The Island Moon Published by Island Moon Publishing, LLC 15201 S. Padre Island Drive Ste. 250 Corpus Christi, TX. 78418
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Island Moon The Island Newspaper
Island Area News ! Events ! Entertainment
June 17, 2011 Phone (361) 9497700 ! Email editor@islandmoon.com The only island in Texas with a German Bakery, a BBQ Joint and no Grocery Store
We want to thank our City Council and parks staff for getting the beach renamed and the sign up without delay. It is a fitting tribute to Moon founder and seawall junky Mike who passed away earlier this year. He will be with us in spirit on Saturday. We’ll see you there.
By Dale Rankin
Something is Afoul on the Island A 10
Rumor mill The Coconut Telegraph was wild with the rumor on Saturday that the Corpus Christi Police were going to set up a roadblock on The Island. We looked everywhere and couldn’t find one but based on what happened Saturday it’s safe to say that if one does go up it won’t be a secret for long. The text messengers had thumps a-flying getting the word out of the phantom roadblock. There was an announcement by the PD that there would be roadblocks over the weekend but no locations were given. Our new police chief has instituted the roadblocks to check for “drivers licenses” and “proof of financial responsibility,” (insurance) but that doesn’t mean tickets will be limited to that offense alone. In fact, so far nearly $400,000 has been raised for city coffers by confiscating the cars of people driving without insurance. Offenders’ cars are impounded on the spot and towing and storage fees tack on a couple hundred dollars to the fine and as it turns out most of the people who don’t have insurance can’t afford the bail money for their car so they lose it at auction. Like the comic Gallagher says about overdraft fees at banks, “We’re going to charge them more of what we already know they ain’t got any of. “ We haven’t had our roadblock yet, but like oncoming hurricanes, it’s just a matter of time. Beach maintenance bingo The plan for the city and county to swap the areas of the beach each is responsible for cleaning has hit a snag - horseapples. No really, horseapples! Currently the city and county have a Keystone Cops type setup whereby they have biforcated, overlapping jurisdictions for beach cleaning that mean the cleaning crews literally pass each other on the road getting from one beach to the next. In an effort to address the problem the Nueces County Park Board proposed to the city a new plan whereby they would exchange some zones of responsibility to save some money and make some sense. The only condition was that the city enforce codes that prohibit horses from the Mustang Riding Stables leaving their droppings on the beach adjacent to the stables. Horseapples. That condition has becoming a stumbling block and for now at least, the deal is stuck - on horseapples. So as of this writing it looks like the county’s attempt to introduce some sanity into the system has met with an ignominious lull due to horseapples. You can’t make this stuff up folks, no one would believe it.
Padre Isles Country Club Anniversary Memories By Charlie Eskridge It seems the readers I talk to comment mostly on the Schlitterbahn updates rather than the theme of the articles, so I guess when I have any new news I will continue to pass it on. Remember, I was told any plan presented “would change sixty times” before the final was arrived at. So far I would say I have only seen the original but have been orally briefed on about four others, three of them pretty minor and one fairly major. So if I were counting I would say I am at five changes with fiftyfive to go. The minor ones had to do with positioning of some new greens and redirecting a couple of hole of golf. The major one in my view had to do with moving some of the amenities in the resort around, but still verbal. The biggest move would be a new golf pro shop and parking area near Das Marinas Street to get the golfers separated from the park goers. Makes sense as I mentioned they needed fifteen hundred parking spaces just for the park, which probably won’t change, just the positioning of those spaces. But a golfer showing up after work in the morning could have to park a hundred yards or more from the pro shop if the present one was used and the park entrance was near the present building. Again, it is too early to endorse or oppose this idea until we get the whole plan. They are also considering how to structure the club membership as they want to include other clubs such as a Marina Club, possibly a dinner club, and even some kind of park access benefit for members. Let’s just say it will be interesting from my point of view how all this plays out.
Back to forty years ago. Opening a new facility is something not everyone gets to do in their golf career. I Coyuacan Island was hired April 1st,1971 (was it an In the Aztec dialect he word Coyu- April fools joke?) and it was hoped Around Island Continued A 4 Country Club Continued A 4
One of the most common questions asked on The Island is “with all the money collected in from beach parking permits and from the Hotel Occupancy Tax from Island hotels why aren’t our beaches in better shape? Here’s the short answer: According to figures compiled by Islander JJ Hart at the request of the Island Strategic Action Committee, for fiscal year 2010 the City of Corpus Christi raised a total of $2,274,167 from hotel occupancy tax and beach parking permit sales on The Island and paid out $1,333,572 in beach maintenance. That means of the $2.2 million raised by taxes on beach activities on The Island the City of Corpus Christi puts just under $1 million ($940,595) into its General Fund for uses other than beach maintenance. All of the figures in this story are based on revenue numbers from fiscal year 2010. In that year the hotel/motel occupancy tax (HOT) from Island businesses raised $1,660,148, out of that only $657,658 went to beach maintenance. That means Island hotels paid out just over $1 million dollars that was not used for maintaining the beaches. So where did the HOT money go? The expenditure numbers cannot be broken out by only Island business so citywide numbers must be used. Citywide a total of $9.9 million was raised by the 7% HOT. Of that $3.2 Beach Continued A 12
Get Ready for the Tenth Annual 4th of July boat parade! Theme for this year !"#$%&"'($%!$()*!$+ By Dale Rankin Back in the Olden Days - 2000 Moon Mike, Ann Weber, and Harald Meyer were shivering their way through yet another frigid La Posada Christmas Boat Parade when an idea and an Island tradition were born. “Why don’t we have one of these in the summer when it won’t be so cold?” From that discussion the annual 4th of July Watercraft parade was born and this year marks the tenth year for the event. You will notice it’s not called a Boat parade but a Watercraft parade. La Posada is held at night when anything smaller than a boat can be a hazard. But the 4th of July event is held in broad daylight so any kind of watercraft is welcome. “If it floats we want it in the parade,” Harald says. “If it’s a submarine that’s okay too but they probably should stay on the surface so we can see them.” The emphasis this year is to try and get more windboarders and standup paddle boarders to join in the fun. “We’ve had a few windboarders in the past,” Harald says, “but this year Boat Parade Continued A 4
By Dale Rankin Plans to build a Schlitterbahn waterpark and a 3000-foot riverwalk on part of the current Padre Isles County Club on The Island are almost finished several weeks ahead of schedule and the project is moving into the final feasibility stage, according to Developer Paul Schexnailder. “The design work for an Harbor Walk makes it more than a waterpark,” he said. “It will be a unique Island experience unlike anywhere else in Texas. The design phase is substantially complete and concept design is also substantially complete, the business model is now being constructed.” The project, including a Schilitterbahn Beach Country Resort, and Harbor Walk Village contains new retail, entertainment and dining with a full compliment of lodging and residential development. “More information on the entertainment concept is be-
ing developed as guided by the work done by the i.d.e.a.s. Group out Orlando Florida,” Schexnailder said.
“The process of design on the waterpark is substantially complete and work has now turned to the pedestrian village and the riverwalk that attaches to it that makes it a unique Schlittterban resort,” he said. “ The plan envisions an expanded entertainment venue containing retail, entertainment and dining areas as part of a harborwalk running from the marina in Padre Harbor to the Schiltterbahn Beach Country Village with 3000 feet of waterfront development at full buildout.”
An intricate part of the plan is the long-planned water exchange bridge under SPID which would link the portions of the riverwalk on each side of the roadway. $1.4 million was allocated for the project in a 2004 bond package but the price of the project has now increased to around $6 million.
The project is the last of the 2004 package to be addressed and city planners have told developers there is no money left from that bond package to fund the bridge. It is possible that money left from the 2008 bond package due to lower than expected construction costs could be used but that is still under investigation by city staff.
Schlitterbahn
Beach Country Resort
Retail
Retail
“The next six weeks will tell us whether this project is going to happen,” Schexnailder said.
Padre Sound
Mark your calendar for Saturday, June 18th at 11 a.m. for the dedication of the newly named Michael J. Ellis Beach and Seawall. The new sign is already up but we’re going to pretend it isn’t there until this dedication/unveiling. The dedication will be at the seawall parking lot and the Mayor and other officials are schedule to attend. After the ceremony we’ll repair to the Sandbar next door at the Holiday Inn for a session of backslapping and general tall story telling.
Page B 1
Plans for Island Schlitterbahn Resort and Riverwalk “Substantially Complete”
S.P.I.D.
Ellis Beach Dedication
Kemps Ridley Turtle Release
Nearly $1 Million in Island Hotel/ Motel Tax Goes OTB Each Year and Doesn’t Come Back
rW alk
It’s been a Big Week for News and Rumors around our Island so let’s get right to it.
Inside the Moon
Year 15, Issue 390
You saw it here first!
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By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
Where’s the money?
Ha
Around The Island
Next Publication Date: 07/1/2011
Bridge under S.P.I.D.
La Bahia Development on Granada Drive
Once Proud Condos Have Turned into Home for Scavengers and Squatters By Dale Rankin She was once a proud lady but now she could only be described as a soiled dove. Formally named the Bahia Vista at Lake Padre & Lake Padre Spa when finished in 1997 they consisted of twelve 2250 square-foot units with vaulted ceilings and Jacuzzis along with a pool, a deck on Lake Padre with boat slips and even an on-site spa and massage business. By the end of 2009 they were fully occupied and the future looked bright. The development at the end of Granada Drive was built by Islander Jeff Frahm amid the real estate boom. Frahm, a popular Islander who as President of the Padre Island Business Association was a driver in helping to bring the construction of Packery Channel and in the raising of the JFK Causeway. But then in October, 2009 disaster stuck. Frahm passed away suddenly of a brain hemorrhage while driving to Houston. Bahia Vista passed into the hands of his estate and the development fell on hard times. A current inspection of the deserted property shows it stripped of all copper wire, air condition units, light fixtures, refrigerators, aluminum, and anything else that can be sold. What once was home to several families is now home to looters, partiers, and the occasional squatter. A portion of the wooden deck has collapsed into the water and the entire structure is near collapse. About the only thing left are the memories. We took a recent tour.