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361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com The Island Newspaper since 1996 Facebook : The Island Moon Newspaper
February 6, 2014
The Island where the only thing that disappears faster than the Island Moon Newspaper is no tresspassing signs
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
The Winter Texans brought a little of the winter down with them this time out. But take heart friends; there is sunshine at the end of the bleak and blustery times. It is The Island and bad weather never lasts very long.
Call back scam But we have had another invasion of sorts lately as well. Scammers. They have been working a couple of scams on The Island and in Flour Bluff. One involves a call-back move in which they offer a warning that time is running out for the listener to pay a bill or perform some other vital function. They leave a number and hang up and when the caller calls the number given then the call jumps to an overseas operator and zaps a $300-$400 charge on his phone bill. One of the local businesses which has been used to propagate this scam is a local electric company which has sent out a warning to its customers which is printed in this issue. But that is only one company which has been a victim as we have had several calls and questions that involved credit card companies and mortgage companies, and in one case an insurance company. The best thing to do if you get one of these calls is don’t call back. Instead call the company they say they represent directly.
Gas Pump bandits The other scam making the rounds is much more insidious because all the victim has to do to get hit is use a credit card at a gas pump. Scammers are using the availability of small, cheap cameras to execute a new variation on an old caper and they have been actively working Flour Bluff in particular. The plan goes like this: Place a tiny camera next to the slot where an ATM card is swiped on a gas pump. As the card goes by the camera it catches the numbers on the card. After half a dozen or so customers unwittingly have their numbers copied the thief removes the camera and moves on rather than draw attention by staying too long in one place. He then retrieves the numbers and sells them to a middleman who actually prints cards with the stolen numbers on them and goes shopping. He doesn’t need the pass code, only the number off the card. In some cases the perpetrator has been lurking nearby in a vehicle to keep and eye on things. So keep any eye out for anything suspicious around the card slot on gas pumps and if you see a guy sitting in his car nearby and not getting gas, resist the urge to pull out your heater and shoot him dead. Instead, get a license number and if possible a picture with your cell phone and let the PD do their stuff. Enough with the doom and gloom but we though you should be aware.
And now this… They say there’s a fine line between fishing and just sitting there looking stupid and lately around here it’s been mostly the latter as the fish have not been doing their part; unless of course you are Joey Farah who could catch fish in a hurricane. But for the rest of us it’s been mostly whities in the surf or HEB. Water temps have been cool and crews are already getting the beaches ready for the Spring Break Invasion, but gas prices are down, and we hear that our favorite border town of Piedras Negras is open for safe business this season, so we got that going for us. The next big event on The Island calendar is Barefoot Mardi Gras so get your beads and your float ready and we’ll see you there. In the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Three –way race
County Commissioner Candidates Forum Monday Night
The race between the three Republicans in the race is turning out to be the most hotly contested one of the March 4th primary with the Republican primary winner so far uncontested as no Democrat has filed for the race. The Forum continued on A8
Year 17, Issue 512
Traffic Relief for the Island
By Dale Rankin
From the Port Aransas ferry landings to the foot of the JFK
After battling years of increased traffic during busy summer months some relief is on the way for Island drivers. State Representative Todd Hunter this week announced an aggressive and far-reaching $75 million multi-phase plan to improve statemaintained roadways from the ferry landings in Port Aransas, southward along State Highway 361 to SPID on North Padre, and northward on SPID to the JFK Causeway. Of the $75,608,313 in the project, $58 million remains to be funded, but Hunter said $17 million for the projects is already in place and work may begin along the SPID corridor between the JFK Causeway and the intersection of State Highway 361, Commodores, and SPID on North Padre within the next few months.
SPID turn lane to SH 361 The first project is the addition of a turn lane to the southbound lane of SPID for vehicles coming off the causeway and turning north/ left onto State Highway 361 bound for Port Aransas. The current configuration has one turn lane and one option lane, however, most visitors to The Island are unaware of the option lane and traffic lines up in the inside/left lane often all the way to the top of the JFK Causeway, and on the busiest weekends into Flour Bluff. Hunter announced that to he has identified $400,000 in state funding to extend the current 400-foot inside turn lane by 1000 feet in the current SPID median and run a total of 1400 feet north of the intersection to ease the stacking along SPID during peak traffic. Hunter said he expects the project to get underway quickly.
SH 361 in Port Aransas Also currently funded in the plan is just under $13 million for a redesign of the SH 361 in Port Aransas between Avenue G to Beach Access Road 1A on the south side of town. The area is one of the most congested roadways on The Island during busy weekends as beachgoers cue to make the turn eastward toward the beach. During Spring Break 2013, stacking of northbound traffic in that area backed up more than nine miles along SH 361 as beachgoers cued up to make the right turn toward the beach blocking motorists trying to get into Port Aransas, generating complaints from Port Aransas business owners.
The $13 million project is funded and will remake SH 361 starting at Avenue G and extend two miles southward resulting in a five-lane, guttered section of roadway, from Avenue G to the Nature Preserve, and a four-lane curbed and guttered roadway with a center raised median from the Nature Preserve to 1182 feet south of Beach Access Road 1A. The project will be done by Haas-Anderson Construction and is expected to take 408 days to complete. Work authorization was issued on December 23, 2013 with a 180 delay start date for utility adjustments. The project is expected to be complete by summer 2016. Traffic continued on A6
Packery Channel Park to Get a Makeover To become a nature area and bird sanctuary
By Dale Rankin
decades ago and make it an attraction for birds.
A few years ago Packery Channel Park was mired in questions of ownership which combined with a lack of funding did not bode well for the park’s future. Now the park boasts a nature walk, the Texas Sealife Center, and soon the 38-acres site, located along Packery Channel on the east side of SPID, will undergo a facelift which will turn it into the Packery Channel Nature Preserve Park featuring native woodlands, wetlands, wildflower areas and bird drip stations to attract birds and the people who watch them.
The 38- acres site was part of a larger 60 acre site which became the subject of a legal fight in 2008. The land had been donated to Nueces County in 1993 with the caveat that it be developed into a park within ten years. When that failed to happen the donors filed a lawsuit to recover the land and in the ensuing settlement the 60 acres was parceled out and the attorneys in the case wound up with a twenty-acre subdivided interest. They pushed for the entire tract to be sold for commercial development and the negotiations took several years to settle. The result was that the county now controls the
The first step in the process came last Thursday at the Nueces County Coastal Parks Board meeting when the board voted to move forward with the bidding process for $600,000 in improvements to the park. The board currently has the money available and in response to the board vote bidding information (Requests for Proposals) will go out in the next few months. The board instructed the staff, as part of the plan, to move forward with bollards and cables on the south side of the park’s entrance road to control access from the adjacent subdivision. The park will also be closed from dusk until dawn. Bollards will be placed around the entire parameter of the park and efforts will begin to bring back much of the natural flora and fauna which was native to the area until only a few
Padre Island Showcase This Saturday By Mary Lou White The Island will put its best foot forward this Saturday as the third annual Island Vendor Show and Home Tour sponsored by the Island Moon kicks off in the SLC School Gym on Encantada.
By Brent Rourk Island voters will get their chance to hear from all three candidates in the race for Nueces County Commissioner Precinct 4 when they square off on Monday, February 10 at the Holiday Inn. The event is sponsored by the Island United Political Action Committee (IUPAC).
Next Publication Date: 2/13/2014
Twenty six Island homes will be open for viewing and more than twenty local businesses will be on hand in the gym. The event runs from 9-5 and is FREE to attendees.
Packery continued on A3
Nueces County Declares War! On Brazilian Pepper Trees
By Dale Rankin You can’t root them out, you can’t cut them out, and you can’t burn them out. In the end all you can do is cut them and poison them within five minutes or they will grow right back like a multi-headed hydra from a bad science fiction movie. But the fight against the Brazilian Pepper Tree Invasion on The Island has begun. The earliest accounts of vegetation on the north end of Padre Island dating back to the 17th and 18 centuries described lush grasslands broken by tightly packed Oak Motts. Over the years as man turned the land into pasture and hurricanes did their work, the
native plants were displaced to the point that none of the original woodlands exist but an attempt is being made at Packery Channel Park War on Trees continued on A8
New Superintendent at PINS Mark Spier, a thirty-six year veteran of the National Park Service (NPS), has been named superintendent of Padre Island National Seashore, according to Inter- mountain Region Director Sue Masica. Spier will assume his new position on February 9. Spier is currently the superintendent of Palo Alto National Historical Park in Brownsville, Texas. Additionally Spier served as the interim superintendent of Padre Island National Seashore during the summer of 2013. In his new role Spier will oversee management of both Padre Island National Seashore and Palo Alto National Historical Park.
The Vendor Show will be held, for the third
“Mark has the ability to formulate and execute effective strategies that will help guide Padre Island into the next century” said Masica. “His many years of leadership and experience
Showcase continued on A13
Ranger continued on A8
New PINS superintendent Mark Spier