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January 9, 2014
Next Publication Date: 1/16/2014
The Island where our cold fronts come in bunches
Around The Island
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
The new year came roaring in like a lion with enough cool weather to make the most thick-blooded Winter Texan shiver. As for we Islanders we just hoard up on that five dollar Stripes firewood and wait it out.
Winter Texans Our Winter Texans have arrived on The Island. You can tell by the RVs towing cars and the packed parking lot outside Island Italian on Sunday nights. We did have our second Winter Texan Turnaround this week when a call came into the Word Factory asking about a business that we had never heard of. “Is that on North Padre or South Padre,” we asked. “What’s North Padre?” “That’s where you are.” “But it says South Padre Island Drive…” Then we went through the ritual of explaining that to get to South Padre Island from North Padre Island you have to go north on South Padre Island Drive. “Well, that’s just dumb,” she said. “Yes, ma’am. We get that a lot” So Winter Texans, welcome to North Padre Island. We have included some things for you to do in this issue and if you find some things you think other Winter Texans might enjoy let us know and we’ll get the word out. Frostbite Betty has elected to ride the winter out in Minnesota this year so we’ll need your help.
New website We are in the process of finishing our Island Moon website. Look for it to launch in the next few weeks. It will include a visitors section for information on things to do. In the meantime check theislandmoonnewspaper Facebook page.
Christmas trees This Saturday, January 11, between 9-3, you can drop off your Christmas tree at the POA office. You might want to get there early because there will likely be a treemendous line. We apologize for that. Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Cold Weather Brings Stunning Results for Sea Turtles By Donna J. Shaver, Ph.D.
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Update on Island Projects
50 Million in New Island Projects
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By Dale Rankin
Apartments, condos, hotels
Agreements are pending on new Island projects that will add more than $50 million to the Island tax base, according to information presented to the Island Strategic Action Committee this week. Developer Paul Schexnailder told the group Monday night that a contract is pending on a 200-unit, $25 million apartment complex on the east side of SPID on Lake Padre, as well as a 120 unit, $25 million condo development behind the Island House condominiums on the south end of the seawall. He also said a 150-room hotel is in development for the south end of the Schlitterbahn site, as well as a 150-room hotel adjacent to the building at the entrance to the waterpark (the former Padre Isles Country Club headquarters). He said another hotel is “being looked at” for the area adjacent to Lake Padre and Whitecap where a marina is planned.
Schlitterbahn update Schexnailder also told the group that plans for the former Country Club building now includes ten overnight-stay “treehouse” suites, a 270-foot by 28-foot outdoor patio, a second-flour exterior deck, two event rooms, a membership area on the fourth floor, and a large pool which can be drained and used as an amphitheater for special events with the water stored in on-site tanks and reused. When finished, the building will be more than 309,000 square-feet of contiguous space. He said work on the building is expected to be completed by March. Concrete work for the rides at the site is expected to take about one hundred days to complete and the park is on schedule to open by June 1, 2014. He also said the “Stonehenge” group of rocks now located in the lot at the corner of Compass and Commodores will be used as part of the landscaping for the parking lot that will be located there.
ATVs Also in it’s Monday meeting ISAC Chairwoman Gabi Hilpold appointed a five-member committee to make a recommendation to the group about what to recommend to the city council for the regulation and/or operation of All Terrain Projects continued on A6
From Boys to Men
Island Leadership Engages Young Cub Scouts
By Brent Rourk
Welcome Winter Texans!
This is Why You're Here
Chief, Division of Sea Turtle Science and Recovery, National Park Service, Padre Island National Seashore. Yesterday, the coldest air temperatures of the winter were recorded on the Texas coast, and more cold stunned turtles were found than during any other day this winter. We are still reconciling records, but currently estimate that 101 cold stunned turtles were found yesterday. Nearly all were located alive, in the Upper Laguna Madre. To date, an estimated 511 cold stunned turtles have been documented in Texas since this event began on November 25. All were green turtles except for one hawksbill and one loggerhead. Fortunately, 414 of the 511 were found alive and transported to rehabilitation. Many of Turtles continued on A3
Pack 949 Cub Scouts recently visited the local fire station on North Padre Island They go from boys to men so quickly. One moment rocking in your arms, to crawling to walking to the terrible twos. Then before you know it, they begin school, socialize with neighbors and find more people to influence and mold them besides you, their parents. Then the boys enter middle school (and find girls) and after a few awkward years they become even more independent as they enter high school, a platform for jumping into the real world. Who influences the young boys? Who besides parents mold young boys, train them, teach them, and prepare them for successful adulthood? Lots of people potentially hold that honor. Teachers, neighbors, extended family, coaches, and more all take a turn at interacting with young boys, molding them, offering them skills, truths, and tools for like. One of the those influences Scouts continued on A8
Winter Texan Round-up
Island Event Calendar Sex Please, We’re Sixty
A typical day in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota By Frostbite Betty frostbitebetty@gmail.com Welcome to another winter season on the sunny Gulf Coast and welcome to the 2014 edition of Frostbite Betty! In this column we will attempt to inform you on all things Winter Texan. Unfortunately, Frostbite Betty decided to stay up north this season… Bert, being a native Texan, had never had the experience of living in the far North during the winter and talked Betty into staying this year. And Betty, being the always accommodating sort that she is, went for it. Betty will be sending us updates from the frozen North all winter and the Island Moon staff will do their best to keep all you Winter Texans informed of all the great activities available around here (and there are many!). We want your feedback. Email Frostbite Betty continued on A11
The JELM night at the PACT theatre is January 11th at 7pm and we are having a wine and cheese reception at the theatre for our ticket holders to the play “Sex Please, We’re Sixty”. This reception is included with the $15 ticket price. You must purchase your tickets at the JELM and you can select your seats as well. In February, the JELM has the same deal for the play “Steel Magnolias” on Saturday, February 8th.
Bus Trip to Goliad Our first JELM trip of the year is the bus trip to Goliad on Saturday, January 11th leaving the JELM office at 8am. This trip costs $25 and your admission to the Shrines is included. Goliad has a wonderful market days in its picturesque town square. Vendors circle the gorgeous courthouse complete with a hangin’ tree in front. Several small restaurants and cafes line the square for a real Texas lunch. Roundup continued on A4
A little Island history
When the Iron Horse Came to the Wild Horse Desert
By Dale Rankin
A cold stunned turtle at the ARK with Amanda.
Year 17, Issue 507
At the turn of the twentieth century the area between Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley was still a wide open place. Little had changed in the half century since General Zachary Taylor marched his army through the area during the U.S.-Mexico War with the major exception being the founding of the King Ranch in 1853. By the end of the Civil War the ranch had grown to 146,000 acres and was home to thousands of head of cattle which were one thousand miles from the nearest railhead that would connect them to eastern markets. Soldiers retuning from the war found thousands of wild Texas Longhorn cattle
grazing for the taking on the South Texas plains and the cowboys rounded them up and pushed them up the trails to market.
The Great Die Up By the onset of the 1900s barbed wire had ended the days of free ranging and cattle drives. Getting cattle to market was still hard but Robert Kleberg, then the manager of the King Ranch, had a bold plan. Kleberg had come to the attention of the ranch’s founder Richard King as opposing council at a trial in Corpus Christi and became King’s attorney and eventually his son-in-law when he married King’s youngest daughter Alice Gertrudis King in 1886, the year after King’s death. He proved an able leader and hit liquid gold when he drilled in a successful artesian well on the ranch in 1899 at the end of a decade- long drought so bad it was known as “The Great Die Up.” Now with ample water and stock what the ranch needed was a way to move cattle to market. What the History continued on A7