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Inside the Moon

Sand Art A4

St. Paddy's Day A2

Spring Break A2

The

Issue 675

Island Moon

The voice of The Island since 1996

March 23, 2017

Around The Island

By Dale Rankin What happens on The Island leaves on Sunday. So take a deep breath everybody, Spring Break 2017 has come and gone and we are still here.

Circus A9

Free

Weekly

FREE

Requiem for Spring Break 2017

Spring Break 2017 was More a Whimper Than a Bang

As Spring Breaks go this one was just about right; enough visitors to keep Island businesses busy but not so much that it jams up the roads. The new traffic light at SPID/Aquarius did in fact back up traffic on several occasions, but it did not produce the rash of traffic accidents some had feared and it also spaced out traffic to make it easier to get across SPID during daylight hours.

New to the Spring Break chorus this year were half a dozen calls in Port Aransas for traffic jams caused by “eight people on six person golf cart, wheel fell off, blocking traffic.” This was a new one and either signifies that the Island golf cart fleet is falling victim to the harsh climate or our visitors are getting…ahem…better fed.

Island people One of the great things about living on our little sandbar is the variety of people we get to meet. We have to be one of the most diverse 15,000-person communities around. Islanders had to work hard to get here and stay here and they arrive with all kinds of great stories to tell. The slogan at the Back Porch Bar in Port Aransas is “Beach Bums to Billionaires” and that pretty much applies to both ends of The Island…although thousandaires might be more abundant.

Bob Hall Pier looking south Friday afternoon

The nexus of the Port Aransas Spring Break scrum beach traffic to one row of cars and just enough beach for one traffic lane.

In past year that was the entrance to the beach north of Packery Channel and traffic from there south to Zahn Road was one way. CCPD this year changed that to two-way from Access Road #3 to Zahn and it worked very well.

By Dale Rankin Last weekend our Island was one long silvery slithering snake of disjointed but interconnected parts with a scrum of crazed and sunburnt college kids worshiping a vertical pole in its belly.

Spring Break 2017 has come and gone, some schools are still out but the March 18 weekend was the big one, and the consensus is that as Spring Breaks go this was a mild one. The first weekend dicey weather scared away the weak hearted but by mid-week we were in full Spring Break bloom. But on Saturday and Sunday when Island streets and roads are usually parking lots our roads this year were still moving and the beaches were full but not jam packed

At any rate we lost one of our resident inventors recently when Rick Hunts and Bunny pulled up stakes and headed for the Hill Country after a fight with loud shotguns along the Laguna. Rick was a carpenter in San Diego in 1987 when he received U.S. patent for the Flowbee, a device which sucks hair straight out from the head then cuts it to a desired length.

By 2000 two million Flowbees had been manufactured in Rick’s factory which is still located in Flour Bluff America.

Rick is the second inventor of note on The Island following in the footsteps of a former resident whose invention was putting a pimento in the middle of an olive. We might need to put up a statue of that fellow!

Fishing A11

backed up between the bottlenecks of Zahn Road and the south end of Port Aransas. This was the first year that the road work on the south end of Port Aransas was complete and the four lanes with good sidewalks relieved the pressure on traffic flow and made a huge difference in getting in and out of Port Aransas.

It is safe to say that college Spring Breakers have abandoned the beach between Corpus Christi Pass and Zahn Road. The crowd there was almost exclusively families with kids, which is a big change from the snake-hauling, pit-bull leading crowd of years past. There was little trouble there and traffic flowed easily.

as in recent years.

For the previous two years State Highway 361 between Padre Island and Port Aransas has been a parking lot in both directions as traffic

Our friend Mo

Mayor Endorsement Forum April 10 The Island Strategic Action Committee will hold its endorsement night for candidates in the May 6 city Special Election on Monday, April 10 at 6:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn. All registered Island voters are encouraged to attend and vote for the candidate of their choice.

The candidate will be given an opportunity to address the crowd and at the end of the night the votes from the membership will be tallied and the top vote getter will receive the endorsement of the membership.

Spring Breakers abandon North Packery beach Until last year’s Spring Break SH 361 between Zahn Road and Beach Access Road #3, just south of Corpus Christi Pass, has been a weekendlong traffic jam due to breakers trying to get onto the beach. This year deep sand south of Access Road #3 made driving there difficult and reduced

The beach along the Michael J. Ellis Seawall is narrower than it has been since the dredging of Packery Channel.

Bring your voter registration card with you to speed up the process.

Candidates have until March 27 to file. You must be registered by April 6 to vote. Early voting takes place April 24-May 2, and Election Day is May 6.

Break cont. A2

The IUPAC was formed to unite the approximately 7200 Island voters behind candidates in city races.

A little Island history

Two Fishermen from Kingsville and a Clay Pot of Spanish Treasure

We want to send out a get well soon wish to our old guitar playing friend Mo from Port A. He has been in intensive care for almost three weeks now. It was only a month ago he helped us liberate a cable spool (that’s Mo on the right) which had washed up on the Kleberg Beach and wrestle it into the back of the pickup.

Here’s hoping we see Mo back on The Island soon.

We still have a sort-of weekend of Spring Breakers but nothing to worry about. It is now safe to move about The Island. We’ve hit the sweet spot of the Island calendar everybody get out there and enjoy it, and say hello if you see us Around The Island.

Editor’s note: Bobbie Kimbrell is a long-time resident of Flour Bluff and retired commercial fisherman.

Our story last week about pirate captain Jean Lafitte prompted this response from him.

By Bobbie Kimbrell In reference to the Pirate Story in the last issue of the Island Moon, that brought to mind some of the stories that I have heard or read about in the 73 years that I have lived in Flour Bluff.

One of the stories, which is fact, concerns two surf fishermen from Kingsville. One day in the early 1950s, I was visiting my dad at the Red Dot Bait Stand on the Intracoastal Canal when up drove the two surf fishermen. They had spent the night surf fishing and sitting around the campfire. One of the fishermen told my dad to come

outside and look at the size of some of the redfish they had caught. They had two redfish that weighed at least 40 to 50 pounds apiece, the largest I had ever seen. After I went back inside the two fishermen continued talking to my dad for a long time.

Every time those two fisherman went fishing they would stop at my dad’s bait stand and buy some mullet or shrimp and usually drink a couple cups of coffee before taking off for the beach.

A couple of years later I was visiting my dad again and I asked if those two fishermen still come by and catch those big redfish. My dad said, “No, they haven’t been back over here since the time you were here two years ago. So I asked my dad, “I wonder why they don’t come back here anymore?”

“It might be because they told me they had found some Spanish gold

coins,” my dad said. “A lot of them, and had quit their jobs and bought a new home where they lived before living in Kingsville.”

So my dad proceded to tell me that the fishermen had told him. He said that after it got dark the fishermen set out their huge cane poles with long lines in the edge of the surf then made a campfire between two of the dunes.

One of the men noticed a clump of tar setting on top of a little hill of sand.

He tossed the tar into the campfire and watched as it flared up and made black smoke. After it quite burning the noticed there was something still there. So they raked it out of the fire and it was a Spanish gold coin. So

they remembered that from reading about the Spanish treasure ships that most of the coins were put in clay pots and sealed with tar. So they broke out their shovel and started

History cont. on A4

A2

March 23, 2017

Island Moon

Break cont. from A1 Driving South At the height of Spring Break 2017 Saturday afternoon we drove the beach from the jetties in Port Aransas in the north to Kleberg County in the south and with only one exception the beach was busy but not any more than on a summer weekend; with one exception.

broom. The fact is that when that many people pack into that small a section of beach there are going to be problems with traffic and crowd control. The fact that the problems were kept to a controllable level is a testament to the work of the Port Aransas Police Department.

St. Party's Day Island Style

South of the Packery

The area just south of the jetties in Port Aransas was full but not packed and the county camping area adjacent to Horace Caldwell Pier was full of hardy campers who celebrated the week camping out in tents. From south of the pier to the end of the bollard area cars were lined up door to door, however, the actual beach area on the water side of the bollards was busy but not near full. Traffic moved fine and the Port Aransas police radio had few calls in that area.

Further south was a different story.

The exception was along about Mile Marker 30 just south of where the beach bollards end in Port Aransas the college kids circled the trucks and school buses and put up their dancing pole (see the photo here) and stopped traffic.

Where the bollards end One of the great truths of Beach Dynamics is that when people drive to the beach they avoid bollards and Spring Break 2017 only worked to confirm that rule. As mentioned, the most crowded area of the beach was the area just south of the bollard area and driving the beach road in that area required the patience of a college trigonometry class.

Southbound beach traffic came to a halt south of Beach Access Road 1A as Port Aransas Police tried to unsnarl the unsnarlable. For the past two years as the restriction on alcohol on the beach after 6 p.m. has made its presence felt the college crowd has centered itself at this location which is ground zero for beer pong, partying, and police activity. It was here midweek that a fight broke out resulting in the injury of several people, revelers throwing bottles at police, and several arrests. The process was repeated several time throughout the week as police played an ongoing game of Whack A Mole with trouble. A full county jail meant that many offenders who would have been taken to jail in previous years were ticketed and released.

In an attempt to control traffic police closed Access Road #1 which runs through the Palmilla Beach Golf Club to beachbound traffic but it was like holding back a flood with a

South of Packery Channel the beach was full but not crowded. But the beach along the Michael J. Ellis Seawall has eroded to the point that pedestrian and vehicular traffic are squeezed into an uncomfortable space that will need to be addressed before next year.

Owner Lance Bradley and Shannon Smith cook up a mess of crawfish at the Barrel for St. Patrick's Day. Photo by Jan Rankin

A lack of need to dredge Packery Channel on an annual basis has led to a lack of dredge sand being moved onto the beach at the seawall and subsequently a much narrower beach than was the case when Packery Channel was first dredged.

It is important to keep in mind that Packery Channel was conceived and funded not as a channel project but as a beach re-nourishment project, but over the past seventeen years as the focus has moved more toward channel monitoring than toward beach re-nourishment Mother Nature has whittled away at the beach along the seawall to the point where today it is not much wider than it was before Packery was dug. The lack of need in dredging the channel has been a big plus in terms of saving money, but a problem for keeping sufficient sand on the seawall beach. At some point we will need to focus on the goose that laid the golden egg and based on what we saw in the past two weeks that point has arrived.

In summary The lessons from Spring Break 2017 are that for reasons unknown the Coastal Bend does not attract the beach crowds it has in the past.

Traffic was about the same as a non-holiday summer crowd. Once the work along SH 361 is complete current traffic can be readily handled.

Based on the past two Spring Break seasons the issue going forward will be beach access, getting visitors on and off the beach, and how to evenly spread the crowd along the twenty six miles of beach between the Padre Island National Seashore and Port Aransas. There is plenty of beach to handle the crowds if they don’t all try to go to the same spot. How to manage that process is the challenge before us.

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March 23, 2017

A3

Island Moon

Moon Monkeys Mike Ellis, Founder

Letters to the Editor

as a result of their positions on the board?

If you found a conflict of interest, how would you handle it?

How many compliance officers do you feel we need? One, two, or three?

Thank you for your reply, Marta Sprout, On behalf of the property owners and the Concerned Citizens Group.

POA Elections Dear Dale,

Distribution Pete Alsop Island Delivery

Buy ‘em books and all they do is eat the covers!

Coldwell Banker Advertising Jan Park Rankin Classifieds Arlene Ritley Production Manager Abigail Bair Contributing Writers

I bet you got a lot of replies after Abigail's article last week. I swear this is not posed! I buy the girl books and send her to school but she just eats the covers!

Joey Farah Andy Purvis Mary Craft Christiansen Jay Gardner Todd Hunter Dotson Lewis Ronnie Narmour Brent Rourk Miles Merwin Jeff Dolan

When ballots are presented to a voter it’s a proven concept that the first name on a ballot garners a greater number of the undecided votes. This first slot is prized and many election boards use a random process for name selection to avoid any challenges. I turn your attention to our ballot for the current election.

Mary Craft Ronnie Narmour Office Security/Spillage Control (Emeritus) Riley P. Dog

Don Sullivan was no match for Molly!

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 editor@islandmoon.com Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper

Where to Find The Island Moon

Lisabella’s Restaurant Pioneer RV Park

Sandpiper Condos WB Liquors Port A Arts

North Padre

Stripes @ Beach Access Rd. 1A

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.

Wash Board Laundry Mat

Holiday Inn

Ace Hardware

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

Looking past Mr Hulse’s ignorance of the rules, I am stunned that our Executive Director did not bring this issue to Mr Hulse’s or the Board’s attention when they processed the membership transfer that disqualified Mr Hulse from serving. Our Executive Director personally signs all membership transfer certificates so there is no excuse. As a MEMBER I certainly question the competency of the PIPOA office and their communications with our Board.

Shame on them for letting this happen to our election and to Mr Hulse. A simple courteous notice way back in October would have avoided most of the current drama.

Looking past the Board’s insistence on keeping Mr Hulse on the ballot, I must bring an unusual ballot situation to the attention of The Moon.

Photographers

Port Aransas

I, like many of your readers, have been closely following the circumstances of the PIPOA Board’s decision to place Mr Hulse on the ballot.

This was not the first time Mr. Hulse applied for a board seat. Twice before he certified to the Board that he met the qualifications to serve on my Board. He clearly understood the requirements, yet he applied knowing he was no longer a MEMBER of our association.

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

I just found your publication 2 weeks ago and was struck numb by Abigail's fresh, over the top, "end of the pavement" thoughts. I am inspired to pen some of my own for publication. Growing up in Amarillo I thought I knew a lot about the Lincoln Co. War but NO... she crystalized it...dead on. I hope I meet her one day. Last year when I was searching, I suppose, for the ghost of Georgia O'keefe, I came upon Abiquiu, NM and Bode's (bode- eze) Feed Store. They opened in 1917 and their slogan is "HERE A LONG TIME"!

I bought hats for me and all my Hill Country Geezer friends (they prefer to be called the G-4!).

I am now a cover to cover reader...keep it up!

Wiley Choctaw Dear Wiley, Once, when I was about four, the Rev and the G.P. caught me trying to teach a kitten how to come when it was called by illustrating the action on a chalkboard I had recently gotten as a birthday present. There was a drawing of a kitten and a little girl with an arrow in between them to indicate the preferred direction of the cat. They still make fun of me for that, although they do acknowledge that the kitten did appear to be paying attention. Maybe Molly would prefer War and Peace. Stadler can't read, but she can hear the crumple of a potato chip bag from about 4.5 miles out. We all have our talents. Thanks for the feedback. The G-4 sounds like a fun squad. You should get some t-shirts.

Abigail

Calling All Candidates All members running for seats on the POA Board are requested to answer the following questions because these concerns came up so often in conversations among a wide range of property owners and the Concerned Citizens Group. Please send your answers to editor@ islandmoon.com so that they can be published in the March 30th edition of The Island Moon.

Deadline is Tuesday, March 28th.

What is the POA's mission?

If elected, what would be your six top priorities?

Saving and Protecting our money Bulkheads?

Palm Pruning?

Security?

Transparency?

Maintaining common areas including Billish Park?

Communication?

Considering that the POA is a multi-million dollar entity and the concern over it's outdated recordkeeping system, would you favor:

When the first ballot was created Mr. Hulse won the first slot. Good for him. He had a 1 in 8 chance of winning. Lucky guy.

When PIPOA contracted with Toucan Printing for the board introductions newsletter Mr. Hulse was the first name and bio presented. Perhaps his graphics employee decided to put the boss first. I am shocked that someone running for my board has control over how the ballot and marketing materials are created.

When the second ballot came out Mr. Hulse again won the “random” lottery. He had a 1 in 64 chance of winning the first slot and once again he was a very lucky guy.

Now that the new ballot is out Mr. Hulse has again won the random drawing. He had a 1 in 128 change of winning. Either he needs to buy a lottery ticket or he will always have a 100% chance of being the first name on the ballot while the other candidates have a 0% chance of being listed in the premier spot on the ballot.

To me it looks like PIPOA has a big fat finger on the scale. To put it bluntly, it smells.

PIPOA is the largest homeowner’s association in the United States. Ours is not a club but a multimillion dollar business. Elections have consequences and can have a profound impact on how our business runs. As an owner and investor in PIPOA it’s vital to me that qualified MEMBERS with legal and accounting backgrounds represent my interests on the board.

Sunshine is an excellent disinfectant. Perhaps The Moon can shed light on this important issue and explain to the community how our ballots have been handled.

Would you favor: Term Limits for board members?

Changing our voting system so that all ballots and proxy votes go to a neutral third-party that does not have a vested interest in the outcome?

When the POA seeks to hire services would you favor: Calling for bids whenever possible?

Ensuring that board members and/or their businesses are not receiving financial benefits

Business Briefs The Day & Night Boardwalk Plaza, which is the closest Island strip center to the bridge, has a new owner.

For you spam lovers, you will be glad to hear there is now a restaurant on the Island that has it on their menu. Cancun Mexican Restaurant serves it as a breakfast entrée with eggs. Interestingly, the phrase spam email came about when a Monty Python sketch described the canned pork as “horrible, ubiquitous and inescapable.”

For you cottage cheese lovers, myself included, a container cannot be purchased at any of the Stripes, Circle K or CVS on the Island. Hopefully, someone out there has some pull with one of these establishments and can remedy that.

Island Moms with Toddlers can get together with other moms by joining the Facebook page (Corpus Christi Moms Blog) CCBMIslandMoms.

Coldwell Banker Agent Cindy Molnar’s Real Estate Ticker Report shows as of March 1st there were 226 condos for sale on the Island and 154 homes.

Bluff Briefs Church’s Chicken in Flour Bluff has closed but the other seven in town are still open.

Seaworthy Marine has closed its Flour Bluff location.

Oso Bridge Plaza is for sale and the cost for you to own your own strip mall is $1.8 million.

The Mattress Depot at the corner of SPID and Waldron is now a Furniture Discount store.

Missing Cat

Since the transfer of ownership was a result of a divorce, the PIPOA and I did not issue a resale certificate. It was not until Stan’s ex-wife visited the office in December asking about his ownership that I even knew there was a change.

When I contacted Stan, he said, that he did, in fact, own property. As Stan explained in a letter to the Editor a few issues ago, he believed his name was on the deed for the investment property he owned. He corrected it and his name is now on the deed to property he owns.

As far as the drawing for ballot positions, maybe he should have tried the lottery that day.

In the future, we will have all candidates come to the office and draw numbers so there will be no question about placement.

Regarding the printing of the newsletter, ballot and the mailings, unfortunately Mr. McFadden has incorrect information. Toucan Graphics did NOT print the newsletter, ballot or do any of the mailings of the newsletter and ballots.

This election has definitely brought out changes we need to make and we have done some and are working on additional changes.

Executive Coordinator

List two things you would you like to see changed.

Marvin Jones is running for the Padre Isles Property Owners Association Board and he wants to be your voice. Some of the changes he would like to implement are term limits for board members, online access to POA check register similar to online banking; work with the city for more police protection and much more.

Check out his ad this issue.

Carter Tate is also running for the POA Owners Association Board. Mr. Tate wishes to immediately deal with the re-prioritizing of the POA Mission and obligations to its owners, updating accounting methods and reporting, including “15 year old investment policy”, and then keeping owners aware of all business transactions. His contact info is in his ad in this issue.

Horseback Riding Lessons by a certified instructor is available for children and adults. Call 361-815-8525 for more info.

Response:

Maybeth Christensen

Should property owners have more of a voice?

New Advertisers

PIPOA Voting Member

A forensic Audit as part of getting things back on track?

Would you favor more security measures to combat theft and crime on the island?

By Mary Craft mkay512@aol.com

James J. McFadden

A full-time bookkeeper?

Making the POA checkbook register available in a members-only, password-protected section of the PIPOA website?

Did Ya Hear?

Padre Isles Property Owners Association

Traffic Light Just wondered if anyone sent you pics of the stop light created traffic this sunny Thursday afternoon. It was backed up to the other side of the bridge. I personally had very little opinion if we had a light there or not, but for those folks that claimed it would back traffic up to the other side of the bridge, they were correct. The proof is in the pics!

Roger Schere

Alucard, (Dracula backwards) is missing, it's been over 2 weeks and we have gone door to door, posted posters, left posters at vet's office, gone on Next Door app and posted on various lost and found sights. I've had her since she was 5 days old and was bitten by a dog and clung to life; she made it and until these past few weeks, slept on my bed. We live on Main Royal Dr. but she's been spotted near Gypsy. Please if you see her or spot her, please call me. We will give a reward. My number is 361-739-4601 and if I don't answer please text or leave a message. I don't want to give up on our Ali because she's our family. Thank you.

Attention

Boat Owners!

Do you own a boat with a cabin and would you like to make some money with it? We have slips and are looking for boats to use for charters. If you have a boat and are interested in an entrepreneurial opportunity call 361 332-9978.

A4

March 23, 2017

Island Moon

NAS Corpus Christi Finalizing April 1-2 Wings Over South Texas Air Show Naval Air Station Corpus Christi (NASCC) personnel are working fast and furious as details for the 2017 Wings Over South Texas Air Show are being finalized.

Behind the scenes, fine tuning is taking place including laydown of the air show midway, the performers, and preparations for traffic and parking.

“We are finalizing the line-up of flying acts,” said Lt. Cmdr. David Hunt, air show organizer. “Aircraft from all military branches will be participating. We will also have several civilian performers including an act commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway, which was the turning point in the Pacific during World War II.” April 1 and 2, the NASCC Main/South Gate will open at 8:30 a.m. to the general public. Visitors will arrive via NAS Drive and be directed to free parking areas.

“We have improved our traffic and parking plan based on lessons learned from our 2015 air show,” said Lt. Don Copping, NASCC security officer. “Entry to the base has been streamlined, which will allow visitors to travel to the designated parking areas easily.”

The air show midway will open at 9 a.m.

Visitors will be able to walk among the static displays that will include the Navy’s training command aircraft and a variety of modern military and vintage WWII aircraft. Several car clubs will also have their vehicles on display. A Kid Zone packed with activities and inflatables will be available to help entertain children.

Sandball Art

History cont. from A1 digging and they told my dad they found more than one clay pot full of coins. They told my dad they were at Big Shell but my dad doubted that because they didn’t have a four-wheel drive on their old Army surplus truck and some other fishermen had told dad that they often fished close to the two men from Kingsville and that was right this side of Little Shell.

The flying will begin at 11 a.m. The National Anthem will be sung as the Army’s Golden Knights carry the national ensign to begin the show.

Rob Reider, this year’s air show announcer, will delight crowds as he describes the aerobatic feats of the various military and civilian performers.

The lineup includes: Rob Holland in his MXS-RH, Trojan Phlyers flying T-28s, a U.S. Coast Guard search-and-rescue demonstration, Paul Fiala in his Great Lakes Bi-Plane, Jerry Conley with his DE Havilland DH 100 Vampire, Beth Ann Jenkins in her B-25 with the Devil Dog Squadron, a P-8 Poseidon, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey, Skip Stewart in his Pitts S-2S, an Air Force F-16 Viper, the “Prowlers of the Pacific,” the Golden Knights, and the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels.

How to search for treasure Before people started using metal detectors to find coins or metal objects, there was a story that originated in Florida that the best way and time to hunt for gold coins along the Coast is to wait until there has been a pretty good rain then walk between the dunes and look for small objects sitting on a little hill of sand where the rain has washed the sand that sits atop. A lot of

“The air show at NASCC will be held over the water again this year,” Capt. Steve Banta, NASCC commanding officer said. “We’re excited to open our ‘doors’ so the general public can enjoy this free fun-filled show. We look forward to seeing you there!”

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

Packery Flats

coins were found that way in Florida. Keeping that in mind brings on the next story.

I was fishing down the Lagoon on a commercial fishing motorboat and we were anchored at Green Hill which is just about the same distance as is Little Shell. It came a pretty good rain one night so the next morning after we had gutted and gilled and iced down our catch of drum that we had caught in the gill nets during the night.

I suggested we walk across the Island and look for gold, which we did. It was about two and one-half or three miles across the mostly sand dunes and grass. The first thing we saw between the dunes was some little hills of sand with something atop. When we saw the first little hill we knew we had struck it rich. The first had a little round sea shell on top. The next hill had a small nut or seed of some kind. The next one had a small piece of gnarled wood on top and the last one we saw had a small piece of green glass on it; nothing more, that’s all. We walked on over to the beach and there was a bunch of big redfish heads scattered everywhere and there was a shack built on stilts in the edge of the dunes with a bunch of big cane poles stacked on the side. Some of the cane poles were at least 20 feet long with at least 30 to 40 feet of line with hooks attached on a leader. One pole and line was staked out in the edge of the surf. We pulled the line in and the bait was missing. Not bringing any water with us we got thirsty and went to the boat empty handed and lack of any Spanish gold.

TM

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Spanish treasure ship The next story is about the Spanish treasure ship that went down off the Coast near Port Mansfield. Through the years it was believed the ship was a reef. In about the year 1970 a treasury hunting ship and its crews of divers found the gold which was in coins and bars.

Articles in the newspaper said there were many millions of dollars worth of gold recovered.

According to the story the captain and the crew divided half of the gold amongst themselves and then the government confiscated the rest and it was in litigation as to how much the state’s share was. One of the treasure hunters retired and married a woman from Flour Bluff, Geneve Fenner. The last I heard of Geneve, who was our neighbor on Annette Street in Flour Bluff, her treasure hunting husband had passed away and she had moved from where they were living in Port Lavaca to Alice.

Floyd Crawford of Wichita, Kansas, caught, landed, and released this redfish today, March 22, 2017 from his private boat on the south jetty. Just one of many in his 30+ years as a winter Port Aransas resident. Not bad for an 89 year old.

Local artist Kenny Fain leaves his artistic mark on Port Aransas beaches.

According to media reports, nearly all, if not all, Spanish ships that went down laden with gold and silver have been recovered and some of the treasure was returned to Spain., but it is possible that not all of the gold that was buried or washed ashore on Padre Island or other Islands along the Gulf Coast has been found. So keep a lookin’, there’s gold in them there hills, or should I say sand dunes!

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)

March 23, 2017

A5

Island Moon

31st Adopt-A-Beach Spring Cleanup set for Earth Day - Saturday, April 22nd Volunteers needed coast-wide to turn the tide on trash!

Volunteers are needed for the nation's biggest all-volunteer coastal cleanup Saturday, April 22nd. The 2017 Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Coast-wide Spring Cleanup takes place at 29 of Texas' most popular tourist beaches. Volunteers can sign up at one of the locations online at www.texasadoptabeach. org to take part in a fun-filled day at the beach that makes a difference.

Each volunteer will be given data cards, gloves, pencils and trash bags. All volunteers are advised to wear closed-toe shoes, bring sunscreen and plenty of drinking water. The Texas General Land Office Adopt-A-Beach Cleanups are held rain or shine!

Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., clean up will be from 9 a.m. to noon. Everyone who signs up online and checks in at their cleanup location will be entered to win a RTIC 20 Soft Pack cooler or one of five Sony Portable Wireless Speakers (Bluetooth + Waterproof).

The random drawing will take place after the cleanup. Winners will be contacted directly.

Tides of the Week Tides for Bob Hall Pier March 23 - March 30

Day

High /Low

Tide Time

Th

23

Low 6:00 AM

23

High

2:39 PM

F

Height in Feet

Sunrise Moon Time Sunset

0.1

7:29 AM

Rise 4:23 AM

1.5

7:42 PM

Set 3:34 PM

24

Low

6:58 AM

0.1

7:28 AM

Rise 5:08 AM

24

High 2:58 PM

1.5

7:42 PM

Set 4:31 PM

24

Low

9:13 PM

1.1

Sa

25

High

12:15 AM

1.2

7:27 AM

Rise 5:51 AM

25

Low

7:53 AM

0.1

7:43 PM

Set 5:31 PM

25

High 3:16 PM

1.4

25

Low

9:11 PM

1.0

Su

26

High 1:33 AM

1.3

7:25 AM

Rise 6:33 AM

26

Low

8:45 AM

0.2

7:43 PM

Set 6:32 PM

26

High 3:33 PM

1.3

26

Low

9:18 PM

0.9

M

27

High 2:43 AM

1.4

7:24 AM

Rise 7:14 AM

27

Low

9:39 AM

0.4

7:44 PM

Set 7:34 PM

27

High 3:49 PM

1.3

Low

27

Tu

28

9:35 PM

0.7

High 3:50 AM

1.5

7:23 AM

Rise 7:56 AM

28

Low

0.6

7:44 PM

Set 8:37 PM

28

High 4:05 PM

1.6

7:22 AM

Rise 8:39 AM

0.8

7:45 PM

Set 9:41 PM

28

Low

W

29

High 4:59 AM

29

Low

29

High 4:17 PM

11:37 AM

29

Low

30

High 6:10 AM

30

Low

30

High 4:25 PM

30

Low

10:40 PM

11:23 PM

13

6

2

0

0.4 0

1.1

12:53 PM

21

1.2

10:03 PM

Th

29

The cleanup sites are: Padre Island National Seashore Check-in: Malaquite Visitor Center, 20420 Park Rd 22 Contact: William “Buzz” Botts 361-949-8068 361-949-8069 buzz.botts@texasadoptabeach.org Mustang Island State Park Check-in: Park Headquarters Parking Lot, 17047 State Hwy 361 Contact: Eric Ehrlich 361-749-5246 eric.ehrlich@texasadoptabeach.org

0.2 1.7

7:21 AM

Rise 9:25 AM

1.0

7:45 PM

Set 10:46 PM

North Beach Corpus Christi Check-in: Texas State Aquarium, 2710 North Shoreline Blvd.

Contact: Rosanna Gossett 361-881-1204 rosanna.gossett@texasadoptabeach.org Packery Flats Check-in: Parking lot off Hwy 361, on Mustang Island near the Packery Channel Contact: Coastal Bays Foundation 361-882-3439 cbbf@baysfoundation.org Aransas Pass/Redfish Bay Check-in: Lighthouse Lakes Park, 4 miles east of Aransas Pass on Hwy 361 Contact: Richard Gonzales 361-779-7351 richard.gonzales@texasadoptabeach.org Cole Park/Corpus Christi Check-in: 1526 Ocean Drive Contact: Celina Ybarbo-Pulcher 361-826-1655 chelsea.craig@texasadoptabeach.org Magnolia Beach/Port Lavaca Check-in: Crabbin' Bridge Contact: Rhonda Cummins 361-552-9747 rhonda.cummins@texasadoptabeach.org

4

Matagorda Island Restoration Project Restores 2,300 Acres The Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program (CBBEP) is excited to announce the completion of the Matagorda Island Restoration Project.

The project was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through a General Land Office Coastal Impact Assistance Program grant ($700,000), and Coastal Conservation Association of Texas ($70,000), and included 4 levee removals, 2 culvert repairs, and 1 new culvert, restoring water flow and circulation, improving water quality, and increasing wildlife abundance and diversity to 2,300 acres of emergent estuarine marsh.

Accessible only by boat, Matagorda Island is a 38-mile long barrier island located between

0.0

View from levee road of Matagorda Island, October 2016.

The BACK PORCH Capt. Legendary Beach Stone Rise Myndfields

Scarecrow People Ruben V.

Jul & Chrome Wheels

Mar. 24 Mar. 25 Mar. 31 Apr. 01 Apr. 07 Apr. 08

The BACK PORCH Bar ON THE WATERFRONT

132 W. Cotter St. The

Check-in: Kaufer-Hubert Park, FM 628 Contact: Susan Ivy 361-595-8591 susan.ivy@texasadoptabeach.org

Check-in: Padre Balli Park Office, 15820 Park Road 22

1.1

Baffin Bay

North Padre Island/Padre Balli Park

10:35 AM

Moon Visible

Texans who are not able to attend the cleanup can help keep their beaches clean by making a tax-deductible donation online at www.

TexasAdoptABeach.org. There are several different Adopt-A-Beach sponsorship levels ranging from $25 to $25,000, allowing both individuals and corporations to contribute to this major cleanup effort.

Contact: John Vaughn 361-779-0477 john.vaughn@texasadoptabeach.org Jim Needham—Surfrider Foundation james.needham@texasadoptabeach.org

PortA

Whooping cranes utilizing the area benefiting from the restoration effort.

Photo: Lisa Laskowski, CCA marsh. Since that time, many of these culverts have collapsed or become clogged, to the point where tidal exchange in the marsh has become severely restricted or eliminated, impairing water quality and negatively impacting habitats.

CBBEP has been working with ANWR for many years to assess the health of marsh and adjacent habitat, identify and prioritize Action Item locations, develop an Adaptive Management Plan (AMP), and implement onthe-ground restoration actions as recommend by the AMP. With the AMP in hand and the support of our partners, removal of the levees and culvert repairs began in 2011.

"Restoration projects in remote reaches like the cities of Port O'Connor and Fulton. Habitats this one have many challenges, and this one found on the 56,668 acre island include gulf has been no exception. Thanks to the vigilant beach and low dunes on the eastern shoreline, efforts of our contractors and partners, 2,300 coastal prairie with freshwater emergent acres are benefiting from this five-year effort," said Rosario Martinez, Senior Project Manager marshes in the interior, and an estimated 15,000 acres of intertidal estuarine emergent marshes on the western boundary which provide critically important habitat for birds like the endangered Whooping Crane.

Since 1979 the island has been under the protection of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Aransas National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and Texas Parks View of new culvert installed under levee. and Wildlife Department, who have managed the island for for the CBBEP. public use, wildlife, and habitat, but the island On a recent trip out to the island with our has a rich and varied history. partners from ANWR and the CCA, the restored Originally inhabited by nomadic Karankawa areas were teaming with fish and wildlife, Indians, the island has been host to many Whooping cranes were feeding and preparing to things, including the town of Saluria, civil war depart for their breeding grounds, and the water fort, coastal retreat, bombing range, coast guard was flowing freely. station, a ranch and even a rocket launch pad, "CCA Texas continues to work with partners but that history has left its mark. Relict airplane up and down the Texas coast to restore and runways are still intact, the lighthouse still create marine habitat. The Matagorda Island stands, and though abandoned, the homes of the Marsh Restoration project is helping restore Wynn family where President Roosevelt once historical flows through thousands of acres of sipped juleps with Toddie Wynn Jr. still remain. rich marsh in and around Matagorda Island.

Some things nature can retake, grass can grow These flows are important to the surrounding over the old runways and rocket launch pads ecosystems on many levels and CCA Texas is can be removed, but some types of alterations happy to be a partner in this effort." said John do not wither away with time.

D. Blaha, Assistant Director, CCA. In the 1950's an estimated 15,000 acres of marsh Matagorda Island is resilient, and we have on Matagorda Island was negatively impacted taken a great first step towards returning the when large portions of the estuarine marsh were estuarine marshes to their prior grandeur. With sectioned off with constructed levees so they a plan in place, hopefully one day we will see could be drained for cattle production. The area the marshes again like Karankawa did, rich in remained in this condition until the late 1970's, resources and unrestricted by the alterations of when several dozen culverts where installed in the past an attempt to restore natural hydrology to the

A6

March 23, 2017

Island Moon

Senior Moments

One of My HeroesMarguerite Higgins

By Dotson Lewis Special to the Island Moon Dotson’s Note: Thanks to many of you Moon disease that led to her death on January 3, 1966, Monkeys for your kind words regarding my at age 45 in Washington D.C. She is interred at Moon article about Ernie Pile. With that in Arlington National Cemetery, with her husband mind I believe that I must remind you of, or Lieutenant General William E. Hall. introduce you to, one of my heroes. Marguerite Maggie Higgins’ Report of The War In (Maggie) Higgins. Maggie who had stunned her Korea male college classmates by winning the coveted position of campus correspondent for the New The Red invasion of South Korea on Sunday, York Herald Tribune, became the first woman to June 25, 1950, exploded in Tokyo like a delayedwin a Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting action bomb. The first reports of the dawn attack for her hard-hitting front-line coverage of the were nonchalantly received by the duty officer Korean War. She was named Associated Press’ at the Dai Ichi building. He didn’t even bother Woman of the Year in 1951, and in 2002 she to wake General MacArthur and tell him. But was honored by the US Postal Service as part of within a few hours the swift advance warned their "Women in Journalism" series. Thanks to us of the power of the attackers. South Korea, the AP, The Stars & Stripes and Correspondent the last non-Communist outpost in North Asia, Marguerite Higgins for their contributions to was crumbling. America had to decide at once this article. whether to lend fighting support to its South Korean protégé or cede it outright to the Reds.

Maggie Higgins’-Bio Marguerite Higgins, (September 3, 1920-January 3, 1966), was an American reporter and war correspondent. Higgins covered World War II, the Korean War and the war in Vietnam, and in the process advanced the cause of equal access for female war correspondents.

This decision was still hanging fire two days later when my plane roared toward the heart of the Korean war zone under a flashing jet-fighter cover. The plane was headed for the besieged South Korean capital of Seoul to bring out the last of the embattled American civilians.

Four newspaper correspondents were the only passengers: Keyes Beech of the Chicago Daily News, Frank Gibney of Time, Burton Crane of the New York Times, and myself.

We were to become the only eyewitnesses to America’s entry into the battle for Korea.

America began this battle unprepared. And today many hastily dug graves bear witness to the shocking price of underestimating the enemy.

But despite the many tragedies of Korea, we know now that it is fortunate for our world that it resisted Red aggression at that time and in that place. Korea has served as a kind of international alarm clock to wake up the world.

Maggie Higgins-Soul Korea 1950 Higgins was born in Hong Kong while her father, Lawrence Higgins, was working at a shipping company. The family moved back to the United States three years later. She worked for The Daily Californian, the University of California, Berkeley newspaper, her freshman year at college. After graduating from Berkeley in 1941 with a B.A. in French she received a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.

After working for the New York Herald Tribune for just two years, Higgins persuaded them to allow her to become a war correspondent in 1944. She was first stationed in London and Paris, but was reassigned to Germany in March 1945. There she witnessed the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in April 1945 and received a U.S. Army campaign ribbon for her assistance during the SS guards' surrender. She later covered the Nuremberg war trials and the Soviet Union's blockade of Berlin.

In 1950 Higgins was named chief of the Tribune's Tokyo bureau. Shortly after her arrival in Japan war broke out in Korea.

One of the first reporters on the spot, she was quickly ordered out of the country by General Walton Walker, who argued that women did not belong at the front and the military had no time to worry about making separate accommodations for them. Higgins made a personal appeal to Walker's superior officer, General Douglas MacArthur, who subsequently sent a telegram to the Herald Tribune that said: “Ban On Women Correspondents in Korea Has Been Lifted. Marguerite Higgins Is Held In Highest Professional Esteem By Everyone.” This was a major breakthrough for all female war correspondents. As a result of her reporting from Korea, Higgins was the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, in 1951, for international reporting, sharing the award with five male war correspondents.

In 1952, Marguerite married William E. Hall, a U.S. Air Force Major General, whom she met while bureau chief in Berlin. Their first daughter, born in 1953, died five days after a premature birth. In 1958 she gave birth to a

son and in 1959, a daughter. Higgins continued to cover foreign affairs throughout the rest of her life, interviewing world leaders such as Francisco Franco, Nikita Khrushchev and Jawaharlal Nehru. In 1955 she established and was chief of the Tribune's Moscow bureau. In 1963 she joined Newsday and was assigned to cover Vietnam. She visited hundreds of villages, interviewed most of the major figures and wrote a book entitled "Our Vietnam Nightmare."

While on assignment there in late 1965, Higgins contracted leishmaniasis, a tropical

There is a dangerous gap between the mobilized might of the free world and the armaments of the Red world—the Red world which, since 1945, has been talking peace and rushing preparations for war. Korea ripped away our complacency, our smug feeling that all we had to do for our safety was to build bigger atomic bombs. Korea has shown how weak America was. It has shown how desperately we needed to arm and to produce tough, hard-fighting foot soldiers. It was better to find this out in Korea and in June of 1950 than on our own shores and possibly too late.

Nothing can make up for the licking we took in the Korean prelude to the Third World War. But those men in their icy graves will have died for something vital if their warning galvanizes us to the point of becoming so strong that we will win, at the least possible cost, the struggle

Anecdotingly

Beware the Breakers

By Abigail Bair Spring Break loomed large last week, and intrepid idiot that I am, I had to check it out. I called my Dad (the G.P.) and asked if he’d care to join me. And, although he was still suffering from the lung infection that I’m insisting on calling the Presbyterian Plague just to annoy the Rev (my Mom), he agreed

Rowlfie sneaking a drink from an oversized beer pong bucket. We were assured by the kid who needs a beer so badly that he bought the t-shirt that it was "just water."

“writing down anyone’s names or anything.”

No one cared. They were all bonging beers from the ubiquitous tube and funnel rig. I did notice that many of these devices had matching stickers. Shout out to the Port A artisanal beer bong craftsman – that twenty cents of tubing must really keep the wheels on the trailer!

One of my favorite groups of Breakers was the kids playing horseshoes right at the edge of the water. Instead of just having one “ring” (pole that you throw the horseshoe at) they had two. This would have been pretty smart, as that way no one has to do the “I’m trying not to look stupid, but I totally look stupid” walk to retrieve the shoes, EXCEPT these kids insisted on standing right behind the ring when the other kid was throwing. Because the participants were 20 something boys, and things that are normal sized aren’t adequately compensative, these horseshoes were essentially iron rings the size of toilet seats. I thought they were playing some kind of full contact horseshoe chicken.

I walked up to one of the kids (I didn’t write down his name) to ask him about it. “Are you playing some kind of chicken,” I asked.

“What’s chicken?” he responded. I didn’t want to tell him because of the proximity of certain two lane roads. “Um, it’s nothing….so why are you standing right in front of where a giant iron horseshoe is about to be?” “Oh, it’s okay!” he said cheerfully taking a sip of his tallboy, “You just have to trust the other guy!” “How well do you know the other guy?” “Him? I’ve never met him. I guess you just have to hope you don’t get hit.” I just walked away without bothering to attempt to explain to the kid that

to come along. I’m not sure if he thought he’d be able to save me from degenerating into a drunken sun slug, or if he was just interested in checking out some wahinis in bikinis. I’m betting on the latter.

After about 15 trips in and out of my parents’ house, we finally got Stadler, Rowlfie, myself, the G.P,, five bottles of water and the camera loaded in Dad’s truck. Then we couldn’t find the remote control to the gate . There was yelling.

Some background information is necessary here for you to understand the full impact of what’s about to happen in this story. The G.P. is an old newspaperman from way back. He was in the business as everything from a reporter to an editor to a pressman over several decades.

He even wrote a column for a paper a lot like this one. If I worked harder, or got paid more you might be able to say I am flopping right along in the old man’s huaraches. In any case, Dad has something that I don’t: journalistic training, which (best as I can tell) means that any time you talk to someone you have to write down their name, hometown and age in pencil on a skinny pad that fits conveniently in your back pocket.

Evidently, it has to be exactly this kind of notepad and it MUST be in pencil, otherwise every time you sit in water, the writing might not be totally unreadable. Dad sits in liquids a lot. I’m pretty sure several “Todd’s” in Dad’s reporter history only very narrowly missed being listed as “Toads,” but that’s the way it has to be. It’s the training. Also, Dad hasn’t worked on the Island where asking people their age (especially in order to print it in the newspapers) is a good way to get whacked in the side of the head, or get very ganged up on at the Barrel’s weekly cheap wine and killer gossip night. Be very careful, young Dadawan.

The ways of the Island are mysterious – is what I should have said. Instead, I just screeched, “Dad, it’s pictures for the Moon of people who don’t live here! We don’t care what their stupid names are!” He didn’t get it.

It was actually a nice day at the beach. Other old people were running the Breaker Gamut in gaily decorated golf carts, or just walking like us, pretending to mind their own business. Dad happily took photos after I asked kids to pose.

He did tell every single person that while he was definitely working for the paper, we weren’t

"Toad" (pictured throwing a horseshoe) will definitely probably not sustain a head injury this Spring Break.

Photos by Bruce Bair if he just stood three feet to the left of the ring, the chances of getting hit were exponentially decreased. I didn’t want to accidentally invent Horseshoe Chicken or have to explain how exponents work.

We kept walking, with the G.P. yelling in his poor plague voice, “Fifty cents to pet the dog!”

Finally, we reached the epicenter of the Breaker earthquake – a ring of trucks, vans and one school bus with parts of the comforting wording scratched out so that it read, “Cool Bus.” We were at Breaker Thunderdome. We slunk between a couple of ridiculously tall trucks into the land of stripper poles mounted on unsupported tail gates and the stench of marijuana in quantities that were Coloradan. Dad immediately turned around and walked back out. I stepped in some kid’s sand square trying to follow him and the kid tried to make me do something, but I’m the current world boss of 20 year olds, so it didn’t work out in the kid's favor.

Dad and I headed for the truck. We’d been out long enough. I asked the G.P. what he thought of the festivities. He was quiet for a minute and then he said, “A couple of girls petted Rowlfie, but ain’t none of them paid me.” I think he spoke for us all.

we cannot escape because the enemy will not cease attacking.

It is just barely possible that if we confront the enemy with obviously superior armed strength at every important testing point in the world, he will back down without a fight. But I doubt it.

There may be strategic halts in the Communistarmed expansion, halts of several years. They will be merely periods of regroupment. The Third World War is on. It began in Korea, and I’m glad the first battles I covered were so far away from San Francisco and New York.

Dotson’s Other Note: The above was extracted from an article Maggie wrote after she arrived in Korea in July 1950. I did not agree with General MacArthur when he overruled General Walker’s orders and allowed her to remain in the combat zone. But, just to see Miss Higgins in our area was well worth the extra duty. As a matter of fact, everyone in my unit volunteered for that extra duty.

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, March 21, 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.

Hang in there/Have fun!

Props to the enterprising Port A. Artisinal Beer Bong Entreprneuer. Your work was greatly appreciated by our guests, shown here...appreciating.

March 23, 2017

A7

Island Moon

BBB encourages people to tidy up digital devices this spring

Island Moon on a Spoon

The Art of the Tart

By Kelly Trevino Regional Director, Corpus Christi Better Business Bureau Spring is officially here, and we all know what that means: spring cleaning. This month may be a good time to clean out your closet, around the house or have a yard sale—but what about cleaning up your digital life?

Most of us have an online presence, own a mobile device or use a computer daily. Whether it’s a status update or photos shared on social media, financial records or personal contacts stored on our digital devices, all of that data could potentially fall into the wrong hands.

According to a recent study, more than 68 percent of Americans store 25 percent or more of their photos digitally. For most, losing these memories to computer malfunctions, viruses or theft can be devastating.

Better Business Bureau serving the Heart of Texas recommends backing up all of your important files. If you’re not sure where to begin, start by going through your device and deleting files you don’t need, uninstall programs you don’t use and clear out your deleted files. But remember, before you start wiping clean your devices, make sure you back up important pictures, music and files to your cloud, computer or external hard drive.

To ensure you’re safely managing and tidying up your digital life, BBB offers the following advice: Keep software updated. Make sure all devices have the most recent software updates installed. This includes security software, web browsers, document readers, operating

systems and any other software you use regularly. Install anti-virus software on your devices and keep them up-to-date.

Clean up your mobile device. Delete unused apps and keep others updated. Not only will you reduce clutter, you’ll have more storage space for data and a longer battery life on your device.

Create better passwords. Passwords like “123456” or “qwerty” are among some of the most common passwords used by the general population. Longer passwords and those that combine capital and lowercase letters with numbers and symbols provide better protection.

Declutter your email inbox. Delete emails older than a year, and create and label folders for emails to stay organized. Delete messages in your spam folder and unsubscribe from emails you don’t open. Move important messages to an archive.

Check your privacy settings on your social media sites. Review the privacy and security settings on websites you use to be sure that they remain set to your comfort level for sharing to your friends or the public.

Kelly Trevino is the regional director for the Corpus Christi/Victoria area of Better Business Bureau serving the Heart of Texas.

Kelly is available for media interviews and speaking engagements. You can reach her by phone: (361) 945-7352 or email: ktrevino@ corpuschristi.bbb.org.

Letter From the P.O.A.

By MayBeth Christensen

The March 11, 2017, annual meeting was recessed to 10 AM on April 1, 2017, to be held in the same place, the Seashore Learning Center Gym on Encantada. The reason for the recess is that no candidate for the Board received a majority of votes cast. There has been some confusion about the “correct” number, but the total number of votes (that is the number recorded in red in the box on each ballot) totaled 1,549.40.

I contacted all 8 of the candidates on Monday, March 13, 2017, to ask if they were still interested in being a candidate and if they were not, asked them to send me something in writing. Marvin Jones, Carter Tate, Stan Hulse and George Potter indicated they still wanted to be candidates for the Board election.

Our attorney then put together the language and directions for the ballot. The ballot was sent to the printer – not associated with any person on the Board or previously on the Board nor related to anyone on the staff or Board. The printer was able to deliver the ballot to the Postal Service on Thursday and I know ballots started arriving at people’s residences on Saturday, March 18.

The ballot may be returned by using the Postal Service, brought to the PIPOA offices and placed in the locked ballot box in the front office, or you may bring it with you when you

come to the resumption of the annual meeting on April 1. No PIPOA staff member will touch your ballot and the keys (yes, keys) are in the auditor’s possession.

Many people were concerned with the amount of time it took to count the ballots. The process is not simple as the ballot needs to be verified and the vote is then put on a separate tally sheet.

This is to protect the person voting. Your vote is not recorded next to your name. So, due to the number of people who wanted to change their votes or dropped the ballots off that morning, the process took even longer.

By Chef Vita Jarrin One way to confirm spring has finally sprung, is to look at the loads of fresh asparagus offered at the neighborhood supermarkets. Although asparagus if readily available all year long, like most fruits and veggies, buying them when in season is a true treat.

In general I love this veggie. They are light and truly versatile when it comes to serving them, but mainly they are packed in vitamins have a unique, earthy flavor. They can be made for breakfast in an omelet or lunch in a salad, or served alongside a juicy steak and mash for dinner. I also love using them on Pizzas and Tarts.

What is a tart you ask? Tarts are a cross between a pizza and a pie. The dough is lighter and flakier, but like a pie crust, it can be filled with savory fillings as well. I’ve often heard over the years that pizza and pie doughs made from scratch can be somewhat intimidating. But in today’s article I wanted to give you an easy tart recipe that is forgiving. Like any dough made from scratch, it is important to practice and learn from experience what the dough feels like, tastes like as well as learning the timing when baking them.

Just the other day, I heard someone say they boil their asparagus first, before using them. If you use this method, I recommend only immersing them for about 2 minutes in boiling water. This is a process called blanching and shocking.

Blanching means giving the vegetable a quick boil to partially cook them. Shocking them, means immersing the vegetable in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. You can use this system and reserve par cooked vegetables in the refrigerator in order to use them in your recipes through the next couple of days.

So why tarts? Tarts are a great way to use asparagus because baking them in the tart whether by themselves or nestled in goat cheese and caramelized onions, allows them to be the star of the show. When putting them in a tart I sauté them in a little olive oil and sprinkle some salt and pepper on them. The flavor just pops.

Add them to a buttery, flaky tart crust and you have magic in your mouth!

There have been claims that Board Members cast hundreds of proxy votes. This year there were 220 proxy votes cast spread out over 9 different people – not all were Board members.

Another 13 votes were not counted as the people who were given the proxies were not in attendance and therefore, could not cast the votes.

This year’s election process has been the most interesting and involved in recent memory. Your PIPOA hopes to take the lessons of this cycle and improve upon them in future elections. We also hope that by communicating with property owners we can curtail the spread of ill-informed, inaccurate, and false information. We also want to remind property owners that if you have any questions, you are encouraged to contact your PIPOA directly. We are here to serve you.

Tart Recipe: 1 ¾ All Purpose Flour (extra for rolling) 1 Stick Butter diced ½ tsp salt 2 egg yolks 3 Tbs. ice water Cooking spray for tart pan Ingredients Used in My recipe: 3 oz. herbed goat cheese (room temperature) 3 Tbs. Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 Bunch Asparagus (cut & use top 4 inches) 1 Red Onion Sliced 4 eggs 1 Tsp salt ½ Tsp black pepper Dash of chili flakes, optional 1 C shredded mozzarella ***For best results you will need a 2 piece tart pan for the bottom to separate after cooked, similar to a cheese cake spring form pan. However, a tart pan is low sided, perfect for making tarts.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees and then reduce to 350 for second round of baking.

In a bowl, add flour, salt and butter. With your hands, mix the flour & butter with both hands until crumbles form. Don’t over mix, butter will melt. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and ice water. Pour over flour mixture and form a dough ball. If dough is too soft, add a little flour, if too hard, add a little ice water. In order to firm up the dough, place in a sheet of plastic wrap and place in fridge for 30 minutes. When ready to roll out, place a little flour on a counter surface and roll out dough with a rolling pin. If using a square pan, roll it in a square shape and if circular, well you get the message. ;) Once dough is in the pan, trim edges if needed and press edges with a fork. With the same fork, poke holes in the dough to allow dough to cook without rising and making air bubbles. Place a sheet of aluminum foil over the tart crust and bake in a preheated oven for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes remove foil and bake for an additional 6 minutes. After that (for this recipe) add dollops of herbed goat cheese and gently spread. Add caramelized onions and asparagus and bake for another 8 minutes. While baking, beat 4 more eggs and add the mozzarella, salt, pepper and chili flakes. Whisk and pour over the asparagus and bake an additional 10 minutes or until omelet is firm.

Note*** I added an egg in the center but this is an extra optional step.

Tip of the week!

This tart recipe can be topped with various toppings. Just don’t use heavy sauces, because the dough can’t withstand liquids.

But you can play with veggies, cheeses, herbs, pestos … the list goes on and on! The important thing is to Have Fun! Try New Things! Happy Eats… Enjoy!

Boat Owners Association of The United States Says Budget Proposal Raises Concerns for American Boaters US Coast Guard faces 14% budget cut After its first look at the Trump administration’s new budget blueprint released March 16, Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) says that boat owners should be aware of potential budget impacts that could affect boating safety, access and the health of our waterways.

“The administration’s budget proposal clearly reflects a different set of priorities over previous years,” said BoatUS Manager of Government Affairs David Kennedy. “Proposed cuts to agencies such as the Departments of Commerce and Interior, Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency could lead to changes for many programs that matter to boating.”

regarding programs that fund clean-water efforts, clean marina programs, navigation improvements, regional waterway restoration such as the Chesapeake Bay, Great Lakes and Puget Sound, and boating safety programs. We are keeping a close watch.”

BoatUS will continue to monitor the budget process, ensure that the recreational boater’s voice is heard and advise its more than halfmillion members of boating-related budget items.

Added Kennedy, “Considering boating’s $121.5 billion impact, we believe this would be short sighted and negatively affect the boating experience for our nation’s 12 million boat owners.”

Kennedy notes that under budget proposal’s shifting priorities, US Coast Guard funding could be slashed 14 percent to just $7.8 billion, while the service’s “parent,” the Department of Homeland Security, is increased. “As the budget process continues, boaters may need to communicate with their members of Congress

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If you get in an accident while trailering your boat, do you know which insurance policy will pay for repairs to the trailer?

How far can you trailer? Ask if there are geographic limits on where or how far you may trailer your boat.

If it’s a simple accident with damage to the trailer only, it’s likely to be the trailer insurance coverage that pays. But what happens when you back the trailer into a neighbor’s stone wall or a tree comes crashing down on your trailer in your backyard? Boat Owners Association of The United States (BoatUS) understands how the combination of homeowners, auto, boat and boat trailer insurance add up to protect trailer boaters and offers these tips:

Check your auto insurance. Ensure your tow vehicle’s insurance policy includes liability coverage for any damage to others’ property caused while trailering your boat, for example, backing into your neighbor’s stone wall. This liability coverage is not provided by your boat and trailer policy.

Start with the basics. When shopping for insurance for your trailer boat, ensure to ask if the policy provides boat trailer coverage. Not all insurers provide it.

Know the trailer value. If you decide to add trailer coverage to your boat’s insurance policy, your insurer needs to know the cost of the boat and trailer separately. If you don’t separate each out, the insurer may have difficulty in fairly compensating you in the event of a claim.

Check your homeowner’s insurance. Ask your homeowner’s insurance company if your trailer is covered while stored at home. And try not to park a boat trailer under a tree.

Read the fine print. If you store your boat trailer at your marina or other storage facility, read the fine print in your contract as it relates to insurance. Many include language that holds these facilities harmless. Review these clauses with your insurance company to make sure you're not in danger of a breach of the insurance contract, which could result in no coverage.

A8

March 23, 2017

Island Moon

SPORTS Sports Talk Special to The Island Moon

Referees Road to March Madness

said. "And also networking, talking with guys and just kind of using the whole system there to Special to the Island Moon step up the ladder to the next step."

Dotson’s Note: I thought Shaw spent 21 seasons refereeing Division that some of you Moon I games, calling 18 NCAA tournaments and Monkeys would like a seven Final Fours. He knows the system, and behind the scenes report of some of what it he knows the challenges of maximizing quality takes to be chosen to referee games in “March while dealing with officials who are balancing Madness.” Please keep in mind it is very rare entirely separate lives and jobs. when a basketball referee moves into the ranks "It makes it difficult, and it's one of the aspects of college officials with less than 10 years of high school, middle school & etc. refereeing. Thanks that we're looking at how we make that better," to Mark Fainaru-Wada reporter with ESPN's Shaw said. "It's my duty as a coordinator to enterprise unit who contributed to this article. try to handle all those situations as best as I Added Note: After I sent this to the Proofer, the possibly can. If I've got somebody who lives two referees calls/no calls happened…please in western Kentucky, I can't realistically expect don’t call/Email me about these, my Email and them to drive to south Florida to officiate a Voicemail are full!…Sports talk in next issue of ballgame when I know they have to be at work the Moon will cover the calls/rules that have the next day." caused all of the outcry.

Asked whether he could envision a scenario Attending a Basketball Referees Training with full-time officials, at least in the power conferences, Shaw said, "I just don't think it's Camp feasible. I think the costs of employee benefits, It's a good 690 miles from Princeton, Ky., to the costs it would take to hire them away from Duncanville, Tx., a relatively straight, if not their full-time jobs, I don't think that's out always visually appetizing drive that takes there." you southwest through Memphis, Tenn.; Little Shaw and John Adams, the NCAA coordinator Rock, Ark; and Texarkana, Texas, then on of men's basketball officiating, both indicated through downtown Dallas before you finally that one of the clearest challenges they face come to a stop on the outskirts of Big D. It's is an aging workforce trying to perform its about a 10½-hour trek without stopping, but, of duties in what is truly a young man's game, a course, you have to stop at some point, at least game whose participants seem to get faster and for bathroom breaks and food. stronger every year.

By Dotson Lewis

The four grown men are now recounting their trip which occurred in April. They rested in a hotel room for a short spell before they went to work at their "dream" jobs, the ones they hope will take them on the road to their Final Four -whenever and wherever that might be.

It's a fascinating contrast: 18-, 19-, 20-yearold young men, with ridiculous athletic ability and seemingly boundless stamina; and men who sometimes are in their 40s, 50s or even 60s trying to watch them closely, officiating in some cases as many as 80 to 100 games a season.

In the early morning hours on a Friday, they had arrived in Duncanville, a town with this most intriguing Wikipedia category, listed right after "Demographics" and "Education": "Reports of Alleged Paranormal Phenomenon."

There is a Whataburger here, which would become a staple for Ford Branch and his three buddies over the course of their three days here.

"The ideal official," Adams said, "would be a 35-year old guy that can run like a deer and that has 20 years’ experience, which would mean he would have to start at 15 and that's not happening. So here's what we have: 50-year-old professional athletes or older trying to work 75, 80, 90 games. We don't ask 22-year-old kids to work, to play 90 games a season. We ask them to play, if they go to the national championship, 36 or 37 games."

Said Shaw, lecturing at his camp: "You've got to be able to physically run up and down the floor. These kids stay the same age, and we get older every year. And some of the complaints I get from coaches aren't anything other than, 'Curtis, he couldn't get in position to see it.'"

Ford Branch, driver; Kelly Davis, front seat passenger; Charles Jones, backseat driver's side; and Rusty Phillips, backseat passenger's side, attended a basketball referee camp in Duncanville, Texas, in the hope they can advance as NCAA referees The men paired up and shared rooms at the local Hilton Garden Inn. They skipped a day from their real, better-paying jobs. They each paid $575 to be here. They each refereed two, sometimes three basketball games a day at an AAU tournament being held in Duncanville.

And they did this while, in some cases, readily getting chewed out by other, more experienced officials, not to mention the coaches whose games they were calling.

Such is the glory of trying to make it big as a college basketball official. As the NCAA and its member conferences look to improve the quality of officiating throughout the country, they face the unending challenge of dealing with, well, amateurs. That is, all the officials at all the games throughout the country are independent contractors, freelancers who, in most cases, work regular, full-time jobs that can be counted on to pay their bills, feed their families, provide their medical benefits.

That's right, they're all moonlighting in the billion-dollar business that is college hoops -- a stark contrast to their counterparts in the pro leagues (NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL), who all are union employees, with full benefits and the kinds of salaries that can keep them from having to work a second job.

And so for Ford Branch, pharmaceutical salesman by day, college basketball official by night, his work as a referee provides him no guarantees. There are no benefits. There is no pension. There is no health plan. The average Division I ref might make $50,000 a year, if he can officiate 40 to 60 games a season, but that's before taxes -- and that earning power goes away the minute a guy is injured or sick or can't work for whatever reason.

"If I go down one night, we would be in trouble," Branch, who is married with two young children, said of the idea of working fulltime as a referee. "I don't really want to have that pressure.

"I don't use this income as something to have to pay the bills. It's more of, you know, putting away for the kids for college and for vacations."

Branch is among 70 mostly young officials who came to Duncanville to be part of an officiating camp run by Curtis Shaw, a longtime NCAA referee who is the director of officials for a fourconference consortium led by the Big 12. The other leagues overseen by Shaw are Conference USA, the Ohio Valley and the Southland.

While some of the nation's top college coaches have gathered here to scout and woo some of the nation's top high school talent at an AAU event dubbed the Great American Shootout, Shaw and his camp counselors are doing their own evaluating, seeking up-and-comers with the talent to reach the top levels of college officiating.

"I'm here just to get on the floor and learn and improve, get critiqued and evaluated," Branch

Branch is 35 years old, and he has spent the past three years in the Division I ranks. He called 15 Ohio Valley Conference games last season, and he is hoping to build on that this season. Branch is in Duncanville, listening intently to Shaw and his counselors, because he has designs on working his way up the ladder, maybe reaching the Big 12 or another power conference that will pay him better and get him one step closer to the NCAA tournament.

A Kentucky graduate who loves college hoops, Branch endured that 10½-hour drive from eastern Kentucky and is missing his son's first all-star baseball games to be here. His boy is just 7, one of only three kids his age to make the all-star team.

"It hurts a little bit," Branch said. "I've been keeping in touch all weekend long."

Branch and his refereeing colleagues, all Memphians whom he picked up along the way to carpool, essentially share the same ultimate dream. Along with Branch, there's 29-year-old Kelly Davis, 28-year-old Rusty Phillips and 40-year-old Charles Jones. They have worked -- and continue to work -- basketball games in any or all of the following: high school, junior college, NAIA, Division II, and so on.

They're on the path, hoping to be seen and evaluated by someone like Shaw who can recommend or hire them to call games at higher levels. There are no prerequisites to becoming a college official, such as refereeing a minimum number of games or even earning a high school diploma; it's a word-of-mouth, evaluationdriven industry. And where does Branch hope it will lead? Center court, of course. Tossing the ball up. Lights flashing. Inside that big dome.

"The Final Four, the final game, the championship, I think that's everybody's dream," Branch said.

Phi Slama Jama

By Andy Purvis Special to the Island Moon He could be as tough as rawhide, or as gentle as a grandmother. He was fierce yet kindhearted, cantankerous but reasonable.

He remained independent, thoughtful, and hard-fisted all of his life, but was known as completely lovable as a coach--John the Baptist in tennis shoes. He was the kind of guy you didn’t mind getting stuck in a submarine with, and the cover of his playbook may have had only one word, “Attack.” I guess you could say he was easy to like but hard to know. He succeeded in a profession where even tough guys finish second. Basketball was not only his livelihood, but his life. Loyalty had always been one of his basic tenets. Some said he may have invented recruiting. He owned dark circles that hung like bunting beneath his eyes, and he had been known to chase a referee all the way to the dressing room. If you had the opportunity to visit one of his practices, you would come away with three ingredients for winning: you need good players, who could be physical, and

assistant. He would learn from Pasche for three years before taking over the Houston program, in 1956. The Cougars struggled the first several years until 1959, when Lewis put a winning team together. During the next 24 seasons, his teams would win 20 or more games during 14 seasons and 30 or more for three seasons. His familiar sideline apparel of plaid jackets and a polka-dot towel clinched in his fist could be seen regularly on television.

His win-loss record for 30 years of work stands at 134-98 during conference play and 592-279 in overall record.

With star player Elvin Hayes, the University of Houston reached the NCAA Final Four in 1967 and 1968. Hayes would become a #1 pick in the NBA draft and eventually a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. At the 1967 Final Four, Houston lost to U.C.L.A., 73-58 in the semi-finals, and then placed third, with an 84-62 win over fourth place UNC.

Guy Lewis and me who could push the ball in an up-tempo style of offense. He took his game all around the world, as he visited countries such as China, Germany, Spain, England, Korea, the Philippines, Japan, Brazil and Chile. Yet he always said, “There’s nothing like returning home to Houston.” My pal, Buck Showalter, Manager of the Baltimore Orioles, once said, “It’s not that I like to win so much; I hate seeing somebody else win.” That reminded me of basketball coach extraordinaire, Guy V. Lewis. A teacher at heart, he was some kind of basketball coach.

Straight Outta Arp Guy Vernon Lewis, II, was born in Arp, Texas, on March 19, 1922. Arp was a small northeastern town with less than 1,000 inhabitants. Lewis attended Arp High School where he starred in basketball and football. Lewis played on three district championship basketball teams in high school and quarterbacked the football team all three years. Like most other red-blooded American boys, Guy joined the U. S. Army’s Air Forces and became a flight instructor during World War II. Upon his return, Lewis enrolled at Rice University. After two years, Lewis decided to leave Rice and then enrolled at the University of Houston, in 1946. As cocaptain of the Cougars, Lewis became a part of Houston’s inaugural basketball team and not only led the team in scoring, but he helped lead the team to the Lone Star Conference title, in their very first season. During his second season, the Cougars finished with a 15-7 win-loss record and won their second consecutive Lone Star Conference title while Lewis knocked down almost 80 percent of his free-throw shots. Lewis was selected a FirstTeam honoree during the 1946-47 season. He graduated in 1947 with a bachelor’s degree in education, while averaging 21 points per game.

In fact, Lewis set the team’s scoring record in his first season with 34 points, and then broke his own record in his second season by scoring 38 points. He never scored less than 14 points per game, while at Houston.

In 1953, shortly after graduation, Lewis joined Houston’s head coach, Alden Pasche, as his

Game of the Century Guy Lewis, the architect of the college basketball event that is now known as the “Game of the Century,” was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007. This game between #1 U.C.L.A. and #2 University of Houston occurred on January 20, 1968. Over 52,000 fans crowded into the newly-built Astrodome, to see Guy Lewis lead his Cougars to a stunning win over John Wooden’s Bruins. The marquee matchup between centers, Elvin Hayes and Lew Alcindor, who later changed his name to Kareem AbdulJabbar, was incredible to watch. Millions more watched on television as Houston put an end to U.C.L.A.’s 47-game winning streak (71-69) and got their revenge from a loss the previous year, in the NCAA Final Four. For the rest of his days, Lewis called this win the “greatest thrill” of his career. Houston would fare no better in the 1968 Final Four, where they fell to U.C.L.A. again, 101-69 in the semi-finals. Abdul-Jabbar proved to be too much for the Cougars.

In 1982, Houston Post sportswriter, Thomas Bonk, coined the nickname, “Phi Slama Jama,” after watching Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon run their opponents’ teams out of the building with an up-tempo, above-the-rim style that led to thunderous dunks. Dunks had been banned by the NCAA from 1967-1976.

With the reintroduction of this high percentage shot, the Cougars made back-to-back-to-back visits to the Final Four in 1982, 1983 and 1984.

Again, they fell short of victory on all three occasions.

Next Time: Lewis brings innovation 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.

And so, after calling seven games in three days, Branch settled back behind the wheel of his Toyota Camry on Sunday afternoon for the long drive back to Princeton. His colleagues, similarly spent, took their places in the Camry and readied for their seven hours back to Memphis.

They cleaned out the Whataburger wrappers and whatever other detritus lingered. Kelly Davis, riding shotgun, insisted, "The car's doing well." He held up a little bottle, smiling: "We've got Febreze."

And then they were off. They had to be back for work on Monday.

Dotson’s Other Note: There you have it, it ain’t easy, but then nobody promised them a rose garden. Take a look at the games of March Madness…if you would like to give refereeing a fling…call me…we need you and eventually you might get on national TV. I’ll guarantee that you will have good moments and bad…you are only be as good as your next call, and you will be verbally abused.

Are We Having Fun Yet? 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: 361-949-7681 Cell: 530748-8475 Email: dlewis1@stx.rr.com Have fun -30-

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Ronnie Narmour spotted this vehicle in Port A. last week. He emerged from the paradox unscathed, or so it was reported.

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March 23, 2017

A9

Island Moon

The Traveling Moon Gets Around

Danny and Sandy Graves at the Spanish Inquisition, Cartagena,Columbia

Circus Comes to Island

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Spring Breakers learn take kite surfing lessons on the beach

Under new ownership!

Photos by Amy Gazin

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A10

March 23, 2017

Island Moon

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