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361-949-7700 editor@islandmoon.com The Island Newspaper since 1996 Facebook : The Island Moon Newspaper
February 13, 2014
Photo by Miles Merwin Next Publication Date: 2/20/2014 Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper
The Only Island In Texas With More Superbowl Quarterbacks Than Grocery Stores
Island Seawall at 50
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
We’re in the Yo-Yo Season on our Island. One minute the temperature is up and the next it’s down. Carry a coat in your car and dig around in your closet and see if you can find some long pants. We’ve had all kinds of stores come and go on The Island over the years but we’ve never had a Long Pants Store. Maybe it’s time
Vote early and vote often The election season is coming up with Early Voting for the primaries starting next Tuesday, February 18. The three voting precincts on North Padre and in Port Aransas traditionally have the highest turnout of any in the county and this time looks to be no different. We encourage anyone who has not registered to do so. There are currently 6200 registered voters on North Padre Island and a good turnout this time could be decisive in several of the races. The next time someone says that “They” or “Somebody” ought to do something about (insert cause or gripe here) tell them “They” and “Somebody” are: they are voting. Everybody else is just bellyaching.
New Roads We got a lot of reaction from the story in last week’s edition about road improvements announced by State Representative Todd Hunter. The one issue that has The Islands – both North Padre and Port Aransas – holding their collective breath is traffic. In the past two years we have seen a marked increase in the number of people on our beaches and roadways during the peak season and we all know it is not going to slow down anytime soon. It is a quality of life issue that has the ability to trump everything else. Just ask the people in Austin and San Antonio how traffic problems can impact everyday life. Fortunately for us it is a seasonal problem at least for now, and the move by Representative Hunter is an early step in the right direction to try and get ahead of the problem.
Barefoot Mardi Gras Don’t forget that Barefoot Mardi Gras is just around the corner with the beach parade and party on Saturday, March 1 and then the Port Aransas street parade on Fat Tuesday, March 4. We’ll see you at both. In the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Year 17, Issue 513
The Man Who is Trying to Save the Seawall By Dale Rankin
Bob Currie bought his condominium at El Constante on the north end of the Michael J. Ellis Seawall in 1997. Back then the beach there was barely fifty feet wide and the seawall was free of sand, but now seventeen years later the beach is as wide as the Mississippi River in his native Minnesota and Mother Nature is doing her best to reclaim the 3906 feet of the concrete seawall as part of her natural terrain.
Seawall in 1980 Photo by Lyla Strite. Bob Currie
Over the years the seawall has been at the center of many controversies and questions and now after years of silence Currie and a group of property owners along the seawall are asking some basic questions of their own like: Who is responsible for cleaning the 25-foot wide strip of beach at the base of the seawall? Who is responsible for keeping dunes from forming on the beach in front of the seawall which are not supposed to be there? Why are vehicles being allowed to drive within twenty five feet of the water’s edge in violation of a state law? And finally, why are there still cars driving on the beach eighteen years after the Corpus Christi Seawall at 50 continued on A4
Courting the Island vote
Taxes, Taxes, Taxes!
By Dale Rankin The three candidates for Nueces County Commissioner Precinct 4 came to The Island Monday and played to a full house, eight days before the polls open for early voting. To sum up the main topic of the night in three words: Taxes, taxes, taxes. The event was sponsored by the Island United Political Action Committee and over the course of an hour each candidate had the chance to address the crowd in an opening statement and in response to written questions from the audience. The exchange between the three candidates, all Republicans running in the primary against an empty Democrat slate, was cordial. Unlike an exchange which took place at a forum earlier in the day when one candidate likened following remarks by his opponent to “the guy with a shovel following along behind the elephants in a circus.”
A little Island history
The Story of the Seawall
By Dale Rankin She was built without permits in the early 1960s and it took the state a decade to figure that out and when they did they tried to get her torn down. By that time buildings had already sprung up behind its protective wall and property owners fought back. The Michael J. Ellis Seawall is 4216 feet long and is the Island’s first defense against hurricanes but, no matter, rules are rules and according to the state the seawall had to go. The fight continued until, finally, in 1974 a district court judge affirmed the seawall’s right to stay put. That was the good news. The bad news was the wording in the judge’s ruling was ambiguous and the state’s property line ran right through the lobbies of the buildings located there. As a result financing for developments was almost impossible to get since a clear title was unobtainable. Property values plunged and development came to a halt.
The seawall in the early days The seawall survived Hurricane Beulah in 1967 and Hurricane Celia in 1970. But the threat of Beulah spurred property owners along the seawall to form the Seawall Maintenance Agreement which established a fund for seawall upkeep. Seawall History continued on A7
$3 Million in State Funds for Port Aransas Airport in Jeopardy City could have to refund $990,000 already spent
Taxes continued on A6
Schlitterbahn Site from the Air on Wednesday February 12
By Dale Rankin A 5-2 vote by the Port Aransas City Council to deny a request by the owner of Skydive South Texas to construct a new 5500 square foot hanger at Mustang Beach Airport has drawn the scrutiny of the Texas Department of Transportation which has committed $3 million in improvements for the facility.
More on A2
“I am currently reviewing the minutes of the Port Aransas City Council meeting when they took the vote,” said William Gunn, inspector with the Aviation Division of TxDot which oversees 276 airports around the state. He said
about 80% of those airports get both state and federal funds, however, due to the Mustang Beach’s proximity to the Rockport Airport it is only eligible for state funds, of which it has already spent $994,209. . “If the council vote violates the contract the state has with the City of Port Aransas for the development of a General Aviation Airport we will freeze the $3 million we have committed and look at recovering the money we have already spent. We don’t fund private airports.” Airport continued on A7