Inside the Moon
Classic Cars A2
Webelos A2
Seashore Happenings A9
The
Issue 673
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
March 9, 2017
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin They arrive in fast cars and clunkers, sport backward caps and dark glasses. They are an inked up and amped up group looking for fun and trying to avoid the slammer. Some will even succeed at that last one. Even as you read this somewhere, in a dorm room or a frat house somewhere in America someone is uttering the words that signal the start of the tourist season on our little sandbar, “Let’s go to The Coast for Spring Break!” They will pool their money for gas and hop in the car most likely to look cool on the beach and here they come! Rolling in over the JFK. It’s time for Spring Break 2017 everybody. Here we go! Long-time Islanders know the drill; time your visits to Stripes for early morning, hit the Flour Bluff H.E.B. on Thursday, don’t answer calls from relatives unless you want them staying at your house for a week, if you go to the beach go early and stake out a spot, forget about buying ice because the ice trucks can’t get to The Island fast enough to keep up with demand, and for goodness sake avoid the JFK Causeway between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. because if you go OTB in the morning you won’t get back until late afternoon. Forget about driving up The Island to Port A on the weekends as the traffic usually backs up for miles in both directions on State Highway 361 – otherwise known as the Landing Strip. This year will be particularly treacherous as much of that stretch of highway is a work zone. Hotdogs and twelve-packs of Keystone Light will be hard to come by as cash-strapped breakers stock up on their way to the beach. The good news is that local businesses will be busy. Winter Texans will have to make way for two weeks of kids looking for fun in the sun. Some breakers will head out mid-week nursing new lobster tans only to be replaced by their pale cousins looking to achieve their own lobster tanness. It is the rites of spring hatched anew each year. Beware of the Annual Whitecap Speed Trap which sets up on Thursday afternoon as the influx of police officers arrive before the Spring Breakers. If recent history is an indicator this year they might add some officers at the base of the JFK on the Island side, near the new traffic light. Things on the residential side of SPID will calm down once the breakers arrive and pack the beaches. In the meantime watch your speed or you will get hauled down.
Island knuckleheads The movable feast of destruction made up of a few knuckleheads continues to make its way around our community hitting several cars along the seawall this week as well as some homes on the north side of The Island. This bunch started out just knocking over signs and port-o-cans and has now graduated to breaking and entering. Lock your cars, and don’t leave your garage doors up unless you want some of the junk in there to disappear.
Whoop it up The Island Foundation’s Annual Gala Fundraiser “Whoop it Up” will take place at 7 p.m. on Saturday, April 1 at the Veranda at Schlitterbahn. This is the main fundraiser for the Island’s charter school which does not get help from state funding for buildings. The event includes live music, food, and live auctions. For details on where to get tickets see the ad in this issue. It is a fun way to support the Island schools. Spring Break 2017 is upon us so we will see you on the other side or at the Ski Basin whichever comes first. Good luck everybody and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Fishing A11
Live Music A18
Free
Weekly
FREE
Photo by Steve Coons
Spring Has Broken
Island by the numbers
Padre Isles Property Owners Association 32 miles of bulkheads on The
Island
168,960 feet of bulkheads that PIPOA is responsible for maintaining $600 per foot is the approximate cost to replace a bulkhead
Preparations are going on all over The Island in anticipation of Spring Break 2017 which begins this weekend. Crews worked late to finish the new Beach Access Road 3A at the end of Windward Drive and officials at Mustang Island State Park removed some of the wooden bollards installed two weeks ago at Newport Pass road to allow for two lanes of southbound traffic from Beach Access Road 3 to the north all the way south to Zahn Road on the south. High Spring tides have pushed water to the dune line all along local beaches in recent days and are expected to continue, reducing the available space on beaches for the anticipated crowds.
Annual Padre Isles Homeowners Association Members Meeting Saturday 10 a.m., Saturday, March 11 Seashore Learning Center Gym
By Dale Rankin One of the most contentious years in the history of the Padre Isles Property Owners Association will come to an end on Saturday as the organization’s Board of Directors and it members come together to review the year just passed, outline plans for the next year, and elect two new members to the seven-member board. The meeting comes on the heels of a move Sunday when, in a specially called meeting the Board of Directors accepted the resignation
of former board member Stan Hulse, then changed board policy to allow him to run in the election to regain his seat on the board. Two seats are up and one will be filled by a POA member currently not on the board due to the decision of current board member Cheri Sperling not to seek re-election. The meeting is at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 11, at Seashore Learning Center Gymnasium. A ballot and voting instructions are included in this issue.
POA cont. A7
Packery Channel: More Money Monitoring than Dredging
ISAC members push for annual savings By Dale Rankin Each year Island taxpayers pay more money to monitor the water depth and flow of Packery Channel than they do on actually dredging the channel. When Packery Channel was approved by voters in 2000 the Island’s Tax Re-Investment Zone #2 was set up to capture property tax on new construction inside the zone, which includes most of the commercial and retail space up and down SPID. So far that fund has raised more than $30 million from which funds are set aside each year to pay for studying and dredging
A little Island history By Dale Rankin If you have ever taken the jetty boat in Port Aransas across the channel to St. Joseph’s Island you know it is a stretch of beach untouched by development. What you may not know is why. The island is 21 miles long and five miles wide at its north end where it is separated from Matagorda Island by Cedar Bayou. It is also said to be the largest privately-owned barrier island in the United States. Some scholars believe it is the island which Cabeza de Vaca described in his writings and considered by some of them as his landing place on the Texas Coast in 1528. It has also been identified as the island called Snake Island by Diego Ortiz Parrilla who explored the Gulf Coast area in 1766.
the channel. Since the beginning of the project the monitoring has been done by the Conrad Blucher Institute at Texas A&M Corpus Christi. On Tuesday officials from the institute appeared before the TRZ Board of Directors, which consists of the Corpus Christi City Council as well as the other taxing entities which participate in the zone. At issue was a four-year monitoring contract at a cost of $2 million, Blucher officials said they actually asked for only $333,631 but somewhere in the city’s planning process the amount was
Island Political Action Committee Sets Schedule for Mayor’s Election Endorsment
$101,376,000 is the cost today to replace all bulkheads in event of total disaster. $9,636,803 was in the bulkhead replacement self-insurance fund as of August, 2016 8915 total residential/ commercial lots platted when Island was developed in 1965 5391 total residential/commercial lots currently developed 65 homes currently under construction on dry lots on The Island 15 homes currently under construction on waterfront lots 16 Plans for news homes submitted since January 1, 150 separate projects underway
Budget Operating
Total expenses
The Island United Political Action Committee, a group comprised of the more than 7000 registered voters on Padre and Mustang Islands inside the Corpus Christi City Limits, has set it's endorsement schedule for the upcoming May 6 Special Election to elect a Mayor of Corpus Christi. The seat became vacant when former Mayor Dan McQueen resigned after only a few weeks in office.
2006 $287,601 $620,826
IUPAC announced this week that it will hold its candidate endorsement night on Monday, April 10, at the Holiday Inn on The Island. All registered voters on The Island are encouraged to attend each of the current seven announced candidates for the office has been invited to speak after which a vote will be taken to determine the candidate for the IUPAC backing. Each registered voter can cast a ballot, the board members will then tally the vote and announce the winners. It is important to note that the endorsements are done by a vote of the membership, not the board. Early voting for the May 6 election runs from April 24-May 2. We will have more information, including the time of the April 10 meeting in the coming issues.
Channel cont. A7
2007 $238,612 $717,388 2008 $185,295 $1,004,218 2009 $243,958 $721,442 2010 $226,852 $948,456 2011$210,208 $1,020,705 2012 $307,053
$1,093,780
2013 $279,598
$1,551,233
2014 $331,010
$1,210,343
2015 $357,921
$1,350,519
Operating expenses in 2006 were 46% of the budget - last year that number was 26%
Who's Coming to Dinner Spring Break Mar.11- Mar. 18 Harvard University, Colorado State, Ohio State, U. of Oklahoma, U. of Tulsa,Oklahoma State, Rice, Sam Houston State, Southern Methodist,Texas A&M, Texas Tech, U. of Texas, North Texas, U. of Arkansas, U. of Colorado, Slippery Rock, U. of Wisconsin
St. Joseph’s Island The Handbook of Texas says the French had landed parties on the island in 1712 and 1718, and José de Escandón explored St. Joseph, Padre, Mustang, and Matagorda islands in 1766. The combined islands of St. Joseph and Matagorda were also known as Culebra. The first United States flag to be raised in Texas is said to have been raised on St. Joseph Island by United States troops on July 26, 1845 and forts were erected at various times on the south end of the island. The shallow pass between St. Joseph’s and Mustang Island in the days before dredging caused many shipwrecks and in 1834 two vessels bringing Irish colonists to the Power and Hewetson Colony on the mainland went aground on the island. While waiting for transport to the mainland 250 of the colonists died in a cholera epidemic.
Soon after the Texas Revolution several families of cattlemen and seafarers established homes on St. Joseph’s
the Union post on St. Joseph’s and secured it for the remainder of the war which was then used to store captured Confederate cotton.
In May of 1863 A Confederate Company under the command of Captain Edwin E. Hobby attacked
History cont. on A7