On the Rocks A6
Powderpuff Tournament A2
Fara's Fishing A7
Kemps Ridley Turtle Releases A9
Using Seaweed in your Garden A11
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Live Music A18
The only Island in Texas with a 4th of July Boat Parade and Fireworks Show!
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The Island Moon
Issue 531
June 26, 2014 Around The Island By Dale Rankin
Sales Price Versus Appraised Value How do the asking prices of the most expensive homes in Nueces County compare to their appraised tax value?
editor@islandmoon.com
The first week of summer has come and gone and for the first time this season last weekend the tourist crop was bigger than the Sargassum crop and it looks like it will stay that way. The latest and maybe last flyover of the season by the Texas A&M branch at Galveston last week found no offshore seaweed mats for the first time in months. So as we enter the heart of the summer season it looks like, finally, the coast is clear.
We are now four weeks into the 2014 Hurricane Season with nary a named storm in sight all the way to the west coast of Africa where Gulf storms are born when a butterfly flaps its wings. So far so good.
Island Police As we reported last week The Island now has a police station, sort of. So far it’s more like a banner that says Police Station than a police station as it is lightly manned and looking for volunteers to help. Nonetheless, stop by and let them know we’ve noticed they are there and pass along any “crime news” you might have heard. Also on the police front the scuttlebutt is that the department’s decision to leave The Island without any real police presence for long stretches, in spite of what the brass might say, resulted in a dearth of ticket revenue from these balmy climes and that got the notice of the brass. The solution was to sick the law on the island populace for most of the day on Monday with a radar unit at Gypsy and Whitecap. The sudden police presence also brought about a slew of parking tickets for vehicles parked on the street facing the wrong way. If speeders and parking scofflaws are the biggest offenders we have to deal with on our sandbar we’re probably doing alright.
Tres restaurantes Mexicanos And then there were three…a few years ago we Islanders on the Padre end lamented the lack of any place to get Mexican food. Well, we’re about to have plenty of them now; three in fact. In an odd twist of fate two former boatyards are becoming Mexican restaurants. The sign went up for one of them next to the Subway
Around continued on A14
By Dale Rankin
But sometimes the same person who complains about the high valuation on his house then puts it on the market at a price higher than the appraised value. In that vein here is a list of some of the highest priced homes in Nueces County, based on (asked for) sales prices from the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) which is the Bible of the real estate industry. The valuation numbers came straight from the records of the Nueces County Appraisal District. All numbers are for the 2014 tax season unless otherwise noted. So without further comment, here they are.
The Mother of All Deck Parties!
Collins’ Alamo collection includes invaluable artifacts like Jim Bowie’s legendary knife, and one of only four rifles left that were owned by Davy Crockett. Collins has Crockett’s leather shot pouch, complete with five musket balls, and two powder
1722 On The Beach, Port Aransas
List Price: $1,950,000 Land: $445,100 Improvements: $489,290 2014 Appraised Tax Value: $810,626 Appraised Market Value: $934,390
List Price: $1,265,000 Land: $60,000 Improvements: $264,738 Tax Appraised Value: $703,959 List Price: $1,265,000
Schlitterbahn Opens its Doors
Boat Parade and Fireworks Show Mean 4th of July Island Style
By Dale Rankin It’s time to plan the party. This year marks the fifteenth year for the Padre Island 4th of July Watercraft Parade and the second year for the accompanying Island Blast! Fireworks Show and live music. The celebration, which will be on Friday, July 4, will also feature a free concert by recording artists Statesboro Review. Since the band played the July 4 party last year they have been on the CMT charts, had several songs on the Texas Top Ten list and toured Europe. They will play at the parade judge’s party which has been held for fifteen
Fireworks continued on A14
The largest-known private collection of artifacts from the Texas Revolution and the Battle of the Alamo is coming home.
For many of the items, the donation will mean many items will be returning to the cradle of Texas liberty for the first time since the legendary defeat of Texian forces by Mexican troops under Santa Anna in 1836.
13901 Cabana North - Padre Island
Think quickly, when was the last time you attended a backyard party on The Island without someone complaining about the tax appraisal on their house from the Nueces County Appraisal District? The 1st Amendment right to complain about paying taxes is older than the Constitution itself.
Rocker Phil Collins Donates Jim Bowie’s Knife, Davy Crockett’s Shot Bag and Santa Anna’s Sword to the Alamo
Former Genesis drummer, Oscar winner, multiple Grammy Award winner and Texana collector Phil Collins is donating his famed collection of rarities to the State of Texas on behalf of the Alamo on June 26.The private collection was popularized in Collins’ 384-page book, “The Alamo and Beyond” published in 2012.
Weekly
The voice of The Island since 1996
With little fanfare the new Schlitterbahn waterpark opened its doors Saturday to Islanders and potential members. No announcement of the park’s opening was made anywhere but on The Island through the Island Moon. Several hundred people filed through the newly completed entryway which leads to the swim up bar and kiddie pool which are complete and open. The focus by park operators was to give the newly-hired staff experience before the scheduled Grand Opening on July 12 when water rides and a portion of the 130,000 square-foot main building are scheduled to be open. In the meantime, the park remains open full-time, weekdays 10 - 6 and weekends 10 - 7.
A Little Island History
Yankees Blockade the City, The Affair of Padre Island, Yankees Raid Flour Bluff
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Padre Island was the lonely home of a few hardy men who wrung a living from its hard environment. Corpus Christi had grown into the largest trading center south of San Antonio. The town was a wholesale center and distribution point for the gulf coast area and northern Mexico. Immigrants heading for California often landed in Corpus, where they outfitted for the overland journey.
Union blockade stops commerce on Texas coast horns he allegedly gave a Mexican officer before his death. There are letters from William B. Travis, a sword belonging to the Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna and many other invaluable historic documents that shed insight on early Texas history. The English rocker’s fascination with the Alamo began as a child but peaked in 2004 as Collins was on a farewell tour in San Antonio before retiring from music. He visits the Alamo for what he thought would be his last time, and stopped in at The History Shop, a store about fifty yards
Alamo continued on A3
In the countryside cattle covered the vast expanses of open range and giant ranches, such as the famous Kenedy and King spreads were supplying beef to the New Orleans market. When Texas joined the Confederacy, the residents of the coast from Corpus Christi south to Port Isabel and Brownsville rallied to the support of the state's leaders. The decisive military events of the Civil War of course took place on battlefields far to the east of Padre Island. Although the Texas gulf coast was not the scene of major military action, its citizens were not spared the presence of the enemy and the roar of gunfire. Union ships, intent on blockading
Officers of the 13th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which landed at what is now Packery Channel and marched north up Mustang Island to participate in the capture of Fort Esperanza. all Confederate attempts to ship the South's valuable cotton crop to the English mills, patrolled the entire Gulf coast from Key West to the Rio Grande. The effectiveness of the Yankee blockade forced cotton growers from as far away as Louisiana to ship their foreign exchange earning crop across country to Mexican ports south of the Rio Grande. The coastal trade was also disrupted. Schooners out of New Orleans carrying manufactured goods from northern factories or cloth from England no longer regularly
visited the gulf ports to pick up cattle, hides, and other agricultural products. Peacetime commerce came to a halt. Like their sister Confederate harbors to the east, the Texas ports were soon blockaded by Union men of war. Nature assisted the North. The barrier islands which extend from Galveston to the Rio Grande restrict access to the south Texas ports to the narrow passes which separate the islands. Ships wishing to enter Corpus Christi harbor had
History continued on A5