Inside the Moon...
Frostbite Betty’s Winter Texan Roudnup A6
Walter Furley A7
FREE
The
TAMUCC Alum Bull Bullard A14
Angler’s Alley A11
Local Music A16
Free
Island Moon
The Island Newspaper since 1996 Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
January 17, 2013
Photo by Brent Rourk
The Island Where the Only difference Between a Cold and the Flu is about $80 Next Publication Date: 1/24/2012 Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
In November the brightest comet ever seen by human eyes will streak across the night sky and surely strike fear into the hearts of the uninformed. The Comet ISON will make HaleBopp look like a mere flicker and someone will predict the End of the World As We Know It. Meanwhile, over in Hialeah, Florida two people have been arrested for practicing medicine without a license for injecting Fix-aFlat into the buttocks of a transgender woman in what has to go into the books as about the most ill-advised piece of plastic surgery ever concocted by Floridians. Here on The Island there are no such happenings but we are in the midst of what passes in these parts for winter. You know it’s winter here when the Winter Texans put on a jacket while wearing shorts. The water temps have been holding in the 50s but that doesn’t seem to bother the surfers who hit the waves at Bob Hall every afternoon and it has brought large sheepshead to within striking distance of Island fisherpersons. But fret not fellow Islanders, the Spring Breakers will be here before you know it.
Flu has flown The Flu Bug has flown into town. Seems just about everybody either has it or is running from it. The good news this week is that the vaccine will reduce your chances of getting it by just over half, so we got that going for us.
Look out There are a couple of items making their way through City Hall that Island property owners need to keep an eye on. The first is the formation of a Municipal Management District which is designed to help repair Island bulkheads in case of a major storm. It is much needed and looks to be on the road to approval by the council within the next two weeks but it is something homeowners need to be familiar with. The second matter is a street fee that until this week had a provision that would sock it to Island homeowners. It called for the fee to be assessed by square footage as if there is some correlation between the size of a home and the amount of wear and tear the inhabitants inflict on the road system. That would have shifted the burden of the fee inordinately to the Island. However, it looks like there is consensus to change that to a flat fee.
Oh yea, so’s your old man The Moon award for the best insult of the week goes to a fellow we overheard at Barton Street Pub the other day. One fellow said he was thinking about going back to school to get a four year degree. “Your best chance for a four year degree is to go to a two year school twice,” his friend said. Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Winter Beach Cleanup February 9
PINS one of four beaches targeted for trash Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson is calling on volunteers for the 9th Annual Winter Beach Cleanup Saturday, Feb. 9 at four Coastal Bend beaches. The cleanup will take place from 9 a.m. to noon. The locations participating in the Winter Beach Cleanup are:
State of The Island
Where We Are, How We Got Here, Where We’re Going By Dale Rankin Part 1 of a series 2004 was the year it was all supposed to happen. The Island was on a roll; the vote approving the digging of Packery Channel was four years in the past and its construction was only months away, the push to raise the JFK Causeway was well underway, the Island’s Tax Increment Finance Zone was just over one year old – keeping property taxes levied on new Island development on The Island, a proposal for a billion dollar resort was on the table and after years of waiting it looked like this was the time for The Island to explode. The biggest problem foreseen by planners was how to manage all that growth. The City Charter mandates that the City Council “establish comprehensive planning as a continuous governmental function to guide, regulate, and manage future development” and that “ . . . all city improvements, ordinances, and regulations shall be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.” The problem was that there was no comprehensive plan. So a committee of about twenty Islanders in conjunction with the City Planning Commission set out to make one. The result was the MustangPadre Island Area Development Plan; a 52-page plan that set out goals, means, and boundaries for development on The Island. Its Mission Statement was bursting with optimism.
Lofty Goals “The ultimate goal of this plan is to assist in transforming the Mustang-Padre Island area into a world-renowned tourist, resort and residential community. The City will encourage the highest development standards within the area’s boundaries to create a unique “sense of place.” Economic development will be tempered with environmental sensitivity to the significant coastal natural resources on the Islands. Growth will be tempered with common sense. Residential concerns will be tempered with tourism and business concerns. The area plays a vital role in the citywide and regional economies. The City recognizes this and commits to doing its part to ensure the longterm success of Mustang-Padre Island.” The question of how to manage Island development within the stated goals was the task at hand. The underlying findings of the plan were no surprise.
Nueces County May Get $225 Million from BP Oil Spill Nueces County is in line to get $225 million of a $25 billion dollar settlement with British Petroleum over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Harris County stands to get the largest part of the settlement among Texas counties at $2.5 billion. Cameron County is second with a $262,000 sum, and Nueces County third. Much of the money, both statewide and in Nueces County is expected to go to fisheries and hatcheries to help increase and maintain fish populations. There is no word on when the final judgment may be complete and the money released.
Pelican Fishing
• Padre Island National Seashore, at the Malaquite Visitor Center, 20420 Park Road 22. Contact Buzz Botts at 361-949-8068 or via e-mail at buzz.botts@texasadoptabeach.org. • Rockport Beach, at the Rockport Beach Park Pavilion. Contact Kerry Goodall for more information at 361-729-6661 or via e-mail at kerry.goodall@texasadoptabeach.org • Port Aransas, at Avenue G at the beach. Contact Deno Fabrie at 361-749-0256 or via e-mail at deno.fabrie@texasadoptabeach. org • Corpus Christi Beach, at the Texas State Aquarium, 2710 N. Shoreline Blvd. Contact Kara Hahn at 361-881-1259 or via e-mail at kara.hahn@texasadoptabeach.org.
Cleanup continued on A 7
The public parking area should be of the highest quality design with lush landscaping and palm planting for shade. . Lighting will be of a clean white metal halide type, of an attractive design (not standard city issue), and at pedestrian scale to avoid light pollution on adjacent properties. the city as a whole. The median home value Island land use The Island consists of 31,451 acres - 49 square miles. The largest part of The Island consists of parkland – 16,794 acres, 26 square-miles, 53%; about half that amount – 7603 acres, 24%, 12 square-miles – is vacant; about half of that amount – 4139 acres, 13%, is wetlands; surprisingly residential – high, medium, and low density neighborhoods – makes up less than 2% of The Islands total area.
Island home values In 2004 The Island had higher home values than the city as a whole as well as more vacant homes. Citywide 8% of the total housing units were vacant while on The Island 28% of the total housing units were vacant, due primarily to their being owned by absentee owners. Of the 1,121 vacant housing units on The Island 788 (70%) were seasonal units, which catered largely to tourists and winter Texans. Citywide, only 16% of vacant housing units were seasonal units. There was also a significant discrepancy in median home value between The Island and
Here is a Packery Channel angler fighting a Pelican, the bird worked his way free and escaped.
citywide was approximately $72,000 while on Mustang Island the median home value was about $154,000, and on Padre Island about $216,000
Island demographics
The demographic makeup of the MustangPadre Island Area is not consistent with that of Corpus Christi. Within the area, about 70% of the population is in the 21 – 64 year age group. Meanwhile, the City has about 56% of the population in the same age group. The 0 – 20 year age group makes up about 16% of the Mustang-Padre population, as compared to about 33% for Corpus Christi’s population. This is indicative of the area’s status as a resort community. The bulk of the population is working age adults, with fewer children than the remainder of the City. Also, there is a slightly higher rate of retirement age (65+) individuals within the area (14%) than the rest of the City (11%). The proportion of married couples with
State of the Island continued on A13
A little Island history By Dale Rankin
St. Joseph’s Island
If you have ever taken the jetty boat in Port Aransas across the channel to St. Joseph’s Island you know it is a stretch of beach untouched by development. What you may not know is why. The island is 21 miles long and five miles wide at its north end where it is separated from Matagorda Island by Cedar Bayou. It is also said to the largest privately-owned barrier island in the United States. Some scholars believe it is the island which Cabeza de Vaca described in his writings and considered by some of them as his landing place on the Texas Coast in 1528. It has also been identified as the island called Snake Island by Diego Ortiz Parrilla who explored the Gulf Coast area in 1766. The Handbook of Texas says the French had landed parties on the island in 1712 and 1718, and José de Escandón explored St. Joseph, Padre, Mustang, and Matagorda islands in 1766. The combined islands of St. Joseph and Matagorda were also known as Culebra. The first United States flag to be raised in Texas is said to have been raised on St. Joseph Island by United States troops on July 26, 1845 and forts were erected at various times on the south end of the island.
•
The Winter Beach Cleanup is one of three all-volunteer seasonal cleanups coordinated through the Adopt-A-Beach program of the Texas General Land Office.
Year 16, Issue 457
The shallow pass between St. Joseph’s and Mustang Island in the days before dredging caused many shipwrecks and in 1834 two vessels bringing Irish colonists to the Power and Hewetson Colony on the mainland went aground on the island. While waiting for transport to the mainland 250 of the colonists died in a cholera epidemic. Soon after the Texas Revolution several
families of cattlemen and seafarers established homes on St. Joseph’s. During the Civil War the island used to store captured Confederate cotton.
Into private hands The Island’s history was much tamer after that and in1936 oil magnate Sid Richardson bought it for less than $30,000. The well worn shot of President Franklin Roosevelt holding up two fingers while riding in a boat was taken when he came to visit Richardson at St. Joseph’s. Richardson and his partner Clint Murchison made their fortunes in the oil business. According to a family history commissioned by Perry Bass, whose family interests now own St. Joseph’s, Bass was commissioned immediately after World War II to design a house for Richardson on the island. According to the book Bass came up with the idea of making the house from shellcrete and that house still stands on the island today. Richardson also realized that St. Joseph’s Island was well suited for cattle raising and bought 100 Santa Gertrudis bulls from the King Ranch and began a cattle operation on State of the Island continued on A2