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The Island Moon Published by Island Moon Publishing, LLC 15201 S. Padre Island Drive Ste. 250 Corpus Christi, TX. 78418 editor@islandmoon.com (361) 949-7700
Photo by Ronnie Narmour
The
Island Moon The Island Newspaper
Island Area News ● Events ● Entertainment
October 21, 2011
The Island Where Red Tide Gives Us The Blues
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com Feels like rain Riley P. Dog awoke from a sound sleep the other day and ran to the door in a yelping frenzy of the kind usually reserved for when he has a sticker in his foot. But he wasn’t limping and when he got outside he just stood there batting his eyes, running his tongue in and out, and barking.
Red Tide, Red Tide You are burning our eyes Our olfactories are inflamed The fish are floating Belly up on our beaches But at least we finally got some rain.
It was rain. It had been so long since he and his canine kind had seen water falling from the sky they thought it might be a thief in the night; or the morning as it were. We got a good gullywasher for about an hour for the first time in a long time. It was just enough to revive the grass so it could crowd out the bumper crop of sand burrs that have ruled our sandbar of late and knock the salt off our power lines to keep the power outages at bay. A little rain and the beautiful October weather on our Island. We ask you friends, what could be more better?
Man what a fortnight. There’s good news and not so good news aplenty but we try to see the glass half full. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. The Red Tide is back. Our fisherpersons started reporting its presence about three weeks ago in the area from the Mansfield Cut up to Little Shell. But it didn’t take long for the southeast wind to blow it up our way and now it is spreading making itself felt by the allergenic and nonallergenic alike. You know the bleary-eyed, nose runny, can’t seem to get enough sleep feeling that seems to last all day. The last time we had the Red Tide a couple of years ago it got into the water in our canals and lasted until the first good cold spell in December. The dead fish washing up on our beaches are the testimony to its power. That last time we had Red Tide it was said to be the cause of the deaths of coyotes who ate the bountiful supply of dead fish – sort of like Eve eating the apple – so if you take your dog friends to the beach make sure to keep them away from the temptation to sample the Red Tide Fish Supply. Moon Monkey Jay who knows about such things says the cause is some red dust that originates in Africa and finds its way aloft and onto our shores and when it mixes with some pollywogs in our water creates Red Tide (that’s the technical explanation). For a less technical explanation see Jay’s column in this issue. All we know for sure is that there is indeed a fungus among us.
Island burning We had a scary brush fire over the weekend that nearly got some buildings. It started along a canal just west of SPID and spread like – well, a wildfire. The peculiar thing is that it followed a good rain just days before but our Island had been parched for so long it just soaked it up and the fire found some friendly conditions for the wind to move it around. One of the benefits of not having a lot of trees – especially pines – on our Island is that our grass fires are not polydimensional. There isn’t any fuel overhead for them to burn. If we can just get ahead of them before the wind takes over they can be stopped. So enjoy the great weather, don’t get the Red Tide Blues, and say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Traffic Count for Aquarius Extension Complete
Next Publication Date: 11/04/2011
City Council Approves $8.1 Million for Water Exchange Bridge Construction
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By Dale Rankin The Corpus Christi City Council has approved $8.1 million for the design and construction of the Park Road 22 Water Exchange Bridge.
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NOTE: TRAFFIC COUNTS REPRESENT THE AVERAGE DAILY TRAFFIC (ADT). CITY OF CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS
The initial traffic count by the city as part of the Aquarius Extension project has been completed. These figures show the number of vehicles per day that pass each designated portion of the street. As of this writing the legal wrangling aimed at delaying the project by an Aquarius resident, and a counter measure from the City Attorney’s office, aimed at asking a judge to order that the project be allowed to move forward immediately, is ongoing. The project to complete the portion of Aquarius from Dasmarinas on the south to Commodores on the north was approved by voters in 2008 but the suit claims the plans changed after the vote and what voters approved is not what is being built. The disagreement revolves around whether the new street is too wide and will cause congestion at the point where it joins the existing Aquarius. The city’s projections are that the street will be finished by the early fall of next year if construction is begun by the end of 2011. SUBJECT: TRAFFIC COUNTS PADRE ISLAND
money from the grant could also be used to raise the SPID roadway from Commodores south to Whitecap to prevent flooding during high tides and aid in evacuation of the The Island during tidal surges
Proposed Roadway elevation
Red Tide Has Arrived
Water Level
In its October 11th meeting the council voted 8-0 in favor of the project with District 3 Councilwoman Pricilla Leal abstaining. The vote means the project will now move to the Texas Department of Transportation for design and engineering work and the project will come back to the city for final approval before actual construction will begin. That process could take as long as a year. The city staff is also applying for a $12.5 million grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Infrastructures Investments Program. Specifically, the grant would be a Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant. City Engineers have told the council the application for the grant must be in by the end of October and an answer is expected by the end of February. They also said if approved,
Island’s Council Member Running for Mayor
Dog-Gone Days Music Festival Features Max Stalling
The height of the Doggie Social Season is almost upon us and this year will be combined for the first time with the biggest musical event of the year on North Padre. The 6th Annual Dog-Gone Days Music Festival and Dog & Owner Costume Contest is set for Saturday, October 29the at the Animal Hospital of Padre Island, located at 14802 Compass Dogs Continued on A 2
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It started on PINS but now the Red Tide has found its way to the shore of Padre and Mustang Islands. Dead fish began turning up on our shores last week and they continue to come in. Two years ago when the last Red Tide event hit is stuck around until almost New Year. For more on what causes it see Jay Gardner’s column in this issue.
The House That Troy Built
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Saturday, October 29
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City staff applying for $12.5 million federal grant that could also raise SPID from Commodores to Whitecap
The Island’s City Council member is running for Mayor. District 4 Council Member Chris Adler has told the Moon she will run for Mayor in the next round of city elections scheduled for November of 2013. Adler was first elected in 2009 and is now midway through her second two-year term in the District 4 seat. She is the first announced candidate for the seat. The 2013 election will be the first round of city elections held in November in conjunction with Gubernatorial and Presidential elections. City elections have traditionally been held in the spring.
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caused by hurricanes. The bridge, as currently designed will provide a fortyfoot channel for water to flow from Packery Channel through Lake Padre and into the Island canal system under SPID at a point near the site where the 11th hole on Padre Isles Country Club now exists. It would also include paths on each side for pedestrians and golf carts to pass under the roadway. Because of the current elevation of the roadway the bridge would raise the road less than three feet in order to provide the twelve feet of clearance from sea level to the bottom of the bridge. The bridge project was originally conceived in early 2004 as strictly a water exchange project with underground conduits to allow for passage of water. However, as engineers got into the design of the Bridge Continued on A 3
Casinos and Cruise Industry Can Happen Here in Next Five Years
Home on Almeria drawing attention from the city and POA By Dale Rankin There are two things that can be said with certainty about the additions part-time Islander
in order to have a life,” he says. Along the way he has drawn the attention of neighbors who have complained to the city
Troy Arrington has made to his property on Almeria. First, they are ambitious, and second, some neighbors don’t like them. Arrington bought his house and the lot across the street at the Almeria elbow just off Encantada about a year ago. Since then he has added an ambitious dock and deck to the back of the house and covered the vacant lot with gravel where he parks vehicles connected with his fishing charter business Hammerhead Adventures. He has two trailers that will each sleep six people, trucks to pull
and to the Island POA about everything from his trucks being parked on the street to the height of the fence around his lot, to his stringing electrical cords across the street while his crews are working. He points out that while he has received several warnings from the POA and the city, he has yet to receive any fines. “They tell me what I have to do and I do it,” he says. He has built a deck on the water side of his house that is designed to withstand the mightiest of hurricanes. His fence has 6x6
them on the soft sands of PINS, and a fourth trailer with a deck about ten feet off the ground with a handrail where he can sit to fish. He says one of the reasons he founded Hammerhead adventures was to provide free fishing trips to wounded soldiers under the Float A Soldier program. Arrington was badly injured when he fell though a skylight while working on his construction job and fell 30 feet, suffering seven concussions and leaving him with difficulty walking and causing him to be hypersensitive to heat. Originally from Dallas, where he still has a home, he says he has spent $2 million on constructing his Island home to allow him to get around on his property with as little difficulty as possible. “I had to spend a lot of money
posts every four feet with facing on both sides. His deck has 8x8 posts every four feet with 2x12s sunk vertically all around to stop erosion. His backyard landscape and deck contains 1000 bags of concrete – 3500 cubic feet - that extends four feet below the surface. The deck surface is constructed of planks of pressed treated pine each held in place by four brass screws at each underlying brace. It is all held down by hurricane straps. The entire backyard structure is free standing. It is separated from the house by a few inches of daylight. “Even if the house blew down the deck would still be here,” he says Inspectors first told him he would have to tear the back of the deck off because it was a room. However, it is open at the bottom and he now says he has been told he can leave it as is.
State Rep. Todd Hunter speaks to Island business owners By Dale Rankin A cruise industry and casino gaming could become realities in the Coastal Bend in “three to four years,” according to a State of the Island style speech by State Representative Todd Hunter, (R – District 32) ) at the October luncheon for the Padre Island Business Association. Hunter said it is time for the state of Texas to take a look at The Island for development and in the next year and a half the area will have frequent inquiries from around the country about doing business here. “I don’t think The Island gets enough representation across the board,” he said. “The two Island voting precincts have the highest voter turnout in Nueces County.” Hunter is chair of the House Calendars Committee which must schedule bills before they can go to the House floor for a vote. That means that Hunter will be at the Nexus of fights expected in the 2013 Legislature over windstorm insurance, cruise ships for the area, and a probable gambling bill. In the last session a windstorm bill that would have increased rates along the Coastal Bend Casinos Continued on A 7
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