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Padre Island, Texas
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361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com The Island Newspaper since 1996 Facebook : The Island Moon Newspaper
June 6, 2013
The Island with the Newest Fireworks Show in Texas
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
It was a news emergency. We were OTB and starting to get itchy feet anyway to get back to The Island when we got the frantic call. ”Sheriff’s deputies south of Bob Hall,” came the news. “Lots of ‘em and maybe some helicopters and live trucks too!” We rushed back to The Island and there was no time to go get the beach truck. We headed south in the road car and hoped for the best. Soon enough we started to see Kleberg County Deputies. Still no helicopters or television live trucks. It was a busy weekend on the beach and we hoped for the best but prepared for the worst, a frantic search for a lost swimmer or an injury – something bigger than a jellyfish sting. The road started to get dicey and but we kept on; the News Gods must be fed. Finally just past the Sugar Bowl, the big opening in the dunes where the wind has produced a blowout that allows passage behind the dunes, the driving was getting tough. We got through to the Kleberg County Sheriff’s dispatcher.
Next Publication Date: 6/13/2013
A New Word Enters The Island Vernacular – Sailgaiting! Tailgate parties may are fine and dandy for nautically challenged Texans, but for the first time ever residents of Padre Island will have the chance to Sailgate IslandBlast! this 4th of July as the Fire in the sky on money is now in the the Fourth of July bank to put some Fire in the Sky on the 4th of July.
“No, Splash as in a Gay Pride event.” “Then why all the deputies?”
A little rain music The recent rains helped the water supply in the Nueces Watershed some raising the levels by 10 inches, 2% by adding 15,000 acre-feet of water which is enough to supply the city for 170 days. Crisis averted…well, at least for 170 days.
Fish kill in canals The Brown Tide has done its work on the Island fish population lately. It depletes the oxygen from the water and turns it the color of good Gumbo. We like Gumbo pretty good but we like it a lot better at Scuttlebutt’s than in our canals. For more information on the fish kill see Maybeth’s column in this issue.
Island Moon ArtWalk The next Island Moon ArtWalk is on for Saturday and Sunday June 15-16 at the seawall. It is free to vendors and the public. Sun Surf Medical Clinic will be on hand to do screenings and there will be live music. We’ll see you there. In the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Cases of Infection Due to Bacteria Up in Nueces County Three cases of infection due to a bacteria called Vibrio Parahaemolyticus have been reported in Nueces County in the past three weeks, according to Dr. William Burgin, Jr. With the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District. The bacteria is found in salt water all along the Texas Coast but usually only about six cases of infection are reported each year. The bacteria flourishes in warm water and can be transmitted to humans either through an open wound or by consuming shellfish that is raw or undercooked from contaminated water.
Jerry and Sharon Watkins Less than six months after Islanders Jerry and Sharon Watkins hatched the idea for a 4th of July fireworks show on Padre Island it is a reality. Fireworks continued on A6
Update on Island Projects
Work at Schlitterbahn Kicks Into High Gear
Installation of speed calming devices begins on Aquarius Main Island sewer line “half full” of sand
He said crews will begin digging on more than 3000 feet of canals at the site within the next ten days. He said the underground irrigation and other lines have all been mapped so that work can begin on the nine holes of the existing golf course that will be the site of the park.
According to health officials, the ages of the 3 people who were reported ranged between 6-31 years of age. All three received treatment at local hospitals and are doing well at this time.
The cause in the rise of local cases of contamination is not yet known.
By Dale Rankin The 2013 Hurricane Season is now one week old and so far things have been quiet. But what is the likelihood that the Texas Coast, The Coastal Bend, or The Island will see hurricane activity in the month of June? Overall, the 2013 season is expected to be an active one. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said they expect to see 13 to 20 named storms. So this is expected to be an above normal and possibly an extremely active season, according to NOAA, with seven to 11 hurricanes expected (storms with sustained winds of at least 74 mph, or 119 km/h). Of these, three to six are likely to be major hurricanes of Category 3, 4 or 5, with winds of 111 mph or higher. This is higher than the seasonal average of 12 named storms,
He said opening of the park will be no later than Memorial Day 2014 and may be as early as Spring Break 2014 depending on how the schools schedule the break next years.
Beach continued on A 13
six hurricanes and three major hurricanes, according to NOAA.
Gulf storms in June
The longest gap between storms on the Texas coast is 15 years from 1886 to 1902, and statistically Texas is not due for another major storm until 2015; after that we are on borrowed time.
But what about June storms in the Gulf of Mexico, and particularly along the Texas Coast? Texas’ storms have traditionally hit in the early or late part of the season with the most frequent months on the Texas Coast being August and September. But what about in June? Since 1960, only eight
Hurricanes continued on A18
Island History Settlement at Bird Island Wiped Out by Storm Editor’s note: Greg Smith is a descendant of the Dunn family that first came to Nueces County with General Zachary Taylor’s Army in 1845 and ranched the Island from 1879 to 1971. Smith went to Flour Bluff School. He is on several boards and committees including the Coastal Windstorm Task Force, the Island Strategic Action Committee, the Nueces County Beach Advisory Committee and the board of the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce. Smith is the CEO of Pioneer Beach Resort in Port A.
Angels, Serpents and Frescoes
22 Steps to the Little Chapel on the Dunes Part 5 By Brent Rourk brentrourk@yahoo.com [This is part 5 of series of articles about The Little Chapel on the Dunes in Port Aransas, Texas. You can retrieve past copies of The Island Moon Newspaper on Facebook or by dropping by The Island Moon Newspaper office]
The Port Aransas Museum
By Greg Smith Over the past several years Dale and I have been swapping history stories and tales about South Texas and the Islands in particular. It so happens that my Granddaddy Burton Dunn was intimately involved with Padre Island from his birth in 1889 to his death in 1970. His great uncle Matthew arrived in Corpus with General Taylor in 1845 and Granddaddy’s grand parents Catherine & Thomas Dunn crossed the Aransas bar in 1849 from Ireland via New Orleans.
The beginnings of Island ranching Speed tables on Aquarius
It is a little-known fact that the seawall is
A History of Island Hurricanes for the Month of June
Schlitterbahn Beach County Resort. Crews have begun work in earnest at the Schlitterbahn Beach Country Resort. The tennis building is under construction, crews are moving sand in the area adjacent to the Country Club headquarters and demolition work is underway on the headquarters building itself. Project Developer Paul Schexnailder told the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) on Tuesday that all the pumps for the waterpark have been delivered to the Schlitterbahn headquarters in New Braunfels. He said that within the next ten days crews will begin construction on the Country Club headquarters building to expand it from 9000 to 22,000 square feet to include a new kitchen, events center, and a landscaped private patio.
favorite of Islanders and OTBers alike. Without the beach re-nourishment Packery Channel would never have become a reality because the digging of the channel was made possible by funds to re-nourish the beach to protect the seawall from high tides so the seawall could protect the rest of The Island.
How Likely is a June Hurricane on The Island?
By Dale Rankin
Burgin said one of the local cases was from eating infected food, the other two from the water. The effects of contracting the bacteria by eating infected shellfish are diarrhea, abdominal cramping, nausea and fever. The effect of contracting it from water is an abscess that does not respond to antibiotics.
Dr. Burgin advises residents to take the following precautions: Take caution when eating raw seafood. Wear shoes when entering the coastal waters. Do not enter coastal waters if you have an open wound and cook shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels) thoroughly.
Re-nourished beach and seawall By Dale Rankin
But now eight years and 934,000 cubic yards of sand later that stretch of beach has become a
”A Splash, what’s that? You mean like a plane crash?”
So it turned out the big news was that there were Kleberg County Deputies on the beach. It’s the first time we have ever seen that, so that’s news of some sort.
Beach re-Nourishment Has Turned Seawall Beach Into Popular Destination
Before the digging of Packery Channel in 2005 the beach along the Michael J. Ellis Seawall on The Island was a tenuous strip of sand which regularly was inundated by tides and inaccessible by car and sparsely used by beachgoers.
“No it’s a Splash.”
”Oh.”
Year 16, Issue 477
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4th of July fireworks show is on for Padre Island
“Is it a drowning, did a boat sink, a shooting maybe….did Mexico attack?”
“We like to head off trouble.
Tom took the fever and died in 1863 just as his unit, the Eighth battalion of Texas Volunteers prepared to ship out to Galveston leaving widow Catherine and three small children. The Dunns didn’t hit the Island until 1879 when Catherine and young sons Patrick and Tom formed a partnership to run Bird Island continued on A5
Pepper Pendzinski is the kind of person who nearly always has a wide and warm smile. Her sense of humor and positive outlook on life radiate from her as if it were a permanent aura. She sees events and situations as opportunities and blessings, an outlook that requires significant positive resolve, faith and confidence. Those qualities help make Pepper one of the effective Port Aransas Museum Board Members. They also make her an ideal tour guide of the Little Chapel on the Dunes which she does on the first and third Fridays and Saturdays of each month. History continued on A17