island along the Gulf of Mexico to the Briscoe King Pavilion near Bob Hall Pier. Cars can park on both sides of the parade lane to view floats, golf carts and marching groups.

The parade is free and kicks off a full day of Barefoot Mardi Gras events. The event is a fundraiser for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Corpus Christi, and for Seashore Charter Schools.

Barefoot Mardi Gras Festival After the parade the Barefoot Mardi Gras Festival will run from 11:00

am - 5:00 p.m. at the Briscoe King Pavilion parking lot and will include music, games, contests, costumes, food & fun for all ages! Admission is $5.00 for adults. Cash Only. Kids 12 years and under FREE.

King & Queens Ball That night the party moves to the Veranda Restaurant starting at 7 p.m. and running until midnight. Patrons must be 21 years of age or older to attend. Admission Includes a Cajun style dinner and dancing to the live New Orleans style music from Miss Nessie & the Ear Food Orchestra. The new Barefoot King & Queen will be crowned. Costumes encouraged!

Tickets are $25 pre-sale and $35 at the door. Tickets are available at Padres Island Properties Owners Association and Schlitterbahn at the Veranda Restaurant, Padre Island.

Big Shell Cleanup February 25th

Come make a difference! Help clean up marine debris from the beautiful and remote Big Shell Beach!

The 22nd annual Billy Sandifer Big Shell Cleanup will be held on Saturday, February 25th, 2017.

Organized by the Friends of Padre, a local group of anglers and other supporters of the park, this event is a great way to see some of the down-island areas of the park while helping to make a difference. To participate, meet at the Malaquite Pavilion parking lot. Participants are recommended to arrive by 7:30 am.

A FREE lunch will be provided after the event and the park entrance fee will be waived for the clean-up.

Four-wheel drive vehicles, flatbed trailers for hauling trash in and out of the work area, and working volunteers are needed. Walking volunteers are welcomed and those without 4-wheel drive vehicles will be afforded transportation to

and from the work area. Those who have 4-wheel drive vehicles but are unable to pick up trash are most welcome to aid in hauling volunteers.

The event does not re-schedule and will take place rain or shine. For more information, check out the Friends of Padre website: www.friendsofpadre. com , or call the Malaquite Visitor Center at (361) 949-8068.

Thank you to the almost 7,000 volunteers who have removed 2,456,000 pounds of trash during Big Shell Beach Clean-ups over the years!

About the National Park Service: More than 20,000 National Park Service employees care for America's 417 national parks and work with communities across the nation to help preserve local history and create close-to-home recreational opportunities.

A2

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

Fat Friday at Boathouse Bodes Well For Further Mardis Gras Fatness

Photos by Miles Merwin & Debbbie Noble

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A3

Island Moon

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Letters to the Editor

on the amber to get through the intersection with as little red as possible. When I mentioned this observation to my new neighbors, they would usually laugh and say something like, “when your light turns green in Texas, watch for at least one more semi to come through the intersection!” There can be no doubt that these cameras increase safety and should be retained and supported. I hope we eventually have similar devices to catch speeders at least in the more dangerous areas such as on the Harbor and Intracoastal bridges.

Craig Wooldridge

Military Spending?

Distribution Pete Alsop Island Delivery

Aquarius Traffic Signals

Coldwell Banker Advertising Jan Park Rankin Classifieds Arlene Ritley Production Manager Abigail Bair Contributing Writers Joey Farah Andy Purvis Mary Craft Christiansen Jay Gardner Todd Hunter Dotson Lewis Ronnie Narmour Brent Rourk Photographers Miles Merwin Jeff Dolan Mary Craft Ronnie Narmour Office Security/Spillage Control (Emeritus) Riley P. Dog

Having just read the Feb 16th edition of the Island Moon, I noticed on page A4 a picture of Spring Break traffic lined-up, bumper to bumper, over the JFK Causeway Bridge which apparently is caused by the traffic signals at the Commodores and PK Rd 22 intersection and happens every year without fail. I am curious as to how dangerous this is for traffic coming over the bridge and how many wrecks there are or have been on the bridge because of this back-up from the Commodores Intersection.

If this situation is or has not really been a serious problem or a significant danger in the past and there was no need for warning signs on the bridge itself or to reconfigure the traffic signals at the Commodores intersection during peak hours of Spring Break traffic, then why would it now be necessary to install warning signs on the bridge and reconfigure the new traffic signals at the Aquarius and Park Rd 22 intersection during peak traffic hours? And, why would the city program the lights at the Aquarius intersection to be yellow flashing during peak traffic times? That is so irrational!

Please! Think about it! Peak traffic hours/times is precisely when the traffic signals would be most needed at the Aquarius intersection. The lights could be timed for a 15-20 second stop or, even better, sensor activated for no stop on PK Rd 22 if there is no cross or turning traffic on or for Aquarius St. Flashing yellow lights from 9 pm to 7 am would be fine. The flashing yellow lights will be visible from the top of the bridge. Eastbound drivers, coming over and down the bridge at well over the posted speed limit of 55 mph, (and don't tell me they don't speed) will know/be warned of the intersection 1 mile ahead.

B. P O’Brien, Jr

Publisher Dale Rankin About the Island Moon The Island Moon is published every Thursday, Dale Rankin, Editor / Publisher.

Total circulation is 10,000 copies. Distribution includes delivery to 4,000 Island homes, free distribution of 3,000 copies in over 50 Padre Island businesses and condos, as well as 600 copies distributed in Flour Bluff, 1,400 copies on Mustang Island and Port Aransas businesses.

News articles, photos, display ads, classified ads, payments, etc. may be left at the Moon Office.

The Island Moon Newspaper 14646 Compass, Suite 3 Corpus Christi, TX 78418 361-949-7700 Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper

Where to Find The Island Moon

Lisabella’s Restaurant Pioneer RV Park

WB Liquors Port A Arts

North Padre All Stripes Stores

A Mano

Angry Marlin

Coffee Waves

CVS

Moby Dicks

Whataburger

Spanky’sLiquor

Doc’s Restaurant

IGA Grocery Store

Snoopy’s Pier Isle Mail N More

Carter Pharmacy

Island Italian

San Juan’s Taqueria

Brooklyn Pie Co. Ace Hardware Holiday Inn

Port A Parks and Rec

Texas Star (Shell)

Public Library

Scuttlebutt’s Restaurant

Chamber of Commerce Duckworth Antiques Back Porch Woody’s Sports Center

Jesse’s Liquor

Subway Island Tire And all Moon retail advertisers WB Liquor

Shorty’s Place

Flour Bluff

Giggity’s

H.E.B.

Stripes @ Ferry Landing

Liquid Town

Gratitude Gift Shop Keepers Pier House Port A Glass Studio The Gaff

Thank you for your successful, tireless efforts in bringing about the repeal of the City of Corpus Christi's and Redflex's Yellow Light scam. The scam is over because of your research and your never give-up attitude The repeal tells me that "The Moon" is read far beyond North Padre, Flour Bluff and Port Aransas distribution areas. Your "Stuff I Heard on the Island" "Moon" columns are outstanding.

Many thanks for this achievement and for all of your journalism.

Bob Koester Dear Editor, I’m disappointed that our City is buckling under in the traffic light camera program. When I first moved here from the Midwest I was amazed at the difference in the way folks here react to traffic signals. I was used to slowing on an amber light in preparation for stopping on the red, while here it seems folks hit the gas

Whataburger on Waldron Ethyl Everly Senior Center Fire Station Police Station Stripes on Flour Bluff & SPID

What changed all of that, why would a trip like I took be impossible for any American now? The Vietnam escalation and war after JFK was assassinated in 1963 changed everything. The Tonkin Gulf phony incident was in August, 1964, the same month that I started my trip. What followed was a never ending war until 1975. That ill advised, unnecessary war didn't just kill over 58,000 Americans and three million Vietnamese, it also killed US prestige and respect all over the world. We got many earfuls of criticism and wisdom from many people everywhere during that year travelling.

Unfortunately, we have continued to be a warlike country, acting like the world's policeman, ever since. We created the turmoil in the Middle East with our regime change, nation building agenda, invasions and wars of choice. We do not need military budgets that exceed the combined total of the military budgets of the next largest 25 countries.

Bob Nash Island

DiCarlo Announces Candidacy Corpus Christi, Texas February 17, 2017 Local Attorney Mark A. Di Carlo, announces his candidacy for Mayor of Corpus Christi.

“My candidacy is a reflection of the average citizen concerns of continually contaminated water, the destruction of our parks, poor city services, decaying roads, and poor decisions by the Mayor and city council. Poor decisions by professional politicians, which include the elimination of the ride sharing company Uber and the implementation of a questionable street maintenance fee have negatively impacted our city. My goal as Mayor is that the City of Corpus Christi lives up to its beautiful and historic name and it's unlimited potential.”

Mark A. Di Carlo 361-688-6968

Padre Isles Property Owners Association, Inc. NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING MARCH 11, 2017

Sandpiper Condos

Stripes @ Beach Access Rd. 1A

Wash Board Laundry Mat

Dale,

North Padre Island

editor@islandmoon.com

Port Aransas

Traffic Light Cameras

With respect to Dodson Lewis and his perspective on military spending, mine is much different. The US currently maintains about 800 overseas military bases and facilities in some 70 or more countries, costing we taxpayers several hundred billions of dollars annually. Do those make us or the world safer? I think not. After high school graduation in 1964, a classmate and I spent a year hitchhiking around the world. Starting on a Greek freighter from Portland, Or in Aug. 1964, we made our way through Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma, E. Pakistan, India, Nepal, W. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, the entire middle east, across North Africa and all over Europe. With small U.S. flags stitched to our backpacks, we were welcomed and very well treated everywhere, invited to dine and stay in peoples' homes in both Pakistans, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, everywhere we went. The U.S was universally admired and respected back then. People were interested in the US and what life was like here. Except for the Cold War "mutually assured destruction" stalemate, the world was at peace and we had no enemies.

THIS NOTICE AND BALLOT/PROXY FORM REPLACES THE NOTICE AND FORM SENT EARLIER THIS MONTH THAT WAS MAILED IN ADVANCE OF THE MAXIMUM 60 DAYS ALLOWED. ANY BALLOT/PROXIES SUBMITTED ON THE PRIOR FORM WILL BE ACCEPTED, BUT ONLY ONE VOTE WILL BE TABULATED FOR EACH LOT. The Padre Isles Property Owners Association, Inc.'s Annual Meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at the Seashore Learning Center Gym, 15801 S Padre Island Dr., Corpus Christi, Texas (Encantada @ Park Rd 22).

Property owners will receive the audit, various annual reports on the Association and elect two (2) members to the Board of Directors for 3-year terms. You have the following options for casting your vote for Board of Director candidates and other business: Option 1: If you do not plan to attend or if you are not sure whether something might cause a change in plans, you may vote in advance by completing the Ballot/Proxy. Please fill out and mail the enclosed Ballot/Proxy to arrive at Kirk, Monroe & Klostermann, L.L.P., no later than noon on Friday, March 3rd, 2017. If you attend the meeting in person, you may revoke your proxy and vote in person if you prefer.

Option 2: If you do plan to attend, you may vote at the Annual Meeting by turning in the enclosed Ballot/Proxy or obtaining a Ballot at the door and using it.

NOTE: Property owners are entitled to one vote per lot.

2017

Padre Isles Property Owners Association, Inc. OFFICIAL BALLOT BY PROXY

2017

I authorize the Board Secretary to record my vote(s) for the following candidate(s): Three-Year Term Nominees – Vote for Up to Two Persons

 Stan Hulse Carter Tate William Kent Kerr David Dare

George Potter Dennis Sprout

Marvin Jones Robert Algeo __________________________________

The number in the BOX above equals the number of lots owned and the corresponding number of votes for this ballot. By signing below, I/we authorize the Board Secretary to cast the vote(s) indicated above.

OPTIONAL GENERAL PROXY If you cannot attend, and if you want to designate a proxy for the meeting as to other matters, you may designate one person to vote on your behalf at the 2017 Annual Meeting. You may write in as your proxy someone you know who is going to attend the Meeting or one of the above candidates, or you may check the box of one of the current members of the Board of Directors listed below:

Write in__________________________ Brent Moore Nancy Tressa Leslie Hess Darrell Scanlan

Stan Hulse Cheri Sperling John “Jack” Sharlow

This Ballot/Proxy, when properly executed, will be voted in the manner directed by the undersigned. If a General Proxy is made, it will be voted at the discretion of the proxy holder as to other matters arising at the annual meeting. If it is not marked, or if marked improperly, it will be counted toward a quorum only. This form must be signed in order to be valid.

Signature

Second Signature (if applicable)

Printed Name

Printed Name

Date:

Date:

POA Annual Meeting Saturday, March 11

Editor’s note: The annual meeting of the Padre Isles Property Owners Association will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, at the Seashore Learning Center Gym, 15801 S Padre Island Dr., (Encantada @ Park Rd 22).

One item of business will be to elect new officers. Property owners can (A) vote early by using the ballot sent in the mail (B) attend the meeting and bring the ballot filled out (C) Obtain a ballot at the meeting, however this is not suggested as it causes delays.

The above is a copy of the ballot.

Did Ya Hear?

By Mary Craft mkay512@aol.com

New Advertiser St. Andrew’s Knights of Columbus Friday Lenten Fish Fry will be served 5 – 7 pm until April 7th at the St. Andrew by the Sea Family Life Center for dine in or take out.

Business Briefs The Back Porch in Port A will re-open Friday, February 24th with music by Billy Snipes & the Rasta Cowboys.

Dragonfly Restaurant now has daily sandwiches made on homemade bread Tuesday – Friday 11 am – 2 pm. They now offer a 3 course dinner starting at $28 on Tuesday – Thursday. Their happy hour runs 5 – 7 pm Tuesday – Thursday with drink and appetizer specials.

The Barefoot Mardi Gras Parade starts at 11 am Saturday, February 25th. The parade starts at Whitecap beach and runs to the Bob Hall parking lot. The festival at the Briscoe Pavilion parking lot will run until 5 pm and will include music, games, contests, food and fun for all ages. Admission is $5 cash for adults and kids are free.

The King & Queen’s Ball will be held at Schlitterbahn on Saturday, February 25th at 7 pm.

Admission includes a Cajun style dinner and dancing to the live New Orleans style music from Miss Nessie & the Ear Food Orchestra. The new Barefoot King & Queen will be crowned.

Tickets are $25 and can be purchased at barefootmardigras.com, at Schlitterbahn, POA or a PIBA member. Tickets bought at the door will be $35.

The Mardi Gras Parade in Port A will wind down the streets starting at The Gaff on Tuesday February 28th at 5 pm.

The 22nd Annual Billy Sandifer Big Shell Cleanup will be held on Saturday, February 25th and is a great way to see some of the down-island area of Padre Island National Seashore. To participate arrive at Malaquite Pavilion by 7:30 am with your four-wheel drive vehicle and flatbed trailer for hauling trash in and out of the work area. Walking volunteers and those without four wheel drive will be transported. A free lunch will be provided after the event.

The Annual Whooping Crane Festival will be held February 23 – 26. The 300+ cranes are best viewed by boat and there are several narrated boat tours that can be booked at their website.

Deluxe Nails is under new management and has a 20% off sale.

Weekly tidbit - Most of us make regular trips to CVS but I’m guessing not many, well probably none of you know what the letters stand for so here it is. Consumer Value Stores

P.O.A. Dear Padre Isles, First thing, I would like to THANK Cheri Sperling for her years of service and kind, thoughtful, level headedness as a Member of The Board of Directors of the Padre Isles Property Owners Association. (PIPOA) Second, I would like to ask for your vote, support and your attendance at the Annual Meeting to be held at The Seashore Learning Center on (Sat) 10 am, March 11, 2017.

My name is Carter Tate, I’m running again this year to be elected to The PIPOA Board of Directors because I believe in FULL financial accountability and disclosure when dealing with someone else’s money. I’m not new to the Island, I know where the skeletons lie. I believe term limits are a key component of trust-ability.

In the history of the PIPOA there has NOT been an incumbent NOT re-elected – ever.

Nor has there been a representative of the north end of the Island in many, many years. I think that the Island residents have lost respect and trust of the PIPOA Board because it has become a fiefdom for many folks and that overturn within the system will bring new, fresh eyes and ideas and that will be a good thing.

It is my understanding that the reason for all the current energy and money being spent on inspections/inspectors is to “maintain property values”. Having spent most of my professional career in the business of maintaining and raising property values, I can share with you that having a sound, logical, responsible, well-tuned financial system will do a lot more to maintain values than trimmed palm trees will ever do.

If you think having very close to a million of our dollars in a checking account, bearing no interest, is a good idea then you’re just wrong.

If you think that self-insuring 32 miles of bulkhead, the maintenance and wellbeing of which is the top priority in the design and legal paperwork creating the PIPOA, with a value basis of well over $150 million with a pittance of $6 million, then you just don’t do well with math. There are very, very important things before this board and it seems to me, having attended and participated in every single PIPOA Board meeting for 5 years, they start anew every month. Nothing is ever completed, and this my friends and neighbors must end. Next week I tell you the tale of a little park here on the island that this Board has been working on for over 4 years and a few other details you should be aware of – cause somebody’s gotta keep their eyes on ‘em.

Thanks for Your Consideration, CARTER TATE

Send letters and photos to editor@islandmoon.com

A4

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

Showers cont. from A1

Funding cont. from A1

and handicap ramps and mats leading from the beach to the jetties on both sides of Packery Channel.

But fortunately Cross didn’t listen, and on Wednesday his persistence paid off handsomely when word came down from Austin that the Coastal Parks was awarded $7.5 million in funds from the settlement which will allow the completion of improvement plans at Balli Park on Padre Island and IB Magee Beach Park in Port Aransas to begin as early as this year.

For more than six years, even as the members of the ISAC rotated, each of the new committees rejected cost estimates on the projects due to what they considered to be costs that were too high. In fact, when the meeting began at City Hall on Tuesday the cost of the items eventually approved were a combined $3,272,825. But as the meeting wore on as ISAC board members took turns speaking to the board explaining the details and figures for the projects in question, and rather than repeat the delays of past meetings which relied on updated numbers from city staff, presented their own cost numbers generated by ISAC which resulted in all three of the projects to be funded for a combined total of $731,000.

The lower numbers cleared the thirteen yearlong logjam and the projects are now past the funding stage and in the development stage and work begins immediately to bring them to fruition.

A long history When the bonds for Packery Channel were approved by voters in 2000 maintenance of the channel and the development of public amenities around the channel were to be funded by the TRZ which captures property tax on all new construction inside the zone, which covers most of the commercial and retail areas of Padre Island. In 2003 the Corpus Christi City Council officially launched the TRZ which lasts through 2022 and so far, according to figures presented Tuesday, has so far raised $34,825,684. Out of that the U.S. Corps of Engineers has required the TRZ to set aside money to monitor and when necessary dredge the channel, and about $1.4 million goes annually to repay the original bonds for the channel. Currently, according to figures presented Tuesday there is $8,489,715 in the account, and another $1.4 which over the years has been accrued in a Reserve Fund, and each year the TRZ generates about $3 million in new revenue. It is from that fund that the money to pay for the Packery amenities will come.

Original plans in 2003 called for two asphalt parking lots, one quarter-acre each, to be constructed on the beach on each side of the channel. Those plans were shelved when the Texas General Land Office (GLO), which owns the land, disallowed them for legal and ecological reasons. A planned public pavilion on the north side of the channel met the same fate, but talks are still going on to find a way to build the pavilion at a cost less than the current $1.4 million estimate, however, it is not clear if any plans to build a pavilion on the beach around the channel will meet GLO muster.

Since the beginning of the ISAC in 2010 the projects have been brought to the members several times. ISAC members balked when a restroom consisting of two stalls was priced at $3 million. The plan passed Tuesday calls for two separate restroom buildings on each side of the channel each containing two stalls at a total cost of $310,000. The difference in cost between the two is that the original facilities would have been permanent structures which required them to be hurricane resistant and to have new sewer lines run across the beach, costs which ultimately made them sufficiently cost prohibitive, as well as raising numerous regulatory hurdles, stalling them before they got started. The facilities as approved will be purchased already constructed, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been required to build them from scratch on the beach, and can be hauled off the beach in the event of an approaching hurricane.

“The most I had hoped for was $5 million,” Cross said. “That would have helped a lot and that was a longshot, but this will move our plans ahead at least ten years.”

There are still some bureaucratic hoops to jump through, but are formalities and should not impact the funds announced on Wednesday.

The full project list will be included in the draft Texas Multi-Implementation Plan (MIP) that will be posted for public comment in the Texas Register as well as on the website, http:// www.restorethetexascoast.org/. During the 45 day comment period the public will have an opportunity to provide comments regarding the projects. Comments received will be taken into consideration for the final list Texas will submit to the U.S. Treasury for acceptance, after which the funds will become available.

Rendering of the S.P.I.D./Aquarius intersection as complete

Whooping Crane Festival This Weekend in Port Aransas

All things Whooping Crane will be celebrated this weekend as the Whooping Crane Festival takes flight in Port Aransas.

It runs Thursday-Sunday and includes tours, painting and photography exhibits, unique vendors, and attractions for nature lovers. It celebrates the survival of the birds which once

covered The Island by the tens of thousands until they were killed for their feathers which became popular hat ornaments reducing their population to 15 adults by 1938 and now number over 300 thanks to conservation efforts.

If ever there was a bird that deserves its own festival the Whoopers fit the bill.

But Cross’s work is not yet done, there is currently $66 million available in the next round.

“There’s another round of funding coming from the BP spill,” Cross said Tuesday, “and we’re going after our share of it.”

After last week he may find that his board is a bit less doubtful of his chances of success.

Beach cont. from A1 narrow during Spring Break anyway.”

In past years one-way traffic was routed onto the beach at Access Road #3 and remained one-way southbound down the beach to Zahn Road, which was turned into a one-way road off the beach during Spring Break. This year Zahn Road will remain two-way throughout Spring Break with a temporary traffic light at its intersection with State Highway 361.

Whooping Cranes spotted last week at the Port Aransas Wildlife Preserve

Texas Game Wardens Lead Successful Joint Operation Bahia de Aransas Texas game wardens over the weekend wrapped up a successful six-day multiagency initiative, Operation Bahia de Aransas, designed to increase law enforcement presence along the coastal bend region. The initiative was in response to increased commercial oyster activity in Aransas, Carlos and Mesquite bays.

for assault on a federal officer, and a TPWD Class B arrest for a commercial oyster violation.

“The high level of agency participation acted

Throughout the week of Feb. 13, patrols were conducted by Texas game wardens in collaboration with officers from U.S. Border Patrol, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine, U.S. Coast Guard, Aransas County Sheriff’s Office, and the CBP Office of Field Operations.

In all, 67 citations and 15 warnings were written for Parks and Wildlife code violations relating primarily to commercial oyster harvest including many undersized oyster cases.

Charter Boat Owners and Operators Wanted for new location on Packery Channel

Packery Flats Floating Cabin Repairs Large Boat Slip (22’ x 40’) available good for either repairs or rebuilding

Located under the JFK bridge on Packery Channel Call for lease terms

Packery Flats Marina

361-774-8886

Attention

Boat Owners!

Do you own a boat with a cabin

“Oyster resources in Texas have declined over the last several years due to siltation from hurricanes and tropical storms, drought, flooding and high harvest pressure,” said Lance Robinson, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Coastal Fisheries Division deputy director. “A continued strong market demand for oysters has led some fishermen and dealers to resort to harvesting and buying undersize oysters. Hopefully this operation will serve as a deterrent to commercial fishermen and dealers to continue this practice.”

In addition six arrests were also made including a U.S. Marshal Service warrant that was executed from a tug boat, an arrest warrant

regulations. This should reduce confusion and enhance compliance, administration, and enforcement.

Here is a description of the possible regulatory changes.

Establish bag limit of “catch and release only”

Black Grouper Proposal Establish a minimum size limit of 24” and a 4 fish bag limit Background

are interested in an entrepreneurial

Gag

opportunity call 361 332-9978.

Send letters and photos to editor@ islandmoon.com Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper

as a force multiplier and allowed us to expand our coverage in these areas,” said Texas game warden Major Larry Young. “This Operation was definitely a success and the officers involved have done an outstanding job providing natural resource protection and public safety".

Texas Parks and Wildlife is proposing regulation changes saltwater fishing and is currently taking public comment. You can comment on these proposals online prior to the next meeting of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission on March 23.

charters. If you have a boat and

are looking for boats to use for

A Texas game warden inspects for commercial oyster harvest compliance during Operation Bahia de Aransas.

Photo credit Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Proposed Changes in Fishing Regulations

Texas currently has no size or bag limit for black grouper. Federal action in April of 2016 implemented a 24” size limit for black grouper in federal waters. Implementing a 24” minimum size and a 4 fish bag limit allows Texas to be consistent with federal regulations. This should reduce confusion and enhance compliance, administration, and enforcement.

money with it? We have slips and

The final design of the bridge could change depending on the outcome of the bidding process.

Park Road 22 And Aquarius Street Traffic Signal

The Coastal Parks Board is dependent on the Nueces County Commissioners Court for funds but provides about 65% of its own funding, including all of the money to operate Bob Hall Pier, through park fees and other self-generated revenue.

and would you like to make some

As bid, the Water Exchange Bridge will consist of three, forty-foot concrete spans which would cover a waterway with 14 feet of boat clearance, and two adjacent pedestrian/cart paths allowing residents on the west side of the roadway to access the Lake Padre area by foot, cart, or boat by crossing under the bridge.

Be Prepared To Stop When Flashing

“People won’t recognize these parks in five years,” Cross said. “This money will allow us to provide things for the public it would have taken us at least a decade to fund.”

Bridge cont. from A1

Canal leading to water exchange bridge

AWEGS

Cross said the money will be used to expand public amenities at the parks on Padre, where Phase I of the work had already begun and is scheduled to be finished by Labor Day, and in IB Magee Park where RV and camping sites will be added, along with other items.

A few months doesn’t seem so long after thirteen years of waiting.

The bridge is the key to a 3200-foot Beachwalk containing retail and residential space planned by developer Paul Schexnailder who is part of partnerships on both sides of the roadway providing the link for water exchange and boat traffic between the existing Island canal system and the open Gulf of Mexico through Lake Padre. Schexnailder last month completed excavation work on more than 100 acres of land around Lake Padre, including dredging the site for a marina.

Blinker LED

The parks money is part of a total of $28.1 million awarded in Senate District 20, represented by State Senator Chuy Hinojosa which stretches south from Packery Channel.

No timeline was set at the Tuesday meeting, but city staff members said since the facilities approved will be purchased whole rather than constructed they should be in place in the next few months.

Those conditions were set in order to avoid a “Bridge to Nowhere.” Currently the canals to each side of the bridge site are in place, however, about three-hundred feet of the canal on the Schlitterbahn side of SPID must still be dug and an agreement for that work must be in place before funding for the bridge will be released by the city.

Blinker LED

The State Aquarium is also was awarded $5.1 million, and Shamrock Island, on the bay side of Mustang Island, is set for $1.5 million for restoration and projection. The money also includes $6.9 million in grants to remove oil and gas well stubs and associated material in Nueces County from a list submitted by the Texas General Land Office.

Also approved for funding Tuesday were showers adjacent to the restrooms at a total cost of $420,000. The TRZ board rejected a proposal by city staff to begin plans for a pavilion at an undetermined location at a cost of $1 million.

spent until the $7 million from the bond money is spent; two, an agreement must be in place for the canals and bulkheads leading to each side of the bridge before any of the funds will be released; three, construction on the bridge must begin within two years.

JFK Memorial Causeway

Proposal Increase the minimum size limit from 22” to 24” Background Texas currently has a size limit of 22” for gag. Federal action in April of 2016 implemented a 24” size limit for gag in federal waters. Implementing a 24” minimum size allows Texas to be consistent with federal

Nassau Grouper Proposal Background Texas currently has no size or bag limit for Nassau grouper. Nassau grouper was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in July 2016. Texas cannot pre-empt or modify a federal designation of any species as threatened or endangered. Implementing a bag limit of “catch and release only” allows Texas to be consistent with federal regulations.

Hammerhead Sharks Proposal Increase the minimum size limit from 64” to 99” for great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, and smooth hammerhead sharks Background Texas currently has a minimum size of 64” for great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, and smooth hammerhead sharks. Federal action in 2013 implemented a 99” minimum size limit for great hammerhead, scalloped hammerhead, and smooth hammerhead sharks in federal waters.

Implementing a 99” minimum size allows Texas to be consistent with federal regulations.

This should reduce confusion and enhance compliance, administration, and enforcement.

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

Stuff I Heard on the Island

By Dale Rankin This week was the week when everything happened at once. As you can tell from our front page in this issue it was an historic week with news aplenty. First came word that the Nueces County Parks Department will receive $7.5 million in funds from the settlement of the Deepwater (British Petroleum) oil spill, then on Tuesday years of waiting came to an end when funding for three long overdue Island projects were approved – the Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge and the so called Six Pack project around Packery Channel. That was the same day that the new traffic light at the SPID/ Aquarius intersection went hot spurring a rash of activity on our Facebook page. Then as we were going to press Wednesday the phones began ringing about new bollards blocking vehicular access to the beach north of Newport Pass except through Mustang Island State Park.

Tides for Bob Hall Pier February 23 - March 2

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-0.4

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Set 7:48 PM

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I am often asked what the Island Strategic Action Committee does. The group is an advisory committee to the Corpus Christi City Council and their good work was on display on Tuesday as they shepherded the bridge and Packery projects though the Tax Reinvestment Zone Board which must approve funding. What they were doing Tuesday was saving Island taxpayers $2,541,825 by finding affordable and sensible ways to fund the Six-Pack projects while actually improving on them, and most importantly finding a way to actually get them done.

The story begins in 2003 when the city council passed moves to provide various amenities around both sides of Packery Channel. By the time ISAC was formed in 2010 plans were already in place to build the parking lot, boat ramps and cement shelters which now line the north side of Packery Channel from the dune line to the basin at a cost of $2,171,745. ISAC members at the time pointed out that the nearest restrooms are at the Zahn Road entrance to the North Packery Beach and that with benches that forced users to sit back to back they would likely get little use. They were right.

The next Six Pack project was a pavilion on the beach north of Packery Channel and it came in at a cost of just over $1 million and was made of wood. The first problem arose when the Texas General Land Office pointed out that a pavilion is not allowed there under state law. The second problem was that the $1 million pavilion was to be made of wood, which meant come the next Spring Break it would likely become $1 million of kindling for beach fires, as had the wooden Life Guard stands which are now made of PVC. Over the years the pavilion’s potential location has migrated all over the place with the latest spot looking to be the parking lot at the boat ramps on Zahn Road. This does not meet the spirit of the original promise which was a pavilion for beach use. The future of the pavilion is now in question but discussions are continuing.

$750,000 per toilet stall

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found to violate state law because, among other problems, they called for impervious ground cover. So far there has been no plan found to provide parking and comply with state rules.

New restrooms on the beach met a different fate related to cost. The first estimate for restrooms, two stalls each on each side of the Packery, came in at a whopping $3 million.

With four stalls, two on each side of the channel, that put the price per stall at $750,000 each! Holy crap! ISAC members kept sending planners back to the drawing board, each time making suggestions as what type of buildings could be had a much lower prices. But over the years as new city staff members took the place of those who left the ISAC committee kept getting the same old ideas from the new people.

It seemed there was no way to get properly priced restrooms through the city system – until Tuesday.

These numbers are unrecognizable

What do they do?

Tides of the Week

A5

ISAC members who had been discussing the project with city staff prior to Tuesday’s meeting were stunned when presentation to the board put the price of the restrooms at $2 million at which point ISAC member Carter Tate rose and told the board, “I’m on the ISAC subcommittee that has been working on this and these numbers are unrecognizable to me. I feel betrayed.”

At that point the TRZ Board Chairman, Greg Smith, asked for the ISAC numbers which put the restrooms and showers at a total combined cost of $731,000. Smith owns Pioneer Resort Park on the beach and over the years had built several structures on or near the beach and had been one of the main voices pushing back against the $750,000 per stall restrooms. He knew how long the project had been held up by putting it through the city planning process as Packery beachgoers used the port-o-can sweatboxes on the beach.

Doing the heavy lifting The TRZ board unanimously approved the showers and restrooms at the lower number and things are now, after 13 years of stalling on the stalls, moving forward.

Why? Because we have an Island citizen’s advisory group that does its own research and can speak directly to city hall with one Island voice. It is the only one like it in the city and it means that when we have a problem or a project we Islanders need addressed we don’t have to go downtown, deal with the bureaucracy, and appeal to council members who may or may not be familiar with The Island. We can address our concerns to fellow Islanders who vet it and push it through to completion.

So what does the Island Strategic Action Committee do? They do the heavy lifting. On Tuesday they pushed through three projects – including the funding for the Water Exchange Bridge – that had each been stuck in turnaround for more than a decade, and they saved Island taxpayers $2.5 million in the process.

That’s a pretty good day’s work by anybody’s standard.

Parking lots on either side of the Packery were also in the works until those too were

12

0.9

0.0

The seas are the only thing that's calm on the Island these days.

The BACK PORCH Billy Snipes & Rasta Cowboys Feb.

Selfie

Johnny Kiser Davin James Scarecrow People Mark Monaco Chris Saucedo

24 Feb. 25 Feb. 26 Mar. 03 Mar. 04 Mar. 10 Mar. 11

The BACK PORCH Bar ON THE WATERFRONT

132 W. Cotter St. The

PortA

One Bite and You’re Hooked!

All You Can Eat Fried Shrimp Wednesdays 5 - Close Prime Rib Thursdays 5 - Until They're Gone Mini Golf Great Food Seafood, Steaks, Salads, Burgers & Full Bar Open 11am - 2am • Kitchen Closes at 1am 2034 State Hwy 361

361-749-TACO (8226)

A6

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

Senior Moments

Ernie Pyle

Anecdotingly ByAbigail Bair

By Dotson Lewis Special to the Island Moon Dotson’s Note: The other day I was talking to an old, in years, friend who made a few landings on South Pacific islands during WW II. One of which was the very small island of Ie. During the conversation the name Ernie Pyle was mentioned. It had been a while since that name had come to mind. I remember as a kid I read every one of his dispatches and books.

In case you have forgotten, or worse yet, never heard the name Ernie Pyle, you should have, so here goes. Thanks to the “The New York Times” James E. Tobin & Owen V. Johnson for many of the facts contained in this article.

Ernest Taylor Pyle was a Pulitzer Prize– winning American journalist. As a roving correspondent for the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain, he earned wide acclaim for his accounts of ordinary people in rural America, and later, of ordinary American soldiers during World War II. His syndicated column ran in more than 300 newspapers nationwide.

From 1935 through 1941 he traveled throughout the United States, writing about rural towns and their inhabitants. After the U.S. entered World War II, he lent the same distinctive, folksy style to his wartime reports, first from the home front, and later from the European and Pacific theatres. He was killed by enemy fire on Iejima during the Battle of Okinawa.

At the time of his death he was among the best-known American war correspondents.

He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944 for his spare, poignant accounts of "dogface" i n f a n t r y soldiers from a first-person Ernie Pyle & Geraldine perspective.

“Jerry” ** "No man in this war has so well told the story of the American fighting man as American fighting men wanted it told", wrote Harry Truman. "He deserves the gratitude of all his countrymen.”

Ernie Pyle Is Killed on Ie Island This how it was reported: April, 18, 1945--Ernie Pyle died today on Ie Island, just west of Okinawa, like so many of the doughboys he had written about. The nationally known war correspondent was killed instantly by Japanese machine-gun fire.

The slight, graying newspaper man, chronicler of the average American soldier's daily round, in and out of foxholes in many war theatres, had gone forward early this morning to observe the advance of a well-known division of the Twenty-fourth Army Corps.

He joined headquarters troops in the outskirts of the island's chief town, Tegusugu. Our men had seemingly ironed out minor opposition at this point, and Mr. Pyle went over to talk to a regimental commanding officer. Suddenly enemy machine gunners opened fire at about 10:15 A.M. (9:15 P.M., Tuesday, Eastern war time). The war correspondent fell in the first burst.

The commanding general of the troops on the island reported the death to headquarters as follows: "I regret to report that War Correspondent Ernie Pyle, who made such a great contribution to the morale of our foot soldier, was killed in the battle of Ie Shima today."

At A Command Post Ie Island Ryukyus Ernie Pyle, the famed columnist who had reported the wars from Africa to Okinawa, met his death about a mile forward of the command post. Mr. Pyle had just talked with a general commanding Army troops and Lieut.

Col. James E. Landrum, executive officer of an infantry regiment, before "jeeping" to a forward command post with Lieut. Col. Joseph B. Coolidge of Helena, Ark., commanding officer of the regiment, to watch front-line action.

Colonel Coolidge was alongside Mr. Pyle when he was killed. "We were moving down the road in our jeep," related Colonel Coolidge.

"Ernie was going with me to my new command post. At 10 o'clock we were fired on by a Jap machine gun on a ridge above us. We all jumped out of the jeep and dived into a roadside ditch.”

May Be Buried Where He Fell "A little later Pyle and I raised up to look around. Another burst hit the road over our heads and I fell back into the ditch. I looked at Ernie and saw he had been hit. He was killed almost instantly, the bullet entering his left temple just under his helmet. I crawled back to report the tragedy, leaving a man to watch the body. Ernie's body will be brought back to Army grave registration officers. He will be

buried here on Ie Jima unless we are notified otherwise. I was so impressed with Pyle's coolness, calmness and his deep interest in enlisted men. They have lost their best friend."

Colonel Coolidge was visibly shaken as he told the facts of the columnist's death. Almost tearfully, he described the tragedy. He said he knew the news would spread swiftly over the island.

The general also was visibly upset as he read a message about Mr. Pyle's death. He said: "I am terribly sorry to hear this news. Just before Ernie went up this road [pointing toward the front lines] he talked with me and Colonel Landrum at this command post, and Ernie made arrangements to meet me back here at 3 o'clock. I told him if he was not here on time I couldn't wait for him, as I had to be back on my flagship."

While the general was talking soldiers standing nearby were grieved to hear of Mr. Pyle's death.

A short distance ahead enemy machine guns and our own guns and artillery were firing.

Death Photo of War Reporter Ernie Pyle This photo provided by Richard Strasser in 2008, was never before published. It, shows famed World War II war correspondent Ernie Pyle shortly after he was killed by a Japanese machine gun bullet on the island of Ie Shima.

Pentagon Never Released The Photo Out Of Deference To His Widow The figure in the photograph is clad in Army fatigues, boots and helmet, lying on his back in peaceful repose, folded hands holding a military cap. Except for a thin trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth, he could be asleep. But he is not asleep; he is dead. And this is not just another fallen GI; it is Ernie Pyle, the most celebrated war correspondent of World War II. As far as can be determined, the photograph had never been published until 2008. Sixty-three years after Pyle was killed by the Japanese, it surfaced, surprising historians, reminding a forgetful world of a humble correspondent who artfully and ardently told the story of a war from the foxholes. "It's a striking and painful image, but Ernie Pyle wanted people to see and understand the sacrifices that soldiers had to make, so it's fitting, in a way, that this photo of his own death ... drives home the reality and the finality of that sacrifice," said James E. Tobin, a professor at Miami University of Ohio.

Tobin, author of a 1997 biography, "Ernie Pyle's War," and Owen V. Johnson, an Indiana University professor who collects Pyle-related correspondence, said they had never seen the photo. The negative is long lost, and only a few prints are known to exist.

"When I think about the real treasures of American history that we have," says Mark Foynes, director of the Wright Museum of World War II in Wolfeboro, N.H., "this picture is definitely in the ballpark." **In the event you noticed the uniform, Ernie Pyle was in the Navy Reserve and was on active duty during WWI. Dotson’s Other Note: There is a monument dedicated to Ernie Pyle’s memory on the southern part of the island of Ie. Every year on the weekend closest to his April 18 death there is a memorial service. Hope you enjoyed the history lesson. Stories of Ernie Pyle are some of best reads you can find.

On January 12, 1979, Captain Glenn Shoop at the controls of the British Airways Concorde G-BOAE (N94AE), and Captain Ken Larson at the controls of the Air France Concorde F-BVFC (N94FC) made a stunning parallel landing on the two West runways at D/FW to open Braniff Concorde Service.Your thoughts regarding this or any articles appearing in The Island Moon are greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading and commenting on Senior Moments. I can be reached at: dlewis1@stx. rr.com and/or Land Line: 361-949-7681 Cell: 530-748-8475.

Please Note: The next Veterans Round Table Meeting will be Tuesday, February 28, 2017, 9-11 AM, 3209 S. Staples. All Veterans, their families and anyone interested in Veterans affairs, are invited. Coffee & doughnuts are provided. Hope to see you there. Also our Veterans Radio Round Table is on the air on KEYS AM 1440, 8 – 9 AM, Saturdays. The next will air February 25, 2017. Please listen and call in. The listener/text line is: 361-5605397…It’s your show.

Hang in there/Have fun!

Commando

Back in the day, I was a nanny for my two nephews, Jovanni (5) and Avery (18 months). It was pretty interesting, and was also how I learned that babies cannot successfully eat spaghetti.

Day one stuff: Today was J.’s very first day of swimming lessons. He’d been protesting about going for two weeks, and we were all a little worried about what his reaction would be. On the way over, I gave him a mini-lecture along the lines of: “You will listen to your teacher, you will do what she says – even if you don’t want to, you will not act up even if the other kids are acting up, there will be NO WHINING. These are the rules. If you don’t follow the rules, you are going to get the world’s biggest time out. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Auntie, sometimes babies whine.”

“Yep, J. sometimes babies do, but they’re not big boys who get to go to swimming lessons, right?”

“RIGHT!” “Okay, cool.”

was of him. I was bursting with exuberance.

“Neener,” I was thinking, “This kid may not be mine, but he’s still better than yours!” I walked him back to the Men’s locker room, handed him his “streeties” and said, “Go get dressed, buddy, and we’ll go to the library.”

“Okay, Auntie. Be right back!”

So I stood outside the door. It’s pretty difficult to just casually hang outside the door of a men’s changing room. I’m fairly sure I looked like a total idiot. A few minutes passed, and I hadn’t heard anything from inside.

“J. are you okay in there?”

Nothing. No response.

“J. what’s up?”

“MY UNDERWEAR Jovanni yelled.

ARE

STUCK!”

I tried to reply quietly, because at this point the entire jerk face adult table was attempting to hide their laughter behind their hands.

“Dude, what do you mean? Dry your butt off with the towel and pull up your underwear! It’s cool!”

We rolled into the pool parking lot five minutes prior to the start of class. J. had to change into his suit so I sent him off to the Men’s locker room, and got him ready to go. He changed quickly, handed me his street clothes, his towel, and his sandals (in an unruly pile) and ran off to meet his instructor – no crying, no wussiness, nothing. I felt happy, but also kind of let down – I clearly wasn’t needed here. I walked over to the white plastic picnic table where all the other adults were sitting, and starting folding up J.’s stuff.

“NO! MY UNDERWEAR GETTING STUCK!”

I have a theory that REAL parents have some kind of 6th sense that alerts them when “fake” parents (nannies and their ilk) are around. Real parents don’t like nannies. They resent the hell out of you, and the people you work for. “I’m here for my kid,” they seem to be thinking, “And those jerks just paid someone to do their job for them. I am comparatively a super parent!”

Of course they’re forgetting that once their kid hits school age, most of them do exactly the same thing. Anyway, they gave me the cold shoulder. In retrospect, I suppose that my weird, somewhat Princess Leia hairdo, and my really cool Justice League t-shirt did not help my cause. Whatever, I looked rad. A kid from J.’s class even came up to me later to tell me he had the same shirt, and then we had a long talk about Spiderman and whether super powers are worth getting bitten by spiders. We came to the conclusion that they were, but barely.

Shoulders at the adult table began to shake, and one person belted out a laugh that she tried to stifle with a cough.

J. did amazing. He was brave. He was patient.

He was nice to the other kids. He completed all the tasks the teacher set for him, and said they were easy. He raised his hand to get a turn. He was by far the best kid of the lot. The other kids were comparatively chicken. The instructor was great, and J. loved her instantly. “This,” I thought, “Is going TO RULE!” And it did rule, for a minute.

When the lesson ended, I went over to J. to towel him off and tell him how proud I

KEEP

At this point, I started imagining horrific scenarios in which a kid could get stuck in his underwear. Like maybe he put two feet through one hole, got an arm stuck in the other, and somehow managed to hog tie himself.

“Kid, you’re just gonna have to go commando,” I stage whispered, desperately trying to keep the “real” parents from hearing.

“WHAT’S COMMANDO!?!?!?!!!!”

“It’s where you don’t wear any underwear.”

“THAT IS GROSS, AUNTIE! ONLY GROSS PEOPLE DON’T WEAR UNDERWEAR. YOU’RE GROSS, AND I’M STILL STUCK!!!”

The parents totally lost it at this point – politeness forgotten, they ceased to hide their guffaws at the rookie, and literally rolled with laughter. Some of them had tears streaming down their faces. I had no idea of how to resolve the situation. I could hardly march the kid out, underwear stuck at half-mast, and haul him to the ladies room to fix it. The commando card was supposed to be my trump, and it failed miserably. Meanwhile, the sounds of a ferocious and desperate struggle in the Men’s room kept getting louder, and people laughed even harder. I must’ve turned horribly red at that point. I was about to panic and call J.’s Mommy for technical support when J. called out happily (and not nearly as loudly), “It’s okay. They came unstuck.”

He got dressed, and we marched towards the gate. People were still sniggering. Then J. voluntarily thanked his teacher on the way out.

That shut them up.

Send letters and photos to editor@islandmoon.com

February 23, 2017

Changes in an Emberá Community

By Brent Rourk Part 2 of 3

A7

Island Moon

Island Moon on a Spoon

three crops of rice and corn yearly, in addition we continuously cultivate plantain.”

By Chef Vita Jarrin

Changes and Difficulties in Utopia Tropical forest climates can vary from indescribably ideal to torrential rainstorms for days and weeks that make fishing and hunting difficult if not daunting, especially for 118 people. Lengthy rainstorms can destroy their few crops, putting more pressure on them to grow, catch, and store food. Yet they persist, understanding, accepting, and welcoming such

He is not a stranger to hard work and his calm demeanor and history remain a stalwart of tribal personality and interaction. Quietly, he still carries a strong voice in tribal events, activities, and interactions. Eleah displayed a strong distaste for modern culture and its incomprehensible purpose and pace.

storms.

Young Emberá sometimes wonder when they see tourists what their life and culture must be like. It is only natural to imagine, in spite of the negative accounts relayed by that handful who have experienced culture in the city. Most Emberá in the wilds and in settled communities know that many other Emberá have already migrated to urban areas, more quickly adapting to modern culture. In my lifetime the Emberá people as a large group in Panama have gone from traditional dispersed settlements to settled communities to urban areas; an incomprehensible amount of change in roughly 70 years for a group of indigenous people.

Savory Pot Pie

T h e r e ’ s something rich, satisfying and nostalgic about eating a flaky, bubbly homemade, rustic pot pie. It’s a savory dish that America has loved for centuries. But for some it may seem like too much work. In all honesty, making a “from scratch” pie dough, cutting all the veggies and poaching or roasting the chicken, does involve a bit of work.

But there are shortcuts to everything. All of

which I approve of. I wouldn’t take shortcuts if they compromised the end result on something so delicious and traditional, as a pot pie. By using premade pie dough or crusts, you cut the time in half as well as by using rotisserie chicken if you are truly in a bind and need to make this in a pinch.

Ingredients: 4 tbsp. butter

Expertly made small and simple baskets take one to two weeks to make and sell for thirteen to twenty dollars

With their dependency of some tourist dollars, Tribo Tres must continue to permit tourists to visit. They can limit the tourism but there is a tricky balance at play between the amount of tourism sufficient to help pay for needs versus being over-run by tourism and losing their traditional identity. As a settled community they need tourism and try to maintain that delicate balance of living and preserving their traditional culture in the face of change.

grueling and strenuous for him to abandon his Emberá roots and lifestyle.

Meeting Other Emberá

Being in the Emberá Tribo Tres camp is indescribable. Just like in my first visit to the Emberá, again I was driven both to enjoy my experiences and to learn as much as I could.

I was at Tribo Tres for only the day, so I had to use my time wisely to capitalize on their hospitality, to learn more, and to experience their lifestyle. I spoke with a few other Emberá.

Eleah sat along the perimeter of the newer, round community hut when we arrived, silently watching other Emberá explain to the tourists, in Spanish, aspects of their culture. Eleah was wearing a native thong that contrasted against the color of his tanned skin. Sitting alone next to a native herb-scented finger cleaning bowl (we ate the fish and plantains with our hands) Eleah looked like he might respond to conversation so I could not resist greeting him.

He was very willing to chat with me in Spanish.

I recalled seeing him 4 years earlier but spoke with him only for a minute then. Today would be different.

Though Eleah is not the oldest Emberá in Tribo Tres (that honor belongs to another man who just turned 92). But he insists on working a little each day and facing his world with a smile and kindness. He is a farmer, he is a community member, and he is a proud Emberá.

Savoring the Hours

1/2 cup Diced Carrot 1/2 cup Diced Celery 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (dark & white meat preferred) 1/4 cup flour 3 cups Low-sodium Chicken Broth, Plus More If Needed Splash of White Wine (optional) 1/4 teaspoon turmeric 1tsp Ras el hanout spice blend (world market) 1tsp coriander 1 tsp granulated garlic 2 tsp. Kosher or Sea salt

Chopped fresh thyme leaves (1-2 sprigs) 1/4 cup Heavy Cream 2 whole unbaked Pie Crust 1 whole egg 1 tbsp. water I did not want to leave, however, it was inevitable. It was clear that I have been smitten by the Emberá distinctly more than I have by all of the other native peoples I have visited in the world.

Ex chieftain Andrea and I chatted for a couple of hours. She introduced her child (also 1 year old) to us and chatted more about daily life in remote Tribo Tres. She spoke to her child in her native Emberá language and in Spanish.

Clearing a few small plots of land in the tropical forest, Eleah and several others farm throughout the year. He claimed, “We cultivate

1/2 cup Diced Onion

Dash or two chili flakes for heat (optional)

One of them fed her 1 year old boy while explaining that she and her husband were expecting another. She occasionally looked up at me with a peaceful smile as she continued diligently crafting her basket. Selling her baskets was a financial lifeline for her and her husband. They could purchase utensils and floral patterned material that she uses for her clothing. Conversely, the baskets are made from local grasses and the dyes are expertly extracted from local plants.

Eleah with his wife and two other Emberá were the founding members of Tribo Tres about 50 years earlier. He had witnessed the tribe grow to its unimaginable population of 118. He was friendly and as equally curious about my life as I was about his life style. At 76 years old, he still embodied the spirit of the Emberá.

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp. black pepper

My friend Maria and I spent time with Andrea and a couple of younger women who were making baskets and jewelry. Both friendly, they explained their crafts, their lifestyle, and their families.

Founding Member

Stir in the chicken add the thyme, salt, pepper and spices. Then sprinkle the flour over the top and stir it until it’s all combined with the chicken and vegetables. Stir in wine if using, and stir for about 2 minutes. Add the stock and allow to thicken.

Add the cream, then stir the mixture and let it bubble up and thicken for about 3 minutes. If it seems overly thick, splash in a little more broth. Turn off the heat.

Roll out the pie dough to fit inside the pie dish. Roll out the second piece of dough for

Having lived through destructive storms, times with little food, growing tribal population, contact with the outside world, learning Spanish (in addition to the Emberá language), and other setbacks, Eleah completely embraced the Emberá lifestyle, eschewing as much change as he saw fit. Regardless, he curiously asked me about my life, goals, and experiences.

Seemingly, times cannot ever become too

The important thing is the end result.

Following my recipe will give you a great pot pie with a variety of tips on how to keep it fresh and interesting.

Emberá greet tourists

and celery. Stir them around until the onions start to turn translucent, about 3-5 minutes.

1 tbsp. milk

INSTRUCTIONS Preheat the oven to 375 F.

the top and set aside. Add a little cooking spray to the dish and drop in the first sheet of pie dough. You should have a little overhang of dough in order to seal the top layer. With a fork, poke holes in the dough. Pour the filling into the baking dish. Make the egg wash, by combining the egg, water and milk. You will likely have egg wash left over. You may discard it.

Brush some on the wash on the edges of the bottom layer. Lay the second sheet of dough over the top of the dish. Press the dough so that the edges stick together. You can press or pinch edges with your fingers, or use a fork and go around the pie and seal both crusts together. Keep it rustic, this avoids stressing over the dish. Use a knife to cut little vents on the top of the pot pie. Four to six slits to resemble a cross will work fine. Brush the top layer of the pie with more egg wash. This will make the crust golden.

Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet, covered in foil and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the crust is deep golden brown and the filling is bubbly. To prevent the crust from getting too brown, you might want to cover it lightly with foil for the first 15 minutes of baking time.

Tip of the week!

This, like many of my dishes is versatile. You can use various fillings outside of chicken, such as turkey, ground beef, or ground chicken or lamb, shredded pork etc. You can also get creative and add different veggies too or keep it all vegetables if you prefer. Such veggies include, diced potatoes, corn, lima beans, kale, spinach and the list goes on. Keep in mind however, that using frozen vegetables, will add moisture to your filling, making it watery and diluted in flavor. Therefore I recommend fresh as much as possible or from a can but drained. You can play with spices too. I used some Middle Eastern influence in this dish, but you can add Mexican, Italian, Asian, or Greek spices as well.

The important this is to Have Fun! Try New Things! Happy Eats… Enjoy!

Melt the oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots,

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The trio of Emberá revealed welcome information about tribal life. Women take responsibility for child care, cooking, basket making, jewelry making, dancing, and have equal voice in tribal decisions. Men make tattoos, fish, hunt, play soccer, and swim in the river. They also play instruments and have equal voice in tribal matters. It seemed to me that the women have a longer list of responsibilities; however, I need to spend more time with the Emberá to get a more detailed view of gender responsibilities, influence, and control.

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A8

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

SPORTS Sports Talk Special to The Island Moon

Did You Know That Jackie Robinson Was CourtMartialed

By Dotson Lewis

was exonerated: “Robinson secured at least Special to the Island Moon the four votes (secret and written) needed for Dotson’s Note: I was his acquittal. He was found ‘not guilty of all a Jackie Robinson fan from the time I first specifications and charges.'” saw him play, not live but in a news clip in Setting History in Motion an Army theater in May 1947. He was not the most talented major league baseball player I Philosopher Cornel West put it in his had ever seen, but he could play! He played introduction to Jackie Robinson’s autobiography as hard or harder than Pete Rose when he was ‘I Never Had It Made,’ “More even than either in his prime. Thanks Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, or Martin Arnold Rampersad, Cornel West, Hank Aaron Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement, and George Will for their contributions to this Jackie Robinson graphically symbolized and article. personified the challenge to a vicious legacy and ideology of white supremacy in American Jackie Robinson’s First Major League history.”

Baseball Game

On April 15, 1947, at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jack Roosevelt Robinson, at the age of 28, became the first African American to play for a majorleague baseball team.* Before a crowd of 26,623 spectators (of whom approximately 14,000 are thought to have been black), though he got no hits, Robinson scored a run to contribute to the Dodgers’ 5-3 victory over the Boston Braves.

The rest, as they say, is history. During a relatively short career spanning only nine years, Robinson was Rookie of the Year in 1947, Most Valuable Player in 1949, took his team to the World Series six times (including one World Championship in 1955) and made the All-Star Team six times. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1962, and in an unprecedented gesture to his enormous historical significance and prowess as an athlete, Major League Baseball retired his number “42” in 1997, the first time this has been done for any athlete in any sport.

These are the facts of his baseball career, which “kids” my age knew by heart. But what virtually none of us knew back then, and many people don’t know today, is that Lt. Jack Roosevelt Robinson was actually court-martialed in 1944! Court-martials are military courts, usually consisting of a panel of commissioned officers who conduct a criminal trial. There are three types of courts-martial: Summary CourtMartial, Special Court-Martial and General Court-Martial. Robinson faced a General Court-Martial.

Had he been found guilty, the whole course of black participation in professional baseball and every other professional sport, as well as the modern civil rights movement, most probably would have been profoundly affected adversely.

But the circumstances of that court-martial only add to Robinson’s credentials as one of the true pioneers of the civil rights movement.

Standing his Ground As detailed in the masterful Jackie Robinson: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad, on July 6, 1944, Robinson “became entangled in a dispute that threatened to end his military service in disgrace.” While riding on a military bus returning to a hospital from “the colored officers club,” Robinson sat next to Virginia Jones, the wife of one of his fellow officers.

Jones looked white — at least the white bus driver thought so. After a few blocks, the driver abruptly ordered Robinson “to move to the back of the bus.” Robinson, justifiably outraged, refused. Among other things, he had read that segregation was no longer allowed on military buses and proceeded to engage in a form of protest prefiguring a similar action by Rosa Parks 11 years later.

Rampersad reprints Robinson’s statement about what happened next: “The bus driver asked me for my identification card. I refused to give it to him. He then went to the Dispatcher and told him something. What he told him I don’t know. He then comes back and tells the people that this nigger is making trouble.

I told the driver to stop f—in with me, so he gets the rest of the men around there and starts blowing his top and someone calls the MP’s.”

Robinson was placed under “arrest in quarters,” which meant that “he would be considered under arrest at the hospital, although without a guard. Robinson was then taken to the hospital in a police pickup truck.” A white officer would recall that Robinson “was handcuffed, and there were shackles on his legs. Robinson’s face was angry, the muscles on his face tight, his eyes half closed.”

Robinson was transferred to the 758th Tank Battalion on July 24, “where the commander signed orders to prosecute him.” On that day, he was arrested. Rampersad says that “At 1:45 in the afternoon on August 2, the case of The United States v. 2nd Lieutenant Jack R. Robinson, 0-10315861, Cavalry, Company C, 758th Tank Battalion, began.” Robinson’s fate was in the hands of nine men, eight of them white: “One was black; another had been a UCLA student, where Robinson had been an undergraduate. Six votes were needed for conviction.”

Robinson faced two charges: “The first, a violation of Article of War No. 63, accused him of ‘behaving with disrespect toward Capt.

Gerald M. Bear, CMP, his superior officer’ …

The second charge was a violation of Article No. 64, in this case ‘willful disobedience of lawful command of Gerald M. Bear, CMP, his superior.’ ” Three other charges were dropped before the trial began. Testimony reveals how bravely Robinson had fought to defend himself on the evening of the incident, including reportedly saying quite heroically, “Look here, you son-of-a-bitch, don’t you call me no nigger!” After a four-hour trial, Robinson

It is easy for us to underestimate the enormous significance, both symbolically and politically, of Jackie Robinson’s integration of Major League Baseball, today when so very many black athletes play such dominant roles in sports.

Baseball was America’s “national pastime,” and it was also, accordingly, the ultimate bastion of white male dominance. If professional sports as a whole were to be desegregated — and to some extent, the larger society — this effort had to commence on the baseball field. To understand the even broader social and political import of what Robinson’s actions on the field initiated, we need only consider the chain reaction of crucial episodes in the history of the civil rights movement that unfolded almost immediately after his first season with the Dodgers.

First, President Harry Truman issued Executive Order 9982 on July 26, 1948, just over a year after Robinson faced his first pitcher at Ebbets Field, abolishing racial discrimination in the armed forces. It is certainly reasonable to assume that Truman’s timing was informed by Robinson’s successful integration of professional baseball.

Truman’s desegregation of the military no doubt informed the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board decision desegregating public schools in 1954, which in turn informed the actions of Rosa Parks on her bus, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Out of the Montgomery Bus Boycott emerged the leadership role of the young Martin Luther King.

It is not claimed that what Jackie Robinson achieved in 1947 set off this chain reaction of events, but his courage and bravery played a major role in the history of integration, both on the field and throughout American society, and no history of the civil rights movement would be complete without noting R o b i n s o n ’s major role.

Off the field, Jackie Robinson was also one of movement’s strongest voices, in spite of the fact that he had to withstand so much abuse on the field and from the stands in stoic Jackie Robinson-UCLA Football Team yet eloquent silence.

He once wrote, in a letter to Averell Harriman in 1955, that “We are sure that in time, the spirit embedded in the Constitution of the United States will prevail in all sections of the country; however, it is important now that we be vigilant in guarding against flagrant miscarriages of justice that will hurt not only the innocent victims, but also the perpetrators.” He desperately — and unsuccessfully — lobbied Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon to intervene when Dr. King was jailed in Georgia in October 1960.

Jackie Robinson was a “race man,” as they said in those days, dedicated to the betterment of the black people. As he wrote in another letter to William Keefe in 1956, “I speak to you only as an American who happens to be an American Negro and one who is proud of that heritage.

We ask for nothing special. We ask only that we be permitted to compete on an even basis, and if we are not worthy, then the competition shall, per se, eliminate us.” Hank Aaron noted this quite eloquently in his introduction to I Never Had It Made: “Jackie Robinson gave all of us — not only black athletes but every black person in this country — a sense of our own strength.” As the conservative columnist George Will correctly notes, Robinson’s life is “One of the great achievements not only in the annals of sports, but of the human drama anywhere, anytime.”

It is for these reasons that we should all be grateful that Robinson was acquitted at his court-martial for refusing to move to the back of the bus, and that we should honor the immortal legacy of Jackie Robinson as one of the greatest heroes of the modern civil rights movement, this extraordinarily noble man who suffered so much in so many ways for the sacrifices he made, both publicly and privately.

Jawbreaker

By Andy Purvis Special to the Island Moon He looked completely out of place in a coat and tie. He was an ambush hitter; just when he looked like an easy prey, he could beat you with one punch. He stormed into the ring like the U.S. Marines at Tripoli. He was a large man with bulging biceps; his nickname should have been “standing eight counts.” He was country strong and could crush a baseball in his bare hand. Running into him was like chest-bumping a Pepsi machine. His life was lived in a squared ring under lights so hot they could melt cheese.

He could stand right in front of you and you couldn’t find him with your fist. His goal was to insure that you could eat nothing but soft food the rest of your days. Giving this guy boxing gloves was like giving George Patton a tank, Zorro a sword or Al Capone a bat; something devastating was about to happen.

inspiration that drove Norton: “Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the man who thinks he can.”

Norton owned tremendous inner strength. He was a powerful and rugged presence with the ability to stare down fear. Some boxers think the past means nothing when they are trying to be a part of the future. This was not true with Norton, who drew his strength from his past. He prepared his mind as well as his body.

With his arms crossed in front of him, in an unorthodox manner, he would creep toward his opponent like a third baseman with the bunt sign on. He had a tremendous upward left jab that gave the other fighter fits. With head fakes and relentless intentional pressure, he could keep you off balance. Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” You had better have a plan with this guy. Mayhem doesn’t announce itself, it doesn’t call ahead, it just happens. He had drops of ice water in his veins and spent most of his time trying to rearrange his opponent’s face.

This guy made so much money; he could beat you up with his paycheck. When you knock someone out, you can see the expression change on their face, and they start to question whether they should have gotten into the ring that night.

There were stars and superstars, and then there was Ken Norton. When Norton hit Quarry, Jerry’s jaw dropped like a ski lift. Then his body followed. Norton said it was the hardest blow he recalled landing in his career. Ken Norton found out that anything you do that causes you fear can turn out to be the best thing in your life.

That was until he broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw.

been televised on Wide World of Sports. The place had standing room only. The date was March 31, 1973; and Ali had entered the ring at the San Diego Sports Arena, a 5-1 favorite wearing a robe given to him by Elvis Presley. It had taken Ken Norton seven years to move up to the sixth-ranked heavyweight in the world. His record stood at 29-1 with the one blip belonging to Jose Luis Garcia. Norton would later avenge his loss to Garcia in 1975. Ali had recently lost to Joe Frazier in 1971. Norton maintained he broke Ali’s jaw in round eleven. Ali’s trainer, Angelo Dundee, claims it was much earlier.

There were no knockdowns during the fight.

When Norton’s hand was raised in victory, Howard Cosell, sitting ringside, yelled into his microphone, “There it is. One of the greatest upsets in boxing history.” Norton visited Ali in the hospital where Ali had his jaw wired. Ali told Norton he never wanted to fight him again, yet they fought two more times.

Black Herucles Kenneth Howard Norton Sr., affectionally called “The Black Hercules” due to his fine athletic build, was born on August 9, 1943, in Jacksonville, Illinois. He became a terrific athlete in high school and a member of the state championship football team. He was also selected all-state in defense. His track coach entered him in eight events in 1960, and he won all eight. As a result the “Ken Norton Rule” was put in place in the state of Illinois, which limited an athlete to participating in a maximum of three track and field events. Norton received a football scholarship to Northeast Missouri State, now known as Truman State University.

He majored in Elementary Education. After college, Norton joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1963, where he took up boxing. From 1963 to 1967, Ken won 24 of 26 fights and titles in three All-Marine Heavyweight divisions. He turned professional after the 1967 AAU finals. Norton always said he attributed his early success to a book he read written by Napoleon Hill entitled Think and Grow Rich. In this book lies the

In their initial fight, the powerful 29-year-old Ken Norton had broken the great Muhammad Ali’s jaw, while winning a 12-round split decision. At 6’ 3” tall and weighing 210 pounds, Norton looked as if he had been chiseled from a block of granite. The fight had

Six months later, on September 10, 1973, at the Forum in Inglewood, California, Ali redeemed himself at their rematch, with a win by split decision over Norton. It was later speculated that Norton may have over-trained for this fight, as he weighed five pounds less than his first match with Ali. Ali would also win the rubber match between these two at Yankee Stadium on September 28, 1976. Ali-Norton III was one of the most disputed fights in the history of boxing. The fight was even, going into the last round. The judges scored the fight 8-7 in favor of Ali, and the referee scored the fight 8-6 for Ali. It was a tough fight, and Ali received a pounding. Many claimed that this fight was the beginning of the end of Ali’s career. Norton always believed he had won the fight.

Next time: Norton’s unusual stance Andy Purvis is a local author and radio personality. Please visit www.purvisbooks. com for all the latest info on his books or to listen to the new radio podcast. Andy’s books are available online and can be found in the local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Andy can be contacted at purvis.andy@mygrande.net. Also listen to sports talk radio on Dennis & Andy’s Q & A Session from 6-8 PM on Sportsradiocc.com 1230 AM, 96.1 FM and 103.3 FM. The home of the Houston Astros.

TPWD Closing Oyster Harvest in Powderhorn Lake The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is closing TX-22 in Powderhorn Lake to commercial and recreational oyster harvest on Saturday, Feb. 18. 2017.

This closing is based on samples collected in February 2017 by TPWD in response to concerns expressed by the oyster industry.

Chapter 76, Parks and Wildlife Code, and the Oyster Management Proclamation, Section 58.21(c)(1), provide for the emergency closure of an area to oyster harvesting when it can be shown that the area is being overworked or damaged.

TPWD and the Oyster Advisory Workgroup, a group of Texas commercial oyster fishermen and dealers, have established criteria based on the abundance of market-sized oysters (greater than 3 inches) and the percentage of small oysters (2-2.9 inches) for determining when an area should be closed.

“This closure is designed to provide some protection to undersize oysters so they can reach legal sizes. The area will be closely monitored by TPWD and will reopen when criteria thresholds are met,” says TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Deputy Division Director Lance Robinson.

Dotson’s Other Note: *This statement is not accurate, it should have read: Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball since the 1884 season, when Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker played for the Toledo Blue Stockings between May 1 and Sept.

4. Also to be accurate, William White, a student at Brown, played one game for the Providence Grays of the National League in 1879, hence technically breaking the color barrier. Your comments, suggestions, questions and concerns regarding Sports Talk articles are greatly appreciated, please call the Benchwarmers at 361-560-5397 weekdays, Mondays thru Fridays, 5-7 PM, or contact me. Phone: 361949-7681 Cell: 530-748-8475 Email: dlewis1@ stx.rr.com Have fun -30-

Send letters and photos to editor@islandmoon.com

Kite day at Padre Island National Seashore. Photo courtesy of PINS

February 23, 2017

A9

Island Moon

The Traveling Moon Gets Around

Keith Hyatt took The Island Moon to Havana Cuba. He lives at Nautilus Condos on the Island. They spent 5 days in Cuba and had a blast.

Seashore Happenings!

Seashore Learning Center has many after school clubs that offer a wide variety of learning through fun and creativity. Mrs. Korina Pickens' Legos Club (1st through 4th grade) inspires great minds to engineer great things with Bricks! Challenges received each week result in a team effort to create something outstanding to present to the group!

CAR-A-MIA!

Stingray's Hosts Classic Car Show

Doug and Lynn Hooker took the Moon to Big Bend.

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A10

February 23, 2017

Island Moon

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13830 Hawksnest Bay completely updated inside/out 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 2 dining, 3 living, over 4500 sq. ft., $699,900. Cindy Molnar 549-5557 to preview.

13722 A La Entrada 3 bedrooms, 4 baths, 2 car garage w/3,769 sq. ft. located on a wide canal. Gourmet kitchen, dramatic fireplace, cathedral ceilings, office & more! $1,150,000. Charlie 443-2499.

Great Mustang Island 2/2 condo, updated, covered veranda, pool/spa, private beach access, short term rentals apply, $180,000. Call Dorothy 361-5638486.

14945 S. Padre Island Dr. Corpus Chris�, TX 78418 (361) 949‐2131 (877) 269‐2131

www.rentpadreisland.com Superior Service, Outstanding Reputa�on since 1999 Looking for Professional Long Term Property Management Services?

Our services include:  Tenant Qualifying  Collec�ons of Rents  Coordina�ng Repairs & Maintenance  Professional Itemized Monthly Statements  Marke�ng/Adver�sing

Open Sunday 2/26 2‐5 p.m.

Open Sunday 2/26 2‐5 p.m.

Looking for Long Term Rental Property?

Below are some of our available rentals:

14861 SPID #113 3/2.5/2 $1650

14901 Canadian Mist 4/2.5/2 $2000

14806 Highland Mist 3/3/2 $2500

13953 Fortuna Bay 5 & 7 2/2 ea. $1200 ea.

Mys�c Harbor #308 1/1 $850

13705 Cayo Gorda 4/3.5/2 $3200

Beach Breeze #503 3/2.5/1 $1550

14205 Jacksh A 3/2/1 $1425

Beach Club #324 1/1 $900

Beachfront Aransas Princess #407 Fantastic Gulf views! Boardwalk to beach. 2 pools, garage parking, storage, elevators. $375,000. Charlene 361-2442344.

New Golf Course construction.

Enjoy incredible views from this 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 2 car garage home with 2,315 sq. ft. Tile throughout. Call Cheryl.

Open Sunday 2/26 2‐5 p.m.

Duplex for Sale. Each unit has 3/2/1, open plan, oversized RV garage 12’x73’x15’. RV has 30 amp & 50 amp power & hook ups.

Carrie 361-949-5200.

13914 Mingo Cay 1 bedroom, 1 bath waterfront condo with boat slip, covered patio and washer/ dryer hook up in unit, $115,000.

Call Cindy Molnar 549-5557.

Portofino #407 4th floor corner unit w/3 bed., 2 baths, 1,406 sq. ft. of living space. Wonderful beachfront complex, great pool. $190,000. Cheryl 563-0444.

El Constante #217 Great views of the Gulf from this 3 bedroom, 3 bath condo with 1,060 sq. ft. of living area. Fully furnished. $194,900. Call Terry 549-7703.

Looking for Vaca�on Rental Services you can trust?

Call Padre Escapes, Padre Island’s Premier Vaca�on Rental Company at 361‐949‐0430 Visit us online at www.padreescapes.com email at vaca�on@padreescapes.com

Wonderful 3-2.5-3 new construction. Corner lot. Room for a pool.

2254 sq. ft. Bonus room. Tile floors. Mudroom and butler’s pantry and much more. Cheryl.