Inside the Moon
Grow Your Own A6
Fishing A7
Winter Texan Roundup A13
The
Issue 614
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
January 21, 2016
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com As the smoke started to rise on Tuesday the phones at the Word Factory lit up. Fire crews were burning brush along State Highway 361 as part of their regular maintenance when the wind is blowing in off the Gulf of Mexico keeping the smoke and flames on the bay side away from the roadway.
There’s just something about a fire that gets peoples’ adrenaline running and brush fires in particular. And when they can get up close and personal like this time it’s even better. As a news anchor we used to say during video of house fires, “No one was hurt but just look at those flames!”
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Islander Zahn Takes Seat as Port Chairman
Developer Pledges to Move Forward With Canal on Lake Padre
By Dale Rankin Longtime Port Aransas resident Charlie Zahn was sworn in as the Chairman of the Port of Corpus Christi on Tuesday marking the first time for an Islander to hold that seat. Zahn takes over the port at a time when it is experiencing unprecedented growth with $40 billion worth of new development either underway or permitted and in the development process and as outbound tanker ships recently began moving oil from the Eagle Ford Shale play to overseas ports with the lifting of the ban on the exportation of domestically-produced oil. Two months ago he accompanied Texas Governor Greg Abbott on a trade mission to Cuba and has also made several other trade missions for the port to Central and South America in the past year.
Live Music A16
Mardi Gras Registration A15
“We’re not waiting on the city to commit to the Water Exchange Bridge” By Dale Rankin
Port Chairman Charlie Zahn with his wife Linda Zahn is appointed to the board by the Nueces County Commissioners Court and chairs the commission
Port continued on A4
Developer Paul Schexnailder said this week he will proceed with the digging and bulkheading of 1200 feet of new canals on the 100plus acres of undeveloped land controlled by his company on the Gulf of Mexico side of SPID “within the next sixty days” even as the City of Corpus Christi continues to work on a Memorandum of Understanding for the $10.5 million Park Road Exchange Bridge.
The design of the Park Road 22 Water Exchange Bridge calls for three arches much like this single-arch bridge in Commander’s Cove. proposed 22 Water
The city has been at work for more than a month on the MOU which would outline the agreement between Schexnailder and the city for moving forward with the bridge project and has not given a date for the work to be finished.
New bollards
Mayor Nelda Martinez told the audience at the Padre Island Business Association lunch last week that the city will not commit to the building of the bridge until there is certainty that the canals will be built.
Photo by Ronnie Narmour
The new Harbor Bridge will be 1050 feet long and 530 feet tall.
Crews in Port Aransas are replacing old bollards on the beach with new bollards on the beach. Normally that wouldn’t be much in the way of news but there are a few wrinkles that are drawing attention. First, the new bollards are closer together than the old ones, so close that a golf cart can’t squeeze through anymore. That’s pretty serious business hereabouts as it necessitates the schlepping of an ice chest across burning sand. As a general rule we Islanders are against schlepping in all its forms, but particularly when it involves an ice chest. The second difference is that the new bollards are taller, which means using them to sit on becomes a real issue. A fall from such a precipitous height could result in the spilling of a beverage; and you all know how we feel about that.
Barefoot Mardi Gras Saturday, February 6
The seventh annual Barefoot Mardi Gras celebration is now only two weeks away on Saturday, February, 6.
And third, they are round on the top which means you can’t perch you drink on top either. Did this sound like a good idea at the planning meeting? Have you ever tried to balance a halffull can of anything in a koozy on soft sand? Oh the humanity!
This year an afternoon festival has been added to the schedule which will be held at Briscoe King Pavilion during and after the parade, which has new starting point this year at Whitecap Beach. The route was extended north to Whitecap in order
Oh well, new bollards are as certain in this climate as death and taxes. But next time maybe let’s have us a bollard committee to see to it that the needs of the Plebeians are taken into account. It’s tough enough being a Plebeian without falling off a towering bollard onto your golf cart and spilling your drink. We got scruples you know.
Seashore Middle Academy Gets High State Mark
Pole dancing Along with new bollards the other thing as certain as death and taxes on our little sandbar is that wanna-be racecar drivers will take out the light pole on the Aquarius Extension.
For more information on the event see the entry forms and schedule on page A15 of this issue.
By Brent Rourk Seashore Middle Academy on The Island is ranked by the website SchoolDigger as the 15th best middle school (out of 2038) in Texas. The word circulated quickly at Seashore Middle Academy this week as teachers engaged curious students in the classrooms . Seashore Middle Academy is known for its academic rigor, positive small school atmosphere, and dedicated teachers who tirelessly work to help their students master curriculum. The smaller teacher: student ratio also promotes trust and respect among staff and students, further
Around continued on A2
By Colleen McIntyre and Barbara Beeler
The final event of the day will be the Kings and Queens Ball at the Veranda at the Schlitterbahn waterpark which will begin at 7 p.m.
SchoolDigger Ranks SMA 15th in the State
SMA continued on A5
“We are not going to wait on the city to move on the bridge,” Schexnailder said after the mayor’s speech. “Our Army Corps of Engineers permit requires as a material feature the construction of the canals and the bulkheads leading to the water exchange bridge. The concept that they will not be done is not reality. The canals and bulkheads will be built before the bridge can be completed. It is my hope that the city will build the bridge in congruence with the canals.”
Bridge continued on A5
Seashore Charter Schools: The Early Years
to relieve overcrowding along the route, which now stretches from Whitecap south along the beach to the county park at Bob Hall Pier.
For the first year Barefoot Mardi Gras has added the Island Foundation Schools to the list of non-profit organizations it will benefit, along with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Corpus Christi. We include information on the schools in this issue.
Mardi Gras Parade Route A15 A little Island history
“We will not build a bridge over a pond,” Martinez said.
It takes a community to educate its children, and Seashore Charter Schools are an embodiment of this concept. 20 years ago the first community organizational meeting was held in Katie Howell's living room. After trying unsuccessfully to pass a bond election to bring an elementary school campus to the island, they took matters into their own hands. Someone read the poem IF....and discussed what the community could create” IF” – “IF” we had small class sizes, ”IF” we had individualized instruction, “ IF” we worked across the curriculum, “IF” we had multiage classes,” IF” we focused on character and social skills, “ IF” we had the parents involved….. The dream began with a small group of Island residents: Peggy Shirley, Belinda Stump, Debbie Lichtenberger, and Luis Villarreal. Luis' children never even attended a Seashore school. Jimmy Driver
was first CEO/Principal of Seashore Learning Center which opened its doors in 1995 as a private school with 15 students, grade pre-k through third grade, and one teacher, Lori Hernandez, in an old convenience store building. The first year was spent writing a charter to be awarded one of the twenty 1st generation charters authorized by the Texas Legislature. The charter was written to develop a mixed age program for our students with strong cross curricular activities. Students wore uniforms. Some island residents may still remember seeing kids in the bright dolphin print shirts, royal blue jumpers, and khaki shorts around the island. When charter was approved, the Island Foundation purchased the old Dairy Queen and opened as a public school K-4 in 1996 and moved the preschool to Island Presbyterian. Construction soon began on the Tarpon Building.
A Prank for the Ages
Editor’s note: This story doesn’t really have a connection to The Island except that somehow it seems that it fits with the Island’s sense of humor; and besides with the approach of Football Withdrawal when the season ends in a few weeks we figure now’s a good time to tell it. His name was Johnny Chung, a 6-foot 3-inch 212-pound halfback who was half Hawaiian and half Chinese and in 1941 he was a Heisman Trophy contender who could run like the wind and who ate bowls of wild rice for energy during halftime. He was billed as the Celestial Comet and he played for the Plainfield Teachers College Lions whose team colors were mauve and puce. He was written up in the New York Post’s College Grapevine column, “Johnny
Chung, Plainfield Teachers’ Chinese sophomore halfback has accounted for 57 of the 98 points scored by his unbeaten and untied team in four starts. If the Jersey dons don’t watch out, he may pop up in Chiang Kaishek’s offensive department one of these days.”
What if… The problem was that of all the things mentioned in the above paragraph, including the Celestial Comet and Plainfield Teachers College, the only two that actually ever existed are the New York Post and Chiang Kaishek; everything else
History continued on A6
Seashore continued on A5