Inside the Moon
Fireworks Viewing Map A2
Fourth of July A2
Burmuda Vacation A6
The
Issue 637
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
June 30, 2016
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com The American Automobile Association predicts that the upcoming July 4th holiday weekend may be the busiest ever for road travel in the United States thanks mostly to low gas prices. According to AAA estimates there will be five million more drivers – a total of 36 million - on American roads this weekend over Memorial Day weekend. Numbers from past big holiday weekends tell us that somewhere in the neighborhood of 72,000 vehicles will cross the JFK Causeway each day. That’s a lot of hotdogs, sixpacks, and plastic bags. It also means the roads between the Port Aransas ferries and the JFK will be home to the Mother of All Traffic Snarls until Monday afternoon.
Islanders in Panama An event that took place 1600 miles away this week may have more of an impact on the Coastal Bend and our Island in particular than anything since the approval of Packery Channel in 2000.
Two Islanders were on hand for the opening of an expansion of the Panama Canal that will double the canal’s capacity with new locks, which will be 1,400 feet long, 140 feet wide and 60 feet deep, compared with the 1,000-by-110-by-40-foot dimensions of the three sets of existing locks. The final cost is estimated at $5.25 billion but the expanded version will triple the size of ships that can sail through the canal. With this expansion, the country will be able to host 98 percent of the world's shipping and hopes to wrest a share of the market from the rival Suez Canal in Egypt and US land routes made cheaper by low oil prices. One port looking to gain the most from the expansion is the Port of Corpus Christi.
While the Port of Corpus Christi has no plans to become a major container port, it is already a major petroleum port and the expanded canal will increase the opportunity for manufactured goods and petroleum products to flow from plants along the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to growing Asian markets. The importance of the Panama Channel expansion is a great enough event that Islander and Port of Corpus Christi Chairman Charlie Zahn traveled there for the occasion, along with Islander and local television news guru Joe Gazin for coverage on KIII. Port authorities have quietly, until now at least, been working on a $130 million plan to dredge the Corpus Christi Ship Channel to a 52 foot depth from a point two miles into the Gulf of Mexico to Harbor Island across the channel from Port Aransas to accommodate the larger ships which pass through the expanded Panama Canal. That depth, which would eventually extend to the inner port, combined with the new Harbor Bridge and the Panama expansion, positions the Port of Corpus Christi to add even more development on top of the $40 billion in improvements already on the books. Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Live Music A18
Voting A6
Photo By Lisa Towns
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How Can We Fix Our Parks? Island Has 49 Acres of Unusable Parkland
By Dale Rankin When residential development began on Padre Island in the 1960s the developers were required to set aside five acres out of every 100 acres for parkland. Now, fifty years on there are few amenities in any of the Island’s five parks and almost all of the 49 acres of the dedicated parkland consists of unusable sticker-burr infested wasteland. The lack of usable parkland is especially onerous on an island where the developers failed to put in sidewalks, forcing Island joggers, kids, and animals to use streets as their parks and share space with passing vehicles.
“Part of the problem is that The Island does not have the $200 park fee assessed on each lot that is bought,” said Interim Director, Parks & Recreation Stacie Talbert Anaya. “In the rest of the city that fee on each lot sold is the money used to maintain the parks.” The city is currently overrun with parkland which it cannot afford to maintain. On the last city ballot voters approved a measure for the city to sell a total of nineteen current parks which it cannot afford to maintain. However, since the parkland on The Island was set aside during the annexation of The Island it cannot be sold without violating the tenets of the annexation agreement
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Billish Park Upgrade Still on Drawing Board
By Dale Rankin
the POA to try to keep from having to rebid the project,” she said.
Four years after voters approved $500,000 for improvements at Billish Park the project remains stuck in the planning stage.
Padre Isles Executive Director MayBeth Christensen said that organization, which is solely responsible for funding for the pond is considering committing another $31,000 to cover the estimated cost of that feature.
So far $108,000 has been spent on design of the park. The first set of design plans for the park were scrapped after it was determined that they failed to meet the engineering and materials testing requirements of the City of Corpus Christi’s Parks Master Plan, according to Interim Director, Parks & Recreation Stacie Talbert Anaya.
A group of Islanders who are working to raise $75,000 to pay for playground equipment at the new park have raised over $30,000 of the money. The city bond money will not pay for the equipment but the city will
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The Padre Isles Property Owners Association has committed $200,000 to pay for a pond in the new design of the park, which combined with the remaining $400,000 of city bond money means there is currently $600,000 available for the project, short of the sole $745,000 bid on the project, Anaya said. “We are working with
The Fourth of July is Here!
Fido Fears the Fourth Keep your pet safe this holiday
Fireworks, picnics and other Fourth of July traditions can be great fun for people; but all of the festivities can be frightening and even dangerous
If your pets are microchipped, make sure your information is correct or updated. Have photos of all of your cats, dogs and horses – just in case. If your pet has historically been anxious on this holiday, or if you have reason to expect potentially harmful reactions, consider behavioral therapy to desensitize your pet and reduce the risk of problems. Some pets may need medication. Consult your veterinarian for medicine.
Make sure the environment is safe and secure. If your neighbors set off fireworks at an Riley P. Dog shows his patriotic spirit while unexpected time, is your
cruisin the canals
for cats and dogs. Noisy fireworks can startle them and cause them to run away; holiday foods can be unhealthy; summer heat and travel can be dangerous; and potentially dangerous debris can end up lying on the ground where pets can play with it. Whether or not you’re planning your own Independence Day celebration, it’s important to take precautions to keep your pets safe both during and after the July 4th festivities. Preparing in advance: Make sure your pets – cats and dogs alike – have identification tags with up-to-date information. If you have horses, you might consider marking a safety (breakaway) halter with your contact information and leaving it on your horse during this stressful time. If your pets aren’t already microchipped talk with your veterinarian about microchipping. This simple procedure can greatly improve your chances of getting your pets back if they become lost.
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Island Fireworks Monday New festival at Billish Park
The fourth annual Island Blast Fireworks show will take to the skies at sundown the end of Whitecap Monday night, New this year is the Island Fest Community Carnival at Billish Park which will feature games and other activities for kids. The event is a fundraiser for playground equipment at Billish Park and will run from 2-6 p.m. The Fourth of July watercraft parade will begin midafternoon and pass by the judge’s station on Three Fathoms Bank. The fireworks show is readily viewable from most any vantage point on The Island with a westfacing view. Public viewing of the
show from the land side can be done from anywhere along Whitecap and portable toilets will be set up at the boat ramp at Cartagena and Whitecap. In years past spectators have also gathered at the boat ramp near Billish Park. From the water side boats can be no closer than 500 feet from the launch site and no boats will be allowed in the canal behind the water treatment plant once the show is underway. Game Wardens, Corpus Christi Fire Department, and Coast Guard Axillary officials will be on site to direct boaters to safe places to anchor. For a map of viewing locations see the map in this issue.
A little Island history
Kawakawa Indians, Mastodons, and Shipwrecks found on Padre Audubon Society, who appointed me warden; with Dr. Armstrong Price, who, until recently, headed the department of oceanography at Texas A&I College; and with Dr. H.N. Fisk, research geologist for the Humble Oil Company, and former professor of geology at Louisiana State University.
Editor’s note: This is the latest in a series of stories based on the memoirs of Islander Louis Rawalt who moved to The Island with his wife Viola in 1926 after being given six months to live by doctors. He lived here for more than 50 years. In the last story Rawalt and his friend Shorty survived the 1933 hurricane. By Louis Rawalt, The following years my time was divided between fishing and exploring the lower end of the island. When we were in town, I went to the libraries and lost myself in the fascinating history of Padre. The lore of Indians, pirates, and of the early settlers who had tried unsuccessfully to conquer the sands, had long held great interest for me. But the knowledge of Padre is accumulative. Before long, I was
delving into geology and ornithology. It was my pleasure in the last several years to work with the National
Viola has spent much of these last few years in town. About twenty years ago, we discovered a new species of bird circling the skies above our shack. It was a stork. Since it seemed reluctant to leave its bundle on the wild stretches of Padre, we started paying on a home in Corpus Christi. The bundle came,
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