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The
Island Moon Weekly
FREE
Free
March 20, 2014
The Island with More Break in it's Spring
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
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Photo by Brent Rourk
Next Publication Date: 3/27/2014
Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper
Year 17, Issue 518
Two New Ships Coming to the Island
The Ides of March have come and gone. It is said that if March roars in like a lion she will go out like a lamb. If that’s true we should be in for some nice weather in the next few weeks.
155-Foot Ship Planned for Near-Shore Reef
Here’s a few more pearls of March Weather Wisdom:
Fishing and diving site 10 miles from Port Aransas and Packery Channel
A dry March and a wet May? Fill barns and bays with corn and hay.
Divas Tryouts Satruday A11
Schlitterbahn Adds a Floating Building
As it rains in March so it rains in June. March winds and April showers? Bring forth May flowers. We’ll leave you to decipher and apply those folksy bits as you see fit. But one thing we can say for sure, when it comes to Spring Break, Mother Nature is in charge. This year with only about two days of good weather over the first ten days of the annual rite of Spring Passage the number of revelers on The Island was down considerably from years past. Weather was not the only factor. A check of social media and Spring Break-oriented websites finds that the word went out for both South Padre Island and our local beaches that the law enforcement presence sent the message that Spring Breakers were not particularly wanted. This week most of the Midwest schools are out, from Oklahoma to Minnesota, and the crowds have been barely discernible from any other week this time of year. We will leave you to decide if that’s good or bad. Last Saturday, the day that should have been the height of Spring Break madness looked more like a typical Tuesday during the summer season. Gone were the massive traffic jams and mosh pits that we saw last year, with the exception of the area in Port Aransas south of the bollards where the college kids gathered anyway and ignored the cool, foggy weather. But even there the crowds were much smaller than in previous years.
Sweet spot of Spring So now we head to the sweet spot of the Island calendar as we lean into spring which began Thursday. The Archosargus probatocephalus are biting along the jetties – that’s sheepshead for you non-fisherpersons (watch out for those bones), the turtle season is kicking in, beach driving is getting better, and as soon as the water warms up we can beach up at the Ski Basin and ease on into summer. We have weathered the Ides of March fellow Islanders and we look forward to barns full of corn and hay, and maybe even a little rain in June; and if we get a few April showers, well, we’ll look forward to the May showers.
By Dale Rankin A plan to sink a 155-foot long coastal freighter at the site of the existing 160-acre artificial reef 10.5 miles off Packery Channel is going before the Corpus Christi City Council next week and, could result in the ship being on site by this summer, according to plans announced this week by Saltwater-fisheries Enhancement Association (SEA) in cooperation with the Port Aransas Boatman’s Association. The ship, which was originally purchased in Miami, is 155 ft. long by 33 feet wide, and 40 feet tall and is now undergoing preparation in Alabama, according to Mike Hurst, who is spearheading the effort for SEA.
Whoop It Up! Sunday, March 30
Island Foundation Raising Funds for Expansion
It’s Tax Time: Things You Need to Know
This year’s funds are earmarked for construction projects at all three schools: SMA is getting a new cafeteria. SLC is getting a new classroom building. SECA will have a new facility on the SLC campus. This is a multimillion dollar project, so funds raised now mean less debt to carry. Call Kim Evaristo at 361-779-4888 to make a tax deductible donation or contribution.
The ARB is a group of citizens who live in Nueces County and are appointed by a local administrative judge. Their legal responsibilities and qualifications are outlined in Subtitle B, Chapter 6, Subchapter C of the Texas Property Tax Code. Generally, residential property owners may protest to the ARB any of the following NCAD actions: Taxes continued on A4
P.I.E. Celebrates 25 Years of Service Three original members attend
Island Foundation School’s largest fundraiser, Whoop It Up, will be held at Whiskey River on Sunday, March 30th with doors opening at 6:00 P.M. All islanders are invited to participate in this annual evening extravaganza and are encouraged to bring family members, friends, and neighbors (attendees must be 21 or over).
We have much to look forward to and before you know it we’ll be up to our knees in SandFest up Port A way. We’ll see you there and in the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
The 2014 Notice of Appraisal for properties in Nueces County will be sent out by the Nueces County Appraisal District (NCAD) beginning on or after April 14, 2014. Property owners and lessee who pay property taxes in the Nueces County may protest their proposed appraisal. The protest must be heard or filed by 1 June but not latter than the date printed at the bottom of the Notice of Appraisal. In the event a Notice of Appraisal was not received by 10 May a property should contact NCAD before 1 June. A protest can be heard by a NCAD Appraiser or the Nueces County Appraisal Review Board (ARB). The ARB will begin hearings for 2014 taxpayer protests on May 19, 2014 and is scheduled to approve its findings for 2014 appraisal records by July 20, 2014. A protest filed with the Nueces County Appraisal District after July 20, 2014 can only be heard by the ARB as outlined in the Texas property Tax Code Sections 41.411 or 25.25.
Reef continued on A3
By Brent Rourk
Tickets cost $25.00 in advance and $35.00 at the door, and proceeds benefit the three Seashore Schools (SLC,SMA,SECA). Ticket prices include BBQ dinner, dancing, and the opportunities to bid on both silent and live auction items.
By Robert E. Maupin
The $500,000 project is part of the Near Shore Reefing Program coordinated by the State of Texas aimed at providing habitats for fish within Texas water. SEA has pledged $100,000 and is asking the City of Corpus Christi to match that amount with the state expected to provide the balance once the city funds are in place. The project is expected to go before the Corpus Christi City Council at its meeting next week. Hurst said with the city’s commitment the ship could be in place by the end of summer 2014. SEA and other organizations sunk more than forty tons of concrete structures at the site last year on about forty acres of the site, located in
We have had several calls this week asking about a boat which has been taking soundings in the canal between Cabana East and Compass Streets in the past few days. Here’s what we know. The work is being done in preparation of the arrival of the vessel you see here; formerly a 70,000 square-foot casino in Louisiana which has been purchased for use as part of the Schlitterbahn waterpark. Park owners Jeff Henry said on a radio show recently that the “ship” will house an exercise room and other park amenities once it is in place. A park spokesman said the plan is to bring the vessel in by water through the Port of Brownsville and into the canal where the soundings are currently being taken. The spokesman said it has not yet been determined how to move the vessel from the canal across Commodores onto the park site. No firm date has been set for its arrival. Dale Rankin
Three of the four original members who attended the 25th anniversary are: Ann Marie Colosi, Peg Fairey, Eileen Maltais. Kathy Southard was unable to attend.
Spring Break From the Air
By Dale Rankin In 1989 four Island women hit on the idea of forming a club that would be social, spiritual, and sensitive to the changing needs of the community and the Padre Island Enrichment Club (P.I.E.) was born.
Whoop it Up continued on A3
Pie continued on A3
A Little Island History
How Flour Bluff Got Its Name By Dale Rankin One hundred and seventy-eight years ago this week the Convention of 1836 which had been meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos to organize a Texas government named Sam Houston as Commander-In-Chief of the fledging Republic’s military forces and then headed southeast fleeing the approaching army of Antonio López de Santa Anna beginning what has become known as the Runaway Scrape. The military events of the Texas War of Independence did not touch Padre Island directly. No battles were fought on The Island and the closest the war came to its beaches was when a Mexican agent stationed at Matagorda Bay was forced to flee his post and escape back to Mexico by traveling down Padre Island.
How Flour Bluff got its name The war did, however, place Padre in an undefined position between Mexico and the new Republic. Texas claimed that its
territory extended to the Rio Grande. Mexico claimed that its state of Tamaulipas extended to the Nueces River, placing what is now Port Aransas right on the border. With neither side possessing the military capability to enforce its claim, Sam Houston the status of the region including Padre Island became no man's land where, as one historian has put it, "for nearly a decade a predatory and guerrilla like warfare was waged between Mexicans and Texans." It is unknown how the Texas War of Independence affected Mexican citizens living on Padre Island. Like their compatriots who had ranches between Matamoros and Refugio, they might have been forced to flee to the Rio Grande settlements. However, in History continued on A8
Photo by Jason Towns