Inside the Moon
TGSA Grom Roundup A2
Turtles A5
Fishing A7
Padre Balli Park A11
The
Issue 592
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
August 20, 2015
Around The Island
Even as Kleberg County Commissioners refuse to sign an interlocal agreement to allow for Nueces County to pick up trash and provide law enforcement on the land acquired by Nueces County south of Bob Hall Pier last year they have unleashed the Kleberg Army on the historically lawless beach. Last weekend a Kleberg County Deputy Sheriff was raising money to pay for the trash pickup by harvesting speeders on Park Road 22. Never mind the naked men and “homeless” people living on the beach for the past six months, nor the gunslingers blasting away at the Kleberg County Shooting Range down there; the Kleberg County lawdogs are out for speeders! Let it be known we gots laws in this here county boy – against speeding that is. For reasons known only to the Kleberg Commissioners Court they have refused to sign the agreement even though it won’t cost them any money. Because the land is in Kleberg County an interlocal agreement is necessary to give Nueces County Constables the authority to enforce the law there.
Weekly
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Photo by Miles Merwin
imposed September 30 deadline. At stake was $117 million in city tax incentives to the developers, of which only $5 million is in hard currency, with the remainder being remittance from Sales Tax and Hotel Motel Tax collected through park operations. Of that $5 million, $2.5 million has so far been paid to build infrastructure around the park and the remainder, as well as the Sales and HOT incentives, will not be released to the park’s developers until the exterior of the building “appears finished.” The tower is the last remaining part of the building’s exterior to be done.
Workers added wire mesh to the tower Monday
After a week of uncertainty the tower at the Schlitterbahn waterpark will maintain is lofty status above the main building.
Late last year the deadline for completing work on the building was extended until September 30 of this year. Completing of the building’s construction was delayed when it was expanded during the construction process from its original 17,000 square-feet to more than twice that size.
The future of the tower hung in the balance for several days as park developers discussed whether to tear it down or finish it by a city-
This week marked that end of the summer season at the park which will now remain open only on weekends.
By Dale Rankin
Seashore Middle Academy Welcomes Students
Students Excited to Begin the New School Year By Brent Rourk
September 1 marks the opening of dove season and Texas Parks and Wildlife this week released their outlook on the dove population. A rainy spring has sprouted lots more sunflowers and seeds across the Texas landscape bringing 30-million mourning doves into the state. Biologists say dove numbers have increased over last year as much as 20 percent.
Wherefor art thou? We are entering the heart of what has passed for Hurricane Season 2015 with nary a storm to play chicken with this year on our little sandbar. We have El Nino that thank for that and according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center this week. They like to use fancy Weatherwonk language over there at the Prediction Center so they call it the El Niño/ Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion. NOAA forecasters declared that a weak El Niño had developed in March 2015
Around continued on A3
By Dale Rankin The Corpus Christi City Council voted Tuesday to install a traffic light at the intersection of SPID and Aquarius Drive. A second reading is required before the decision is official, however, that appears to be only a formality as the council unanimously spoke in favor of the light. City engineers said the project will include a redesign of the intersection
to lengthen the left turn lanes in both directions and will include warning signs on the JFK Causeway to inform drivers there is a traffic light ahead. Several residents who live in the north end of The Island and who access the JFK Causeway through the intersection spoke in favor of the light.
Light continued on A4
Guinness World Shrimp Eating Record Set at Doc’s He did it with one hand tied behind his back! Photos by Bill Thomas They slapped the cuffs on right before lunch but they only got one hand. Island Tom was settled in on the patio at Doc’s Seafood and Steaks to prove that he could eat more shrimp in three minutes than anyone alive with one hand tied behind his back – and he did.
You got to be tough to live in a tent on the beach in this heat, even with the wind you are going to be one steamin’ hombre.
Dove Season
City Council Approves Light at Aquarius-SPID Intersection
So bright and early Monday morning a hoard of workers swarmed the top of the 138-foot tall tower to begin the process of covering it with 5000 square-feet of wire mesh which will eventually hold an outer coating of cement/ stucco in place. The process is expected to be finished in about three weeks.
The lack of enforcement on the six miles of the newly acquired beach has not been lost on the homesteading community which has now grown to about twenty “residences” currently there. As one of the semi-permanent residents told us, “Don’t call me homeless, this is my home.”
The good news is that they are harvesting the aluminum cans and various other flotsam and jetsam left behind by unthinking tourists. All in all the Homesteading Option has turned out to be a pretty good beach cleanup system, and they work cheap. They live on cans!
Live Music A16
Free
The Tower Stays in the Picture
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com They were thought to be extinct, lo there were many among us who believed they never existed at all. Then this week it happened…a sighting of a trash truck and even a Deputy Sheriff from Kleberg County on the Kleberg County Beach! We even have a photo to prove it.
The Island in 2050 A14
With Flour Bluff ISD football coaches George Henderson and Robert Volkman looking on as stewards, and Terri Wilson, a Sysco Foods employee to make sure the weights and measures were correct,
Shrimp continued on A2 Smiling students filed into the front doors of Seashore Middle Academy (SMA) on Wednesday, seeking out familiar student and instructor faces. The staff, after preparing for seven days, was ready to welcome the students and embark on a journey of 180 days of learning (and some sports and academic competitions.) Staff members helped SMA Director Barbara Beeler direct students to their first period classes and then to an all school assembly in the SMA Gymnasium. Ms. Beeler welcomed the student body, particularly the new incoming 5th grade students who are beginning their middle school careers. Ms. Beeler reminded the student body that in its previous 8 years SMA has earned commended or distinguished rankings, a feat attributed to the dedication of Island students, parents, and staff. Staff members distributed locks for student lockers and by 8:40 AM students found lockers, tried their combinations, and then headed back to class to begin their year. Staff members reminded students about the value of always putting forth ‘Effort’
Seashore continued on A4
Piles of shrimp disappear rapidly during the 3-minute world record attempt.
A little Island history
Texan Troops March into South Texas
Editor’s note: This is the second story in a series based on the writings of Herman Ehrenberg who in 1836 immigrated to Texas from his native Germany to fight for Texas’ independence from Mexico. He fought at many of the early battles of Texas’ War for Independence and was one of the few to escape the massacre of Texian troops at Goliad by the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Fortunately for us Mr. Ehrenberg was a literate man who kept a full diary of his experiences in the struggle. But his journal was lost to history for 100 years until 1936 when “an ancient German manuscript was found by instructors at the University of Texas” but the language was old German that was not understood
The Battle of San Jacinto, 1885 by any of the professors at the University. As fate would have it a student from Refugio was working on his Master’s Degree at the time and he recognized the language as the old German dialect that his mother had taught him as a child and he translated the 100 year-old story to English and wrote it down
in two versions; one is still on file at the University of Texas Library, the other was a redbound folder which was passed down through his family. In June, 1975, as part of the 140 anniversary of the original
History continued on A6