her northbound journey.
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The Island Newspaper since 1996 Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
November 8, 2012
Photo by Debbie Logan Martz
The Island With its own City Councilperson
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
The Early Voting Season ended with a bang on Saturday when a quick but violent storm blew through overturning a boat in a slip on Cartagena and knocking down power lines and poles on the westbound lanes of the JFK piling up traffic heading OTB for over an hour. It marked the second weekend in a row that we’ve had storms blow in and while the latest didn’t last nearly as long as the first it did more damage. But as is often the case this time of year the harsh weather didn’t last long and within a few hours things were back to normal and Island life goes on. But the downed power lines and quick cutoff of Island access reminds us how vulnerable we are out here on our sandbar to hard weather.
Art Walk Such was the case with the Third Annual Island Art Walk which had a record 75 vendors this year. A little rain storm blew through just before 2 p.m. it didn’t put a damper on another successful Island event. This year there were several vendors who came in from Rockport and Port Aransas and a large crowd turned out. We’re looking forward to next year.
Be careful out there We’re getting many reports about coyote sightings hereabouts of late, so if you are out walking your dogs take care. We even had one report from Port Aransas about large birds circling a lady with her small dog. We’ve also had several calls from people who have found dogs they are looking to return to their owners. The easy way to solve this problem is to get your pet a collar with your cell number on it. It avoids a lot of anxious moments.
Pomps We hear the pompano are biting out at the third cut so you either have to wade out to get them or get a long-casting rod from Nick over at Breakaway and fling that baby way out there. We got to go get our beltsander ready for the races up at the Gaff on Saturday. So in the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Next Publication Date: 11/15/2012
First Ever Islander Elected to Corpus Christi City Council By Dale Rankin Islander Colleen McIntyre became the first Island resident ever elected to the Corpus Christi City Council Tuesday by taking 76% of the votes in Council District 4. She was backed by a large Island turnout which cast 50% of the total votes she received Districtwide to win the race. According to the Nueces County Clerk’s Office, countywide 97,493 voters out of 192,541 registered voters cast ballots in the election, a rate of about 50%. In The Island’s two precincts, 40 and 81, a total of 4457 voters out of 6913 registered cast ballots, a rate of 64%. In Precinct 40, located south of Whitecap Blvd., 2208 out of 3445 registered voters cast ballots. In Precinct 81, north of Whitecap, the total was 2249 out of 3468. Island voters, as is the custom, voted heavily Republican, at a rate of about 3/1. They largely backed the winners with the exception of the race for Mayor of Corpus Christi, the contested race for a seat on the Flour Bluff School Board, and State Senate District 20. The total Island votes and the final votes in each of the races according to numbers from the Nueces County Clerk are as follows:
City Races
City Council District 4 3222 Island votes Colleen McIntyre 85.5%
2758
Jano Andrasik
202
6.5%
Election Continued on A5
Thunderstorm Thrashes Island
Year 15, Issue 448
Flip The Ridley Comes Back to the Gulf of Mexico Attend Flip’s release at Padre Island National Seashore at 11:00 a.m. Friday, November 9
By Donna J. Shaver, Ph.D. Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery National Park Service Padre Island National Seashore e-mail: Donna_Shaver@nps.gov
The last week has been exciting for local sea turtle enthusiasts. Flip, a juvenile Kemp’s ridley turtle was transported to the ARK in Port Aransas, Texas from a far-away stranding location, so that this endangered sea turtle could be returned to the Gulf of Mexico. Kemp’s ridleys nest almost exclusively on Gulf of Mexico beaches in Mexico and Texas. Hatchlings swim from shore and drift with the currents for their first months of life. Most individuals remain in the Gulf of Mexico for their entire lives. However, some juveniles are shunted out of the Gulf of Mexico through the Gulf Stream and travel up the Atlantic coast of the U.S. to forage in nearshore waters and bays as far north as Massachusetts. They travel south and to deeper waters along the eastern seaboard seasonally as waters cool, back north and closer to shore as waters warm, and return to the Gulf of Mexico at adulthood. However, some juvenile Kemp’s ridleys make a clockwise circuit of the Atlantic, eventually ending back in the Gulf of Mexico. Unfortunately, a few of those veer or are pushed off course by currents and become trapped in European waters that are
too cold for them to survive. Flip is an example of this rare event. On December 10, 2011, a concerned citizen found Flip washed ashore, emaciated and cold stunned in the Netherlands, near the city of The Flip Continued on A6
Coastal Bend artists soon will have a new showplace to exhibit paintings, photographs and sculptures. By David Stone The Art Center of Port Aransas has announced plans to build a new $1.2 million, single-level facility about two blocks south of its current location on Alister Street. The new center will be located on property that has been the home to Sportsman’s Lodge for more than 60 years. “We have a contract on the property, but it’s still going to take several months of fundraising to make this a reality,” said Dan Winship, chairman of the center’s fundraising committee. “We have several fundraising projects in the works, including a byinvitation-only event on Dec. 5.” Winship said his committee also has mailed about 1,700 letters seeking contributions from area residents and businesses. “We have about $70,000 in our building fund, and we are trying to raise our part of a $50,000 challenge grant,” he said. Winship said he would announce details of the grant at a later time.
The building project has been in the works for about three years, he said. Center officials had tried to work land deals for two other Port Aransas locations, including the historic Spanish Village cottages, but those negotiations didn’t work out. He said the Sportsman’s Lodge location was ideal because of the size of the property. Winship said the current location on Alister Street has been a good home over the years, but the Center has outgrown the 2,400-square-foot Art Center Continued on A6
A little Island history
Surfside Sandwich Shoppe had their outdoor furniture rearranged courtesy of the high winds from Saturday night’s storm.
County Coastal Parks Board Sets $2 Million in Improvements in Motion By Dale Rankin The Nueces County Coastal Parks Board has set out an aggressive plan for about $2 million in improvements to the areas around both Bob Hall and Horace Caldwell piers. The area around Bob Hall Pier will see $920,000 in improvements paid for with ready cash. The first priority is $270,000 in remodeling to the older structure on the pier, the building to the right as you face the water. Currently, the kitchen in the building is located on the water side blocking the view of the pier and the water from the building’s interior. Proposed improvements near Horace Caldwell Pier The improvements call for moving Another $100,000 will be used for remodeling the kitchen to the beach side in order to open up Briscoe King Pavilion with improvements to the view, and to make the older building a more the restrooms, air conditioning of the entire contiguous space with the new section which was more recently added. Park Continued on A8
51,300 Pounds of Silver from the Spanish Ship Santa Maria de Yciar Has Never Been Found Editor’s note: In recent issues we have been running the memoirs of longtime Islander Louis Rawalt. In the 1960s Rawalt told his friend Eugene French about the location of Spanish ships sunk near the Mansfield Channel in 1554 and French, known as “Frenchy” to his fellow Islanders, went in search of it. His search set off a string of events which led to the passing of the Texas Antiquities Law but in the end, an estimated $20 million worth of silver is still in the sand somewhere off the coast of Padre Island. By Dale Rankin Most longtime Islanders at one point or another got to know the man known as Frenchy. Over the years he owned several businesses around The Island and in the mid1960s caused a stir by holding the nation’s first topless wedding at his business located at the site that is now the American Bank. But in 1966 a tip from Louis Rawalt sent Frenchy and two friends in search of three Spanish ships that were washed up on the shores of what is now Padre Island National Seashore in April of 1554 with their holds full of silver bullion and some gold mined in Mexico. Spanish records indicate that, among
The deck of the Santa Maria de Yciar in better days other items, the ships were carrying more than 85,000 pounds of silver coins stored in wooded barrels. In all about twenty ships set out each carrying 100 passengers and about 200 tons of precious metals. The ships were each about 100 feet long, with large sails made of a natural, uncolored fabric, with one sail on each ship bearing a red cross – the symbol of 16th-century Spain. The 6,000-mile, one-way trip between Mexico and Spain usually took eight to 12 weeks, depending on the weather. The ships left Veracruz bound for Havana and eventually Spain when a storm caught them. History Continued on A7