La Posada Land Parade photos by Miles Merwin
Issue 556
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The voice of The Island since 1996
The Island Moon
December 11, 2014 Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
The first La Posada Land Parade set off from Briscoe King Pavilion Monday night right on schedule and toured Island streets to great fanfare advanced by the clarion call of accompanying fire engines which led the posada. This is the first year for the land parade and it was a good one. We include many photographs in this issue and are getting ready for the Big Event Saturday night. There is a lot going on Around The Island this week, here is some of it.
Traffic light Preparations continue to place a traffic light at the SPID/Aquarius intersection. As of this writing the city’s Transportation Committee is expected to take up the issue at its December 22 meeting. Meanwhile, the number of traffic accidents along the SPID JFK Causeway has taken a shocking turn for the worse in the past few weeks. When a driver tried to pass on the shoulder on the causeway two weeks ago he hit a stalled car which resulted in a fiery crash which destroyed two cars; last weekend a high speed crash into a utility pole near the north end of the causeway killed the driver; a pedestrian crossing SPID just north of Commodores last weekend was hit by a van and when an on-duty officer with a prisoner onboard stopped to help his car was hit by another driver; there have also been three wrongway drivers on SPID reported to us in recent weeks. Keep in mind this is in a slow time of year for Island traffic. What is clear is that our Island is getting busy and traffic is increasing. What is becoming increasingly clear is that some type of traffic plan which covers the roadways from the Port Aransas ferries, down The Island, and the JFK Causeway is way overdue. Lack of attention won’t stop the traffic increase.
Packery Channel monitoring adds Lake Padre and Island canals A Map of the area included in the study is on page A2 of this issue. The Corpus Christi City Council this week approved a $510,000 contract to monitor Packery Channel for the next year. Study of the area around the channel began two years before it was actually opened in order to establish a baseline for beach conditions to be compared to the beach after the channel opened. Since 2008 a total of $2.1 million has been spent to conduct three seasonal surveys of the channel.
District 4 City Councilwoman Colleen McIntyre says there is ample information available for the placing of a traffic light at the intersection of South Padre Island Drive and Aquarius and is working with developers of an adjacent project to have the light in place by June, 2015. “There is a study from the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization done in 2001 which calls for a light at the intersection,” McIntyre said. “ And the traffic engineer hired by the developer has plugged the numbers from the
La Posada Schedule By Brent Rourk December 11th – Captain’s meeting for Lit Parade Boats at PIYC 7:00 l a Annu P.M. Residential and Commercial. Captains must LA POSADA attend. Lighted Boat Parade December 12th – La Posada Boat Parade North side begins at 7:00 P.M. Bring lots of toys for Toys for Tots. A flotilla of collector boats will collect toys from docks. People must flash yellow lit collector boats with flashlight to have toys picked up. Enjoy the parade on the North Side of the Island as the boats make two passes around this short course.
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December 13th – La Posada Boat Parade South side begins at 6:00 P.M. A flotilla of collector boats will collect toys from docks. People must flash yellow lit collector boats with flashlight to have toys picked up. See parade route.
Island Moon Artwalk this Saturday 10 am -2 pm at Schlitterbahn For information call 589-4200
We’ll see you there and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
The engineer, Gilmer Gaston, was hired by the San Antonio real estate
The move was approved by the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) in early December and does not need a vote by the city council for approval. However, this week Scott Harris, Chairman of the city’s Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC) issued a letter asking that the
Light continued on A9
La Posada! Lighted Boat Parades Friday and Saturday Toys For Tots has already raised $20,000
Average salary is $75,000 By Dale Rankin The Corpus Christi City Council voted Tuesday to cancel the collective bargaining agreement with the Corpus Christi Professional Fire Fighters Association which had been in place since 1976. The unanimous move by the council (Councilman Mark Scott was absent) comes on the heels of the recent city elections in which the Fire Fighters Association endorsed a slate of challengers in the council races, failing to endorse a single incumbent. It also comes in conjunction with an ongoing lawsuit by the association contending that the city is not negotiating in good faith. That suit was filed after a similar suit filed by the city against the association alleging the same was dismissed for lack of merit by a judge. The 38-year old contract vacated by the council contained a clause which forbade council members from speaking publicly about negotiations; that prohibition ended with the now defunct contract.
Firefighters continued on A6
Inside the Moon
Padre Island Yacht Club Commodore Vic Schreck with toys collected for Toys For Tots
By Dale Rankin
If you don’t live on a canal you still have time to make friends with someone who does, but not much time. The 40th Annual La Posada Lighted Boat Parade will leave the docks this Friday and Saturday, December 1213. The parades start at 7 pm Friday and 6 pm Saturday For the parade route see the map in this issue. Meanwhile, the Toys For Tots program organized and managed by the Padre Island Yacht Club and the U.S. Marine Corps has already raised $20,000 from Islanders to pay for toys for kids around Texas who otherwise might go without this Christmas.
Islanders donate fully 20% of the toys collected by Toys for Tots in Texas. Look for the parade boats with yellow flashing lights; they are the collection boats for toys. And as you fan out across our Island this weekend for parade parties, remember the words of Island Moon founder Mike Ellis who said, “An Island party is like a seven layer bean dip. When it starts out it’s a bunch of separate layers but by the end of the night it’s all mingled together, just like the guests at the party.”
NaNoWriMo A5
Sports A8
So get out there and mingle everybody, it’s time to La Posada!
More La Posada info on A14
La Posada Land Parade A11
Remembering Pearl Harbor A12
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Annual
(As a side note Lake Padre is no longer technically a lake but is in fact a sound because since the dredging of Packery Channel it is connected to the open Gulf of Mexico.
The La Posada season is in full swing everybody, the weekend weather looks to be great. Get your toys ready and get out there and have some fun!
McIntyre said traffic congestion in the area is caused by the left turn lane from SPID onto SH 361 and it has been reduced by longer turn lanes at that intersection. She also said a traffic plan from 2012 which looked at traffic at the SPID/Aquarius intersection found that a light would not cause traffic problems on the JFK bridge.
firm of Turner Busby Development which owns nine acres on the east side of SPID at the location and plans to build a $30 million development called Packery Pointe which would include a 101 room motel 50,000 square feet of retail space, and a restaurant.
City Torches Firefighters’ Contract
Island Living
What is different about this year is that it will be the first time the Island canal system and Lake Padre will be included in the study (see diagram) to establish a similar baseline for conditions in the channels and the lake prior to the anticipated opening of the Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge which will connect Lake Padre to the existing canals via the waterway under the bridge.
Tis the season
peak traffic load which was done during Spring Break of 2012 into his modeling and it shows the light will not cause congestion in that area.”
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Money for the studies comes from Reinvestment Zone #2 which captures property tax on new construction inside the zone, which covers the area around the channel and the Schlitterbahn development, since the forming of the zone in 2003.
Water flow from that channel will, accompanied by a widening of the water gate leading from Packery Channel into the canals, is expected to increase water circulation in the canal system where percolators now are used to enhance the oxygen supply.
Weekly
Councilwoman Says No More Study Needed for New Island Traffic Light By Dale Rankin
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LA POSADA
Lighted Boat Parade
La Posada Registration A14
The ladies of P.I.E (Padre Enrichment Club) held their first Holiday Home Tour last weekend at ten homes around The Island. We will feature more of them in the next few issues. This is the home of Edwin and Rebecca Hawn’s home features a deck which overlooks Packery Channel. More photos on A2 Live Music A16