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Island Moon The Island Newspaper
Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
September 9, 2011
Photo by Patrick Lewis
The Island where Parkinson’s is Paddled
Around The Island
The boats at the tournament were showing a lot of flags as they lined up at Roberts Point for the weight in. It was impressive to see upwards of $15 million dollars of floating fun line up to back in. It was a reminder that we get to live in a really special place. On the rocks
Schlitterbahn, Packery Improvements, and What’s In Your Water? By Dale Rankin We’ll start this time by answering the most commonly asked question on The Island these days; is Schlitterbahn coming to The Island? We now have a way to get a good handle on the answer. The city staff told the Island Strategic Action Committee at it last meeting they plan to brief the council on the status of the proposed water exchange bridge connecting Lake Padre with the Island canal system during the Council’s meeting on Tuesday, September 20. The discussion was originally set for the September 13 meeting but was pushed back by one week.
takes about 15 minutes and is followed by executive session which usually runs no more than one hour. While we don’t have a firm time yet it is safe to say that anyone arriving by 1:00 p.m. should be on time to hear the discussion. We will post the exact time on our Facebook page once it is available and any other changes as soon as they become available so Islanders can attend. Backers of the bridge have requested that Islanders who support the project turn out in numbers for this meeting to show their support. Once the official council schedule for that meeting is posted we will put it on our Facebook page at theislandmoonnewspaper. Island Tax Increment Financing Zone
The weird weather patterns were spinoffs from Tropical Storm Lee that broke the usual pattern of southeast wind. It pushed water way up on our beaches over the early part of Labor Day Weekend but things were pretty much back to normal by Saturday afternoon. It did cut into the amount of usable beach in the SoPac area after city crews created a high bank by piling much sand there. The weather on Labor Day Monday though was really odd. It was really strange to come back OTB and see a haze of smoke hanging over our Island. Normally brush fires inland produce no more than spectacular sunsets as the smoke is blown landward by the prevailing onshore breeze but this time large brush fires as far inland as Bastrop put smoke in Island nostrils causing much dryness leading to the consumption of holiday beverages. Brush fires this season have burned a hole in Texas literally the size of the state of Connecticut and in the last few months six of the ten largest brush fires in our state’s history have occurred. The fire that blew smoke over The Island took out more than six hundred homes. It’s dry out there folks. Then we awoke the next morning to what passes for cool temperatures in these parts. It was a welcome change to the sweltering temps we have had for several weeks but with the storms, heat, fires, and smoke it makes us wonder if an earthquake is next.
It hasn’t been just offshore that fishing has been good. When it doesn’t rain inland the water flow from our rivers drops and our water gets nice and blue. The blue water line has moved close enough to shore of late that fisherpersons have been able to get tarpon and kingfish to chase bait all the way into the jetties at both the Packery and in Port Aransas. What recession? If there is indeed a recession going on someone forgot to tell Port Aransas. Sales tax numbers for Port Aranas in June were up a healthy 49% over June of last year, and last year was no slouch as it recorded record numbers as well. The reason for the increase is up for grabs but common opinions include new money coming to town from the Eagle Ford oil play which cuts a wide swath through the Heart of Texas from Laredo all the way to East Texas. There is a rush to poke holes in the ground up there that the cost of drilling a single well is running in the $10 million range. All that money has to go somewhere and we’re the nearest Island. Then of course there is the simple fact that Texas gained $5 million people in the last census. That means a lot of newcomers to our state and sooner or later they all find their way to The Island. There is also the fact that due to the trouble going on at the border many visitors are deciding to come to North Padre rather the South. Whatever the reason we are lucky that we have not been hit as hard economically as some other parts of the country. Whatafire
Offshore fishing One effect of the strange weather has been flat water in the Gulf. For the first time in quite a while small boats have been able to head out Packery Channel and fish the rigs. Fisherpersons who have been out there say it is the best it has been in a long time. We have more about that in this issue. We did make it out to the Texas Women’s Angler Tournament in Port Aransas and the array of boats was quite impressive. It was very Texas with most of the boats we saw belonging to oil people, ranchers, or country music singers; well, actually only one to a country music singer, George Strait whose wife fished in the tournament while Mr. Straight did what all good country music singers do while their wife fishes, he drank beer at the Back Porch. He signed a few autographs mostly for tourists since most Port Aransasians respect the fact that celebrity types need a day off too.
We had one of those Only On The Island events on Labor Day when a sailboat caused a power outage over around Whataburger. The boat was heading down SPID on a trailer when its mast hit a lowhanging power line and blew out power along the roadway. It knocked off power to among other places, Whataburger which was shut down for a few hours. A live wire caused a small brush fire by the road. But as far as we know there were no Whatainjuries. A similar incident happened in Port A after the fishing tournament when a boat with a tuna tower smacked into the light at Cotter and Alister. How about some
street signs that say “Boat Drivers Watch Out for Overhead Lines.” Say Hello if you see us Around The Island.
The proposed bridge is key to the coming of the Schlitterbahn Water Resort and according to city staff before the council will approve the money for ti they will want a Memorandum of Understanding between the City and the developers of the park. That MOU is still under discussion. So before the council will move on the bridge they will want to know the status of the talks between the local developers of the water park and other planned improvements and officials from Schlitterbahn. They will get their chance to find out at the September 20 meeting. For that bridge to make sense a new canal must be dug to connect the Gypsy canal that currently ends at a spot behind the JB German Bakery to the new bridge. The developer of that project and the Schlitterbahn project, Paul Schexnailder, has said he will “bring the water to the bridge,” that is to say if the city will build the bridge he will get the canal there and on to Lake Padre on the other side. The last thing the council wants to do is build a Bridge to Nowhere and that is where the MOU comes into play. We have published in the last two issues of the Moon the latest drawings for the entire development which, besides Schlitterbahn also includes a 3000foot riverwalk type development with retail and resort space on its banks. The riverwalk would connect to the SPID bridge and on into Lake Padre. We currently do not have the latest set of drawings because, as is to be expected at this stage, they are changing almost daily. We will pass them along as soon as we can but the ones we have published are available on our Facebook page theislandmoonnewspaper. Mr. Schexnailder has said during public presentations about the project that he plans to offer land adjacent to SPID at its intersection with the bridge to the city for them to develop as they see fit, either as a public space or as more retail. If the city chooses to do that they would then be responsible for finishing out the bulkheading along that section of the newly dug channel. The cost of that bulkheading has been estimated at $3 million. If the city chooses not to take that offer then Mr. Schexnailder would finish out that section of the channel himself and retain control of the adjacent land along the banks of the canal. According to that plan the decision on that section of the channel would rest solely with the city council.
Year 15, Issue 396
Inside the Moon
Real Estate Roundup
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com It seems the Weather Gods have gone a little crazy of late on our Island. The wind has been swinging from the north to the southeast and back again. It made for some nice waves for our surfer friends over the weekend. It also cooled things off just a bit for the first time in a long time.
Next Publication Date: 09/23/2011
At the same ISAC meeting city staff also said they will make a presentation to the council in their September 13 meeting about the $1.7 million in dredging of Packery Channel set to begin in October. A formal vote is then scheduled for the following council meeting if approved on the 13th. The project will remove 250,000 cubic yards of drift sand left in the channel after Hurricane Ike and place it on the south end of Ellis Beach along the seawall between Whitecap on the south and about halfway up the seawall to the north. That project is expected to be done completed by March at the latest.
NoPac Beach Cleanup A2
Paddle for Parkinsons Raises $12,000 A3
Texas Women Anglers Tournament A 15
Packery improvements Phase II of the improvements around Packery Channel is now 95 percent done at a cost of $2.7 million - about $360,000 over budget. A ribbon cutting is to be held sometime in late September. Those projects include the restrooms along the seawall and the nearly completed walkway and cabanas on the north side of the channel. The next phase of Packery improvements are for restrooms on both sides of the channel near the jetties but FEMA rules say those buildings, if they are permanent structures must be about ten feet off the ground which would drive up costs. As an alternative the city is looking at building the restrooms, complete with showers, on movable platforms that could be moved away during hurricanes. The budget for those projects is currently $2 million and they are now scheduled to begin before the end of 2011. Those projects along with other TIF items are set to go before the council at its September 13 meeting.
Tagging Sharks on PINS B1
Aquarius extension The city staff says bids are in for the building of the Aquarius extension that would connect the current Aquarius on the Whitecap side to Commodors across the street from the fire station. There were five bids which were opened in August and the low bid was $1.1 million A group of residents on Aquarius is asking the city to approve safety measures along the street before the new section actually opens. They are asking for the speed limit to be dropped from 35 mph to 30, stop signs, and speed humps. Nothing so far has been scheduled for putting the project before city council for final approval and before the item goes to the council the city said they will check to see if there is a previous traffic study for that area. Once begun city engineers say the project should take about 150 days to complete. The current projected completion date is mid to late 2012. The ISAC is to discuss the project in its next meeting on Tuesday, October 4, at the Padre Isles Country Club. And then there’s the water The ISAC has also taken up the cause of figuring out what can be done to improve The Island’s drinking water. It is an ongoing problem and seems to be getting worse as the surface water reservoirs the city relies on are drawn down by the drought. ISAC asked for samples from around The Island recently and the results were not very good. Currently both North Padre and Port Aransas rely almost entirely on a single 24-inch line that runs across the Laguna Madre just west of the JFK causeway. The city staff says that in case of the failure of that line it could be repaired by divers in no longer than 24 hours.
What we can say at this stage is that all indications are that the private negotiations between Mr. Schexnailder and Schlitterbahn officials seem to be progressing and are ongoing, but it is a very complicated project and takes time. The September 20 council meeting should answer some questions.
They are also looking at building a 20-inch line next to the existing one which has been in place since the early 1970s.
Council meetings start at 12:00 and if the usual form is followed the consent agenda will come first which usually
Contact Maybeth at the POA at the number and e-mail listed in her column in this issue.
One of the main problems (main get it?) is that there is a critical lack of data on how the quality of water differs on different parts of The Island. To address that ISAC and POA are asking that residents from all over The Island contact the POA either by phone or e-mail and report on their water quality - even if there is no problem on your block they need to know so an Island-wide assessment can be done.
Now is the time for all good Islanders to come to the aid of their water!