Inside the Moon
Murder in Port Aransas A7
Sports A8
Spring Break Schedule A5
The
Issue 618
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
February 18, 2016
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com We know that we said there would be no math but…here’s a simple Island equation that summarizes last weekend: 2 sunny days + 1 Monday holiday = the number of vacant Island hotel rooms < 0. Those happy-go-lucky OTBers who showed up on The Island last weekend with no reservations hoping to pay sub-season room prices were left without a piece of the π. It’s a sign of the Island Time that our “off-season” gets shorter and more crowded as the years go passing by. After two years of cold, wet, windblown winters this winter season is more like what passes for “normal” on our little sandbar. This year the cool fronts we have had have been short lived and blow on through in a couple of days at most. The Old Farmer’s Almanac calls for slightly above average temperatures in March and little in the way of rain. That sounds like better news for we Islanders and our visitors than it does for Old Farmers who might need some rain.
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Spring Break 2016 Kicks in March 5 By Dale Rankin If weather patterns hold as predicted for the next four weeks area beaches are expected to see record crowds for Spring Break 2016.
Texas Game Wardens, and agents from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission will augment the Port Aransas Police Department.
For the past two years weather has been erratic with cold and rain in 2015 and cold but sunny conditions in 2014 when Port Aransas Police Chief Scott Burroughs said beaches saw record crowds in spite of the cool temperatures.
Lt. John Graham said he expects to send between six and fifteen agents to town early in the week leading up to Saturday March 12 when most Texas schools will recess for Spring Break. TABC agents typically wear shirts which read State Police.
“If the current weather patterns hold I would expect the biggest crowds we have ever seen,” Burroughs said.
“We will start out with six agents and a supervisor and bring in more if we need to,” Graham said.
Law enforcement officials on both ends of The Island are gearing up for Spring Break 2016 which will begin with a trickle on Saturday, March 5 and swing into high gear on Saturday, March 12.
Graham said TABC agents will concentrate primarily on Public Intoxication arrests with troopers from the Texas Department of Public Safety patrolling for DUIs.
In Port Aransas officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety,
Burroughs said typically about 100 arrests per week are made during
Spring Break continued on A5
Tony Finds His Beach
Good driving
Early Voting Hours and Locations
Early Voting hours are 8-5 Tuesday, February 16- Friday, February19; 7-7 Saturday, February 20; 12-5 Sunday, February 21; 7-7 Monday, February 22- Friday, February 26.
A total of 2493 cast ballots in Nueces County on the first day of Early Voting Tuesday and 106 of them voted on Padre Island. The large majority of them voted in the Republican Primary – 88 – with 18 voting in the Democrat primary. The totals include Mail In ballots. The two Early Voting sites with the largest turnouts in the city Tuesday were the Nueces County Courthouse – 318 – where Democrats outnumbered Republicans 202-116 and, the Corpus Christi Council for the Deaf had 306 ballots cast, split almost evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
A registered voter can vote and any polling place in Nueces County during Early Voting. Island locations and main locations in the city are: SCHLITTERBAHN 14353 Commodores ELLIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY 700 W Avenue A. Port Aransas ETHEL EYERLY SENIOR CENTER 654 Graham Road Corpus Christi NUECES COUNTY COURTHOUSE (1ST FLOOR ATRIUM) 901 Leopard Street Corpus Christi CORPUS CHRISTI AREA COUNCIL FOR THE DEAF 5151 McArdle Road Corpus Christi
New Director Takes the Reigns at Seashore Leaning Center Continued Success for SLC By Brent Rourk Checking her daily itinerary, new Seashore Learning Center (SLC) Director Genger Holt welcomed another busy day filled with opportunities. She seemed familiar with her ‘To Do’ list and had already assisted students and staff in the morning as school began. She and her incredible assistant had already handled an incredible array of tasks and duties prior to my arrival at 9:00 AM.
By Ronnie Narmour
Around continued on A14
Early Voting Turnout High
Voting continued on A4
Tony Amos, Mayor Keith McMullen, Lynn Amos and City Manager Dave Parsons at the Tony Amos Beach dedication on Saturday
Our friend Don Jackson who owns Worldwinds Windsurfing at Bird Island is getting ready for his busy season in a couple of weeks when windsurfers from all over the world show up to take advantage of the weather. Bird Island is one of the top rated windsurfing spots in the world and each spring visitors arrive to camp out and enjoy their sport. They
Election 2016
It is impossible to know the number of voters in each precinct during Early Voting because voters can cast
We made a couple of drives down PINS last weekend and in spite of the warnings at the entryway found the driving conditions down to Little Shell – about sixteen miles down – to be great, once you get past the first one-hundred feet of beach at the end of the pavement which was soft axle-grabbing beach sand. There are a good number of travel trailers which look to be trapped down there by the sandy trailer trap at the entrance and will have a hard time making their way north until the wind shifts permanently to the southeast in the spring. The beach was smooth and clear all the way south with the exception of this
Island traffic jam about ten miles down where a washed-up tree forced vehicles into the deep sand and kept the sandcrabs busy pulling unsuspecting two-wheelers out of the mire. For our Winter Texan friends who have never been down there we recommend going during the week, in a four-wheel drive if you have one – and travel in packs just in case.
Live Music A16
Winter Texan Roundup A13
Every other day since April 1, 1978, Tony Amos has walked Mustang Island observing his surrounding and tabulating birds, turtles, trash, people, cars, marine life and measuring beach widths, dune erosion/accretion, sea temperature and salinity. His records provide a dynamic record of an everchanging environment. But now when Tony says, “I feel like that’s my beach” he can rest assured knowing that it now is. On Saturday Tony’s friends and family turned out while the City of Port Aransas dedicated the stretch of beach going south from Road 1 to Road 2 to the island icon to Tony with a big sign proclaiming, “Entering Tony Amos Beach. For His Years of Dedication to Port Aransas Beaches.” As a research fellow at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, Amos stays perpetually busy. It’s a good thing he only sleeps five hours a day because between his quest to collect data and his role as founder and director of the Animal Rescue Keep (ARK), a facility to aid distressed turtles and aquatic birds, this silver bearded guardian angel never slows down. It’s not uncommon to see Tony saving a baby dolphin entangled in a crab trap or chasing down a pelican with a hook in its mouth. Not to mention the astronomical number of turtles that he’s saved through the years. Amos did mention that he’s identified 270 different species of birds on this beach. Tony’s bio reads like a virtual who’s
who. His oceanographic career has spanned 47 years, first at Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Observatory before coming to UTMSI in 1976. He has participated in research expeditions to all the
Tony Amos continued on A6
Her infectious smile and positive attitude are two of her hallmarks. Her loyal devotion and support for SLC students and staff have helped jettison her initial year to success. She is determined to continue procedures and protocols that have worked and is equally committed to working collaboratively with the staff to continue to make SLC an even better school.
SLC Director Genger Holt photo by Brenbt Rourk Great Experience Working in education for many years, Genger has brought with her a wealth of experiences as a school teacher in grades 1,2,3,4,5, and 8. She also worked closely with staffs as a Teacher Advisor at four
Director continued on A4
A little Island History
Daytona 500 Began in a Hotel Room 57 Years Ago
Editor’s note: This weekend is the running of the Daytona 500 in Florida. While this story doesn’t have a direct Island connection we do have a large population of Island NASCAR fans and it is a reminder of how things that start small in a beach community can become Big Things over time. By Andy Purvis Did you hear about the train conductor who got fired because he couldn’t help but stop his train along the backstretch to watch a Martinsville stock car race? His stopping messed up the train traffic all along the entire eastern seaboard. Or the time when our guy was so mad at all the noise coming from outside his motel room that he stormed out in the wee hours of the morning demanding that it stop. What he found was future NASCAR Hallof-Famers, “Fireball” Roberts, Curtis Turner and Joe Weatherly, skinny-dipping in the motel pool. He was a storyteller all right, one
Barney Hall of the best. This guy had more tales than Will Rogers. He was genuine and as much a country boy as they were. His voice was a mixture of pure Carolina sipping whiskey with a jolt of white lightning moonshine. Add a splash of racing fuel and a squirt of motor oil and you had a delivery that was smooth enough to stand the test of
time. A broadcasting giant for over fifty years, he defined stock-car racing over the radio. If he said it, it was so. He was like listening to Vin Scully in overalls or watching Rembrandt painting you a picture from his toolbox in the pits. His soothing bass voice was more than great; it was strong enough to cut
History continued on A8