Inside the Moon
Plan CC 2035 A5
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Dog Party A9
The
Issue 589
Island Moon
The Old Greek Gaida Player A14
Live Music A18
Photo by Dale Rankin
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The voice of The Island since 1996
July 30, 2015
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
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Offshore Rig Moves into Harbor Island
New Island Fire Station Will Need Voter Approval By Dale Rankin
About the time our last issue hit the streets the city’s water system hit the chop.
Proposed Location of Island Fire Staion
It wasn’t the prohibition on drinking the tap water. The fact is that most people who have lived on The Island very long don’t drink the tap water anyway, and heck, it’s the weekend we got beer! But the boil water order that resulted from contaminated water in Flour Bluff lasted until Saturday evening and meant that ice from Island icemakers could not be used over the weekend. Anyone who has spent a weekend on The Island in July knows that few things are as discombobulating as having no ice. It just ain’t right. It throws everything way off track. The ice trucks were busy making emergency runs to Island stores even as we Islanders kept our ears glued to the AM radio checking to see if there was a palace coup at city hall because it felt like we were in a third world country where governments come and go according to fortune and firepower; if there was in fact a new ruling junta we needed to know who to make the next round of checks out to. So we spent the weekend trying to find the right-sized containers for freezing boiled water in our refrigerators; it turns out plastic water containers work great and once the boil order is lifted you can throw them into the pool to cool it off. Maybe we should send that one to Heloise. Then on Saturday night we were at Cancun when a crawl came across the television screen announcing the water was safe and the boil order was lifted. A cheer went up from the crowd until someone said, “Hey wait, that was channel K%&? You better check one of the others to see if it’s true!�
This rescue pumper truck is one of the vehicles that would be permanently stationed at the Island fire station.
Port Aransas residents now have a new neighbor as this drilling platform was moved in this week for storage at Harbor Island by the Canyon Port – Harbor Island Group which is using the site to provide deep-water port facilities for operations in the Gulf of Mexico. The company has been using the site to store fracking sand for drilling in the Eagle-Ford Shale Formation. The site is 219 acres with 3700 feet of bulkheads adjacent to the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Recent renovations include extensive bulkhead repairs with an enhanced new whaler system, new fender
bumper system, bulkhead cap repair/ replacement, sheet pile reinforcement and enhanced mooring. Land based improvements consist of repair/replacement of site drainage system, additional site stabilization, repurposing of existing warehouses, complete renovation of all buildings on site, and upgrade of onsite utilities including main water supply lines and underground power. Port Aransas City Manager of 1 David 1 Parsons said while the city is monitoring noise and light emanating from the site the company is in compliance with all city permits and ordinances.
Island Water “Not Likely� Effected by Pollution City says Flour Bluff wells suspected as source of problem. “Not a system failure, a rogue property owner�
So Sunday afternoon we Islanders sat in the weekly traffic jam to go OTB and buy filters for our icemakers, only to find out that by the time we got OTB they were sold out! Dang‌
If reminded us of the Flood Advisory we got a few months ago because it was raining in Alice. If rain in the flatlands around Alice causes flooding on The Island we won’t need an advisory folks, we’re going to need an ark! This is the time of year when the Weather guys can record their forecast for the month; “Hot in the morning, then hotter in the afternoon with continued hotness until October. Wind picks up in the afternoon. Chance of rain took the night train out of town, and if it does happen to rain for more than ten minutes run! Hurricane! We can’t help but think of our old friend Al Sleet the Hippy Dippy Weatherman who told his viewers, “Tomorrow we will have a Canadian Low‌not to be confused with a Mexican High.â€?
Island fireworks show Next year will mark the fourth year for the Island Blast Fourth of July Fireworks Show and even though it is still a long way off organizer Jerry Watkins is already thinking ahead. Next year the 4th is on a Monday, the question is whether to have the
Around continued on A3
The new station, at the corner of Beach Access Road #6 and Park Road 22 would also include a Nueces County Constable’s office and possibly a substation for the Corpus Christi Police Department. “The Nueces County Constable’s office has agreed to contribute
$35,000 for their office,� said Fire Chief Dale Scott. “We are also talking to CCPD about locating a substation there.�
The Service District, commonly referred to as the Flour Bluff Fire Department which it was prior to annexation of Flour Bluff in the 1970s, is funded by an ad valorem tax across the district which includes The Island. Voter approval in November would raise the taxes for the District from the current 3 cents per $100 of
Fire Station continued on A6
Value of City and County Property Jumps by 7%
Question now is whether Effective Tax Rate will follow suit By Dale Rankin The value of taxable property in both the City of Corpus Christi, Nueces County as a whole, and Flour Bluff Independent School District is up between six and eight percent. The largest jump is in property inside the Corpus Christi City Limits at 7.98% with Nueces County not far behind at 7:42
percent. That means if those taxing entities keep their current tax rate it will mean a tax increase in both cases of just under 8%; an tax hike which requires holding two public hearings to explain to taxpayers why the tax increase is needed, but not about the 8% tax hike level which allows voters to force a tax rollback. Both the City of Corpus Christi
Taxes continued on A3
Tax Rolls for 2015 Fiscal Year Issued Last Week by the Nueces County Appraisal District
Who knew!? For the last few days the National Weather Service has put out heat advisories for the’ Coastal Bend and Brush Country.’ We thank them for their diligence, but folks, just between us I’m not sure we needed an advisory about the heat. Watching a bald guy fry an egg on his head on the beach gave us about all the climatological data we needed.
The Island could get a new fire station complete with a full-time ambulance, brush truck, rescue pumper truck, and rescue boat if voters approve a tax increase for the Nueces County Service District #2 in November.
The work along the Island side of the JFK Causeway is part of a city project to extend the new water line recently brought to The Island. The new line is actually three lines – an eighteen inch water line, an eight inch gas line, and a four inch line for information service lines. It will extend the line, recently brought across the Laguna Madre, to the intersection of Aquarius and SPID. By Dale Rankin City staff said Tuesday that the Island water supply was “not likely� affected by the E-coli bacteria found at two water stations in Flour Bluff that caused a citywide boil order last weekend. “There are 126 registered wells, and others we don’t know about, in the vicinity of the two places where the bacteria was found,� City Manager
Ron Olson told the Corpus Christi City Council on Tuesday. “While we can’t say for certain the probability is quite high that one or more of them is the cause of the pollution.� Two of 49 water sampling points in the city tested positive for the E. coli bacteria Tuesday. After samples from the sites were incubated and retested
Water continued on A6
Police Begin Patrols in Ski Basin Will continue through Labor Day
Beginning last Sunday the Corpus Christi Police Department began the Ski Basin Marine Patrol Initiative in which Dive Team officers and Uniform Personnel will patrol the Ski Basin waterways by boat to enforce city and state laws in an area usually not accessible to law enforcement. According to CCPD, “The goal of this operation is to provide a safe atmosphere in the Ski Basin waterway through strong law enforcement
presence and diligent enforcement of offenses such as boating while intoxicated, public intoxication, drug possession, underage consumption of alcohol, intoxication assault and stem the dangerous operation of watercraft in this area.�
Police continued on A3
Editor’s note: Market value is before any exemptions or special appraisals are applied and taxable value is after those exemptions and special appraisals are applied.
The Ghosts of the Tarpon Inn By Ronnie Narmour In 2007 I moved to Port Aransas and lived at the Tarpon Inn, in the manager’s quarters at the back of the inn. At the time, Barton Simpson, a real estate magnate, owned the inn. I had worked for Bart for several years in San Antonio as General Manager of a live music venue and brew pub, The Laboratory Brewing Company. I ran into Bart one day in S.A. and one thing led to another and I agreed to move to the Tarpon Inn and help him open an upscale martini and cigar bar in the building where Roosevelt’s is today. At the time, I only knew one person in Port A, Susan Powell (Lagedrost at the time), the owner of the Back Porch Bar.
So when I blew onto the island in my U-Haul, I blew in blind. I had one friend here and hadn’t been to the island in years. By the time I got to the Tarpon, it was late and the innkeeper at the time, Dana Spinks, had left the door open in my quarters and the plan was to meet her the next morning. I had a basic knowledge of the Inn. I knew it was the oldest building on the island, established in 1886 as a barracks for Confederate troops and was built from wood salvaged from those barracks. It was
Tarpon continued on A6