Inside the Moon
Seashore Happenings A9
Barefoot Mardi Gras A2
Port A. Mardi Gras A9
The
Issue 672
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
March 2, 2017
Beach Clean-up A11
Live Music Calendar A18
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Around The Island
By Dale Rankin There was smoke on the water but no fire in the sky. The fire was low down to the ground. We are accustomed to seeing a haze around here but last weekend the haze was accompanied by the acrid smell of smoke as crews burned off more than 9000 acres of grassland down Padre Island National Seashore Way. The haze made its way all the way OTB and lingered in Island skies until Monday.
Beach drivers beware
Be carful if running PINS in the dark. This tree is at the Turtle shack and would do you a lot of damage. If you are heading way down PINS way to Little Shell Nick Meyer over at Breakaway warns to watch out for this gnarly dude sticking out into the driving lane, especially if you are driving at night or riding a dirt bike. Anybody got a chain saw?
Island vandals and sneak thieves The Island’s Vandal Squad and Sneak Thieves Association appears to have moved its base of operations from the seawall area to the area around Fortuna Bay this week. The group has been active along the seawall and beach in recent weeks where they have twice destroyed the sign at Michael J. Ellis Beach and were seen by witnesses turning over Port O Cans on the beach – no word on whether they were occupied at the time. From the looks of this week’s police reports it looks like they have moved from destroying property to stealing from cars and even breaking into houses. The police are aware and keeping an eye out but if you see this roving band of trouble up to their mischief let the PD know.
Winter Texans leaving The Winter Texan diaspora has begun as our visitors from the Great White North begin the trek home before the 2017 Spring Break Invasion. We had a bumper crop of Winter Texans this year. Patti who owns the Harbor Lights eatery at Woody’s in Port A reports that the winter business was better than ever and parking lots at Island restaurants have been full of out of state plates. Some of them will weather Spring Break, with the higher rental prices it brings, and see it through to the sweet spot of our season in April. But by Tax Filing Deadline in mid-April we will see the last of the out of state plates disappear OTB until next year. We like our Winter Texans around here.
Spring Break 2017 We have one week before the initial onslaught but March 18 is the overlap weekend when we get the full Spring Break monty along our beaches. So we have one week to hit the H.E.B. and stock up on supplies and make sure the boat motor is running well enough to get us to the Ski Basin, far from the madding crowd. Last year’s Spring Break attendance was down some, partially due to a restriction on beach alcohol in Port Aransas. But alas, that was a year ago and incoming freshmen, and mostly likely their upper-classmen as well, will likely scant remember it and things will get back to normal this year. The drive up the Island Runway from Padre to Port A will be especially hairy this summer as construction has constricted the driving lanes. It’s a good time for we Islanders to hunker down or head for the Hill Country. Get ready everybody here they come, say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Barefoot Mardi Gras First place winning float The Padre Island Ukulele Club. See page A2 for more winners!
POA Monthly Meeting Erupts in Accusations, Heated Exchanges and a Board Resignation
Traffic-Blocking Beach Bollards to be Removed
Annual members meeting Sat., March 11
By Dale Rankin
Since mid-2016 there has been an armed guard at each of the monthly meetings of the Padre Isles Property Owners Association. So far he has not had to draw his weapon but if things continue down the path trod at the organization’s monthly meeting Tuesday the day may not be far ahead when a warning shot is in order. The most tumultuous meeting in memory, it included a vigorous hour-long exchange between board members and about thirty agitated, POA members/Island homeowners, voicing long-held complaints about lack of transparency, POA landscaping regulations, and a perceived lack of communication between association members and board members, ending in a request from several audience members that the organization needs to “move in a new direction.” Before the night was over issues were raised including the eligibility of sitting board member Stan Hulse, who is also running for re-election, leading to the announcement of his resignation from the board on Wednesday; the reassigning of a health insurance policy for three POA employees away from the account of the son-in-law of Executive Coordinator Maybeth
Christensen due to a possible conflict of interest; and the using of the words corruption” and “shameful” by audience member, Bob Algeo, who is also running for a board seat, who said the organization attempted to use city code enforcement officers to retaliate against him for his complaints about board actions, which prompted a response from Board President Brent Moore that Algeo needed to provide proof, and accused him of “seeing black helicopters.” (See the related letter in this issue). Algeo’s heated response was drowned out by the rising decibel level of the crowd and the meeting devolved into a verbal melee in which Moore told the crowd, “If you want fireworks let’s have some. There are very few members who are complaining,” Moore said. “I’ve got e-mails complaining about your complaints.”
POA cont. on A4
Next ISAC Meeting Tuesday, March 7th at the Veranda Restaurant 5:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
By Dale Rankin One week after bollards were placed on the beach north of Newport Pass Road blocking northbound beach traffic into Mustang Island State Park officials have announced that most of the bollards will be removed. The change in plans that will allow a free flow of vehicles between Access Road #3 on the north and Zahn Road on the south during the busy Spring Break weekend. Park Superintendent Scot Taylor said while some of the newly placed bollards will remain on the beach to denote the park’s southern boundary they will not impede beach traffic. “People will be able to access the beach in the same way they have in the past during Spring Break,” Taylor said. “We are still working on some of the details of the plan but it will essentially be the same as in previous years.” In years past Corpus Christi Police have turned Beach Access Road #3 into one-way headed toward the beach and drivers could then drive
down the beach to Zahn Road which was temporarily made one-way from the beach. Some version of that plan will be used this year but the details will not be determined until early next week. When the bollards were placed last week the Spring Break plan called for Beach Access Road #3 to be used as an emergency lane, not open to the public, which would have meant the only way to access the 4.5 miles of beach between the bollards at Newport Pass and the entrance to Mustang Island State Park would have been through the park’s main entrance which requires a $5 entry fee. That plan was shelved after questions from District 32 State Representative Todd Hunter and the decision was made by park officials to remove the vehicle-blocking bollards at Newport Pass. Taylor said after Spring Break the bollards will not be replaced, meaning beach traffic will continue as usual from Newport Pass Road north.
A little Island history
The White House Pier in The Bluff was a Landmark
Editor’s note: Bobbie Kimbrell moved to Flour Bluff in 1943 where he was a commercial fisherman and where he still resides. By Bobbie Kimbrell
The White House Pier in Flour Bluff was what would be called a landmark since it was possibly, when built, the farthest, southmost building in Nueces County. There is a bronze landmarker located about 100 yards of where the WHP used to be. The SWP was located about two miles south of the old Don Patricio Causeway that spanned between Flour Bluff and Padre Island. It was a two-story building built in the edge of water of the Laguna Madre where Jamaica
Street ends after crossing Laguna Shores Road.
for holding the cattle awaiting cattle cars.
The WHP had a large room downstairs and the bedroom and living room were upstairs. There was a large porch in front and a covered porch in the back where the pier started about six feet above the water extending about fifteen feet out into the Lagoon with a covered cross pier built across the end where people could sit and fish in the shallow water about three feet deep.
That parcel of land is still undeveloped to date and might encourage some history buffs to put up an historical market there. Roger South, a developer and sometimes gambler, had the WHP built and it isn’t known if he lived in it and operated it or not, but it is known that Roger built the first ever motel amidst the orange groves in Brownsville after World War II was over.
Dunns Crossing was about one-half mile south of the SHP and was where cattle were herded from Parde Island to Flour Bluff to be sent to the market. It was the shallowest route available and it had corrals on the Lagoon side
A few years later Roger built the largest ever commercial fishing motorboat ever used in the Lagoon. It was about 50 feet long and wide enough for a standard-sized bed on each side with a walkway in between.
Barkley Tyler and Johnny Edwards fished the boat in Alazan Bay, which is north of Baffin Bay, and made some record catches of drum due to the large icebox capacity. The boat was eventually sold to a fisherman who took it to Port Isabel where he anchored it on the east side of the bay and lived and fished on it. The WHP was vacant for a long time in the early forties, possibly because gasoline was rationed and car tires were scarce. At that time a fisherman lived in the WHP as a watchman. His name was Slim Kinser and he had some trotlines out front to supplement his income, if any, for being a watchman. Slom
History cont. on A4