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361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com The Island Newspaper since 1996 Facebook : The Island Moon Newspaper
July 25, 2013
Photo by Mark Middleton
Stock up on Flashlight Batteries, Tropical Storm Dorian is on the loose
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com Last week a stranger was seen standing outside an Island home smoking a cigarette. When the homeowner went to investigate the smoker said he was waiting on someone to bring him keys to the house which he had rented for the weekend for his family to stay at while they scattered the ashes of a loved one on the beach. This was startling news to the man who lived in the house. Once he pieced the story together he found that a person yet unknown but residing in Nigeria, upon discovering that the house was listed for sale had placed an advertisement on Craig’s List offering it for lease by the day. The smoker called and paid an $1100 deposit and his family flew in for the occasion. On his arrival at the house he called the “leaser” who told him to stay put and he would deliver the house key and collect the remainder of the rental fee. Of course it was a scam. The homeowner, being an Islander, helped the unfortunate victim and his family find accommodations for the weekend but the scam on top of the death in the family was compounded misery. This is just a Buyer and Seller Beware so it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
City Tax hike By the way, the Corpus Christi City Council took steps to begin the process of raising your taxes. As a result state law requires them to hold hearings to explain why. They have potentially scheduled three hearings, one on August 20, the second on August 27, and the third before a vote for the final adoption of the tax rate which will be held at the City Council meeting on September 10.
Next Publication Date: 8/1/2013
Police Patrol Boat for The Island The possibilities and the problems
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A Day in the Life of a Beach Lifeguard Quick thinking, good training, bold action save the lives of two swimmers
By Dale Rankin The move to raise $75,000 to fund a police boat to patrol Island canals for scofflaws and wakemakers is making progress and finding obstacles. The effort was launched at the July meeting of the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) by Island CCPD officers who recognize the need for an enforcement arm on the water. CCPD currently has no in-house means of stopping or ticketing boaters since the department has no boat immediately available for enforcement. Two patrol boats are funded at $330,000 from the Tax Increment Finance Zone funding formed to fund development around Packery Channel. The boats are manned by non-sworn officers with limited enforcement power and do not enter the canals. The proposed boat for the canal would be manned by uniformed CCPD officers and would spend at least 80% of its time in the canals. The proposed boat is a 25-foot Majek, specially equipped for police work, on regular patrol in Island canals to enforce boating safety and show a police presence as a deterrent to would-be burglars accessing homes from the water side. The cost of the boat is $75,000 and Islander Bryan Gulley has pledged to raise $15,000 for the project and also agreed to provide a slip for PD use at Market 37. The Property Owners Association has also agreed to chip in, with the remainder of the one-time purchase cost coming from donations.
Lifeguards, from left to right, Chris Lewis, Daniel Krause, Kevin Bardwell and Robbie Krause. By Bob Algeo. It started on a beautiful, warm Sunday afternoon at Michael J. Ellis Beach, in front of the seawall of the same name. The blue sky had few clouds and the water seemed very calm near the shore.
If you think this is a good idea you might want to attend and tell them so.
It was the last day of June but could have been the last day of life for two happy, fun-loving sisters, enjoying their family’s vacation on North Padre Island, if it wasn’t for the quick teamwork of Lifeguards on the beach.
Cruiser odor and sewer line work
Unusual summer day
The sewer pump station over by the Cruiser Bridge on Whitecap has been in full bloom in the summer heat. It’s become part of the routine to suck in a lungful of air as we drive down Whitecap and approach the spot where the Odoriferous Zone kicks in.
There was an unusually dry summer wind that day. It was unusual, because it was not coming from over the water of the Gulf, like it seems to do about ninety percent of the summertime. Instead, it was coming from the west/northwest, from over the warm land. But still it didn’t seem very windy down on the beach in front of the seawall, especially not so windy where the wind was being blocked by the condos and the tall motel. It was just nice and comfortable.
To fix the problem crews have spent the last several months cleaning forty years worth of sand out of the sewer line along Whitecap, which at some points was 75% clogged. They finished the last of that work this week and the next step is to run a camera down the line and if it is clear and check for leaks. Then a sounding device is run through to check the line for wear and tear. Once that is done repairs and replacement can begin to fix the line and eliminate the smell emanating from the pump station. In the meantime roll up your windows and hold your nose.
Way to go Bums… Congratulations and a big thank you to the Beach Bums who pulled off a very successful fundraiser at the Island Moon ArtWalk last weekend for our friend Tara Truett who was attacked on the beach a few weeks ago. Tara is doing better but still hospitalized. So far there has been no arrest in the For more pictures case.
Moon Daredevil of the Week
of the benefit for Tara see page A11
Our Moon Daredevil of the Week Award goes out this time to our friend Jason over at Skydive South Texas who accompanied the giant Olympus oil rig as it made its way out the pass at Port A to a rousing send off by the gathered crowd. Jason flew his single-engine plane over the rig well out into the Gulf taking photos for the tug boat company doing the towing. Flying a single-engine plane over open water without pontoons is a leap of faith and Jason took along a life raft and a few days worth of food just in case. We can only imagine bobbing around out there in the open Gulf in a life raft eating Beanie-Weenies and scanning the skies for a rescue plane; at least Amelia Earhart was able to find an island… Jason capped it off by parachuting into Whataburger Field to open a Hooks game with the baseball for the opening pitch in his pocket. It all makes life around the Word Factory seem kind of dull. Say Hello if you see us Around The Island.
Year 16, Issue 484
The rules and signs Aside from the cost of the boat is the issue of the ability to enforce No Wake and other violations. After the ISAC presentation Islander Fred Edler asked the CCPD Patrol Division what enforcement ordinances would apply if/ when the boat is on the water. It took the division several days to respond because, according to their e-mail, “It took a little bit to locate the answer because no one has been able to enforce this.” According to the CCPD response a No Wake Zone is punishable by a $1-$1500 fine and is a Class C Misdemeanor handled through the Corpus Christi Municipal Court. According to CCPD Slow, No Wake is defined as the “operation of a watercraft in a Slow, No Wake Zone at the slowest possible forward speed necessary to maintain steerage and so as to create no breaking wave.” The ordinance cited by CCPD states: “It shall be unlawful for any person to operate a watercraft in a Slow, No Wake zone at any speed in excess of the slowest possible forward speed which creates a breaking wave. Any property owners association or group of property owners associated with the residential developments adjacent to and through the man-made canals may purchase, install, and must maintain land based “Slow, No Wake signs on each side of the man-made canal where the Slow, No Wake zone begins. The location, size, and wording of the land based signs must be coordinated with the City’s Park and Recreation Department.” It further states: “Any property owners association or group of property owners residing beside the “Slow, No Wake” zone in Packery Channel may purchase, install, and must maintain “Slow, No Wake” signs on land at each of the four corners of the Slow, No Wake zone. The location, size, and wording of the land based signs must be coordinated with the City’s Park and Recreation Department and any other local governmental authorities.” “No one may be cited for a violation of (this ordinance) unless the land based Slow, No Wake signs are installed in accordance with… Police continued on A5
For the two sisters, age 12 and 19, it must have seemed like a great day to go out in the water and do a little paddling around near the shore in a small two person inflatable raft. And indeed, it must have been fun - at the beginning, that is. So the two girls joyously launched their raft in the calm water in front of their family’s condo on the beach. The raft was just one of those little six-foot, oval shaped, inflatable two-person
rafts that you sit inside facing each other, and it comes with a couple of small paddles. They paddled around innocently in the beautiful water that day, and they were enjoying themselves very much, when they were just a little bit off the beach; it was when they got just a little farther out that their trouble started. They were about 60 feet from shore, and that’s about where the last groups of people were standing or swimming around on a sandbar and that’s when the offshore wind began to affect them. It started as just a little push out farther from shore. Certainly, they must have thought it wasn’t really going to take them out to sea!
Wind gets stronger It must have seemed manageable to them, at first, and they tried to paddle the simple raft back toward shore. But that kind of raft doesn’t really handle very well. With wind blowing them, paddling from either side just kind of makes them turn around, without much directional ability. And then, as they got just a little bit farther out, just barely past where the last people were standing in groups on the sandbars, they noticed the wind seemed to be getting stronger. The wind moved them to the Southeast, past the tall Holiday Inn, and then the unblocked wind pushed them harder. They tried in vain to paddle the cheap raft back to shore. But with small paddles in a small raft with no pointed ends, no keel, no rudder and Lifeguards continued on A12
A little Island History
Civil War Battle Fought at the End of Whitecap Boulevard
Rebels try to use Corpus Christi Pass to run Union blockade By Greg Smith By December of 1862 Corpus Christi had been cut off from shipping by the Union blockade for almost a year. The town’s business and commerce had ground to a halt and the citizens were running out of all the basic necessities of living.
Pass at Whitecap The Federal ship Arthur guarded the pass at Port Aransas and the Union steam gunboats Sachem and Corypheus controlled the bays. The Confederate commanders looking for a way to bring in supplies and ship out cotton decided to investigate the possibility of using the unguarded Corpus Christi Pass to run the Union blockade. The first thing was to chart the current depths of the pass. The plan was for the Confederate schooner Queen of the Bay manned by forty seven year- old Jack Sands of Indianola, two sailors and to be augmented by seven men plus Captain Ireland of Hobby’s Texas regiment.
Captain Ireland was a resourceful and fearless officer who had captured the reviled Yankee commander Lt. John W. Kitterege in Flour Bluff three months earlier. Today’s folks think of Corpus Christi Pass as the ditch that was cut back in 1933, a couple of miles north on the way to Port Aransas. In 1862 the Corpus Christi Pass’s mouth was where Whitecap Boulevard ends at the
beach, it the went through what is now Lake Padre behind the seawall Condo’s, going along where SH 361 currently is for a couple of miles and then angled to Corpus Christi Bay. The pass was about 1,000 feet wide and History continued on A5