Inside the Moon
2015 in Pictures A5
Fishing A7
Alamo Master Plan A13
The
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
October 15, 2015
What a strange week it’s been around our little sandbar. On Saturday a dispute between KIII and Dish meant that the Texas/Oklahoma game was blacked out, which given that the Longhorns were a 14 point underdog wasn’t that much of a disappointment, except that at halftime they were actually winning which sent many of us searching for someplace with cable. Then along about the end of the third quarter, where the beloved Horns usually find a way to shoot themselves in the foot many of us headed for the beach to only be an earwitness to the crash and burn that was sure to follow. Out on the beach a nice lady was flagging down traffic for a jump start on a dead battery. “We were listening to the Longhorn game and when it got to the part where they always collapse and the radio quit,” she said. “How much did we lose by?” “No, we won, it was strange.” “Something must have gone horribly wrong,” she said. “How can that happen!?”
Lobsters in Island canals! If that wasn’t strange enough, on Sunday we got a report from Island angler James Thompson that he caught this Florida lobster, technically a Caribbean Spiny Lobster, in the canal near the Padre Island Yacht Club.
By Dale Rankin
FREE
What About the Bridge?
As we reported in the last issue the Army Corps of Engineers has signed off on the permit for development of the land around Lake Padre and the construction of the Water Exchange Bridge which would connect Lake Padre and the Island canal system through Packery Channel to the open Gulf of Mexico. The final step in the permitting process, which has been ongoing for about two years, is approval by Texas Commission for Environmental Quality which has until Wednesday, October 21, to approve the plan. TCEQ has been involved in the planning leading up the approval by the Corps and approval is expected.
There’s a New Constable in Town!
Once that is done it clears the way for $552 million in development some of which began with the Schlitterbahn waterpark and digging of new adjacent canals in 2013. Developer Paul Schexnailder, who is the general partner of Gulf Shores Joint Ventures which is the driving force behind the development, told the Island Moon that $100 million in new residential development around Lake Padre and on the Gulf Beach near the eastern terminus of Whitecap is ready to begin once the final step of the permit is in place. The process of permitting, designing, and funding for the Water Exchange Bridge is less certain with a portion of the remaining $442 million in development hanging in the balance. City staff told the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) in early October that a public hearing on the design for the bridge is scheduled for January. Although SPID/Park Road 22 is a state roadway the environmental impact permitting process is driven by the city’s schedule and according to city staff the design is “90 percent complete” and was awaiting the Corps of Engineers permit. A request for an update on the project to the City Manager’s office was not provided by our Wednesday deadline but an update on the project is expected to go before the Corpus Christi City Council in the next few weeks.
After decades of neglect from law enforcement officers from the office of Precinct 4 Nueces County Constable Bobby Sherwood wasted no time showing a presence on the six miles of Gulf beach in Kleberg County last weekend.
Schlitterbahn Site
By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com
An analysis
Free
Bridge Site
Around The Island
Began in 1993 The permit, if approved by TCEQ as expected, is the final step in a long and arduous road to development of the land acquired by Gulf Shores in 1993, a total of about 1400 acres which includes the property around Schlitterbahn, Lake Padre which begins along the Michael J. Ellis Seawall and extends along the beach south of Whitecap to the Nueces County Park, and the Cape Summer area – the twenty-six undeveloped canals and fingertips at the end of Sea Pines. Schexnailder and Gulf Shores’ partners were instrumental in the approval by voters in 2000 of
Above are the latest drawings for the Island canal system when completed, subject to change of course. Below: The current design plans for the Park Road 22/SPID Water Exchange Bridge call for a 42-foot wide waterway dredged to eight feet deep with 14-feet of clearance from the waterline to the bottom of the bridge, and two adjacent pedestrian/cart paths. Roadway 14 ft.
Anyone who has been to Florida during the brief lobster season there knows how popular these things are as table fare but this is the first time we have heard of them in our waters. All we can say is that it was a brave man who ate the first one because tasty as they are, pretty they ain’t.
Rumble delayed but not rumble denied The plan by the Texas Department of Transportation to begin installing rumble strips on State Highway 361 between Packery Channel and Port Aransas that was scheduled for this week hit a snag due to a machinery problem but will commence next week. The work will begin Monday at Packery and move north with the road down to one lane during the daylight hours. Give yourself a little extra time if you are traveling the Island Road.
Kleberg chaos It was a bad week for the Naked Men of Kleberg. It looks like the days of the reverse Lobster Tan have come to an end for them as Constables began patrolling the six miles of beach there last weekend and didn’t waste any
Around continued on A3
Live Music A18
Weekly
Lake Padre
Issue 600
Seashore Volleyball A14
Pedestrian / Cart path
30 ft.
Pedestrian / Cart path
30 ft.
42 ft. Water Depth 8 ft.
Taste of The Island Wednesday! On Wednesday, October 21, a storm of hungry Islanders will descend on Port Royal Resort for the 28th Taste of The Island. The event, sponsored by the Padre Island Business Association, will feature offerings from 25 restaurants from Port Aransas, Padre Island and Flour Bluff. This year will mark the 28th appearance by Island Italian Restaurant the only Island establishment to participate in each year of the event’s existence. Doors open at 6:30 and the event ends at 9:30 with an auction of donated items. Parking will be at a premium but valet parking is available. Tickets are $30 in advance and $45 at the door. Silent auction items can still be donated.
the Packery Channel project, after a failed first vote two years earlier, but their original plans for development along the seawall were thrown into turmoil after citywide voters in 2006 turned down a plan to close 7200 linear feet of beach to traffic from the South Packery Jetty to the county park putting an end to a potential
Only two days after Nueces County Coastal Parks Board Chairman Charlie Zahn told the Padre Island Business Association Luncheon that an interlocal agreement had been signed between Kleberg County and Nueces County for the constable’s office to patrol the area officers were on the scene checking out the remnants of the homeless community which sprung up on the unpatrolled beach over the summer. Officers on Saturday were taking an inventory of the leavings of the “residents” who were told to leave several weeks ago and by Monday morning the trailers, campers, tents, and trash left behind were gone.
Kleberg continued on A4
Kleberg continued on A4
A Tale of Two Doggies In town for a day and already in Dog Jail but Islanders to the rescue!
It was four o’clock in the morning Island time and there was a howling in the air. Something was amiss in the canal near Hawksnest and Three Fathoms Bank.
Islanders Jaq’d Bones and Josh Sandbach went to investigate and found a Yellow Labrador Retriever and a Hound Dog howling for their lives. Like Island dogs for decades they had found their way into the canal only to discover they could not find a way out. It is a tragic end for many an Island dog and a constant danger.
Dogs continued on A4
A little Island history
The Beginning of Island Development
Editor’s note: This the latest in a series of old photos and documents we have collected about the Island. If you have any old Island items you think our readers would be interested in please send them to us editor@islandmoon. com or post them on our Facebook page theislandmoonnewspaper.
Left: The view looking east down Whitecap in 1984. Above: The Padre Island Country Club in the early 1970s
History continued on A5