Inside the Moon
Fishing A7
Sports A8
Schlitterparty A9
The
Issue 590
Island Moon
The voice of The Island since 1996
August 6, 2015
Around The Island By Dale Rankin editor@islandmoon.com We had a Blue Moon last week and it had everybody a little jumpy. In the most disturbing news of the week Jared the Subway Guy got de-Subwayed when an FBI report claimed he told his girlfriend who owns a Subway franchise to advertise herself as a prostitute on Craigslist then asked her to introduce him to her underage cousin. That’s really creepy. Closer to home longtime San Patricio County Commissioner James Price Junior was arrested for having county crews and machinery do work on his personal property. That’s been going on so long in Texas we didn’t even know it was illegal, we thought it just came with the job but apparently not.
Car safes and sunglass thieves It looks like we have some burglars working the north end of The Island. Two houses were broken into within a few hours of each other last Friday and thieves have been grabbing items out of cars all over the place, including vehicles in the parking lot at Schlitterbahn. We’ve been leaving our garage door up to try to get rid of some of the junk in there but the last time we checked it’s all still there. A local souvenir shop has now been hit four times this year by sunglass thieves who seem to know where the cops are. The cameras show them going right to the display case where the expensive sunglasses are kept and taking their sweet time before exiting each time a minute before police arrive. A few weeks ago police arrested a guy who went onto private property at the end of Sea Pines and when they looked in his car they found a safe under the floorboard. That’s a little weird.
Offshore fish Offshore fisherpersons say the rigs are holding large numbers of Amberjack and Red Snapper. This is the time of the year when the water is the clearest and our friend Diver Dave has been taking people out to dive the reef.
Voter registration There are more than 6000 registered voters on The Island and more than 9300 permanent residents. Voters in the three Island precincts, including Port Aransas, vote at the highest percent of any in the county. Over the past couple of years, at any given time, there have been between seventy and one hundred houses under construction and that means more residents and more voters. So to try to get them registered County Clerk Kara Sands is going to provide us with 2000 voter registration cards. You will be hearing more in the next few weeks about how to get registered and take part in the activities of the Island United Political Action Committee. As old Ben Franklin famously said, “If we don’t hang together we shall surely hang separately.”
House of the week There are a lot of beautiful houses on our Island and we are looking for some to feature as the Moon House of the Week. If you or someone you know has a particularly nice home please let us know so we can show it to others. We know you’re out there, so give us a call. The sewer pump station at Cruiser and Whitecap is in full summer bloom so when you drive by there roll up your windows and hold your nose. In the meantime say hello if you see us Around The Island.
Chichicastenango Guatemala A16
Live Music A18
Photo by Miles Merwin
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Island By the Numbers City Tax Rates Per $100,000 of Property Value
Island Station Draws Fire Big tax hike and redundant service cited
$550 City of Corpus Christi $280 Port Aransas $250 South Padre Island $30 Nueces County Emergency Services District #2 (current) $100 Nueces County Emergency Services District #2 (if tax hike approved)
Gross Hotel Revenue 2014 $185 million City of Corpus Christi $43 million Padre and Mustang Islands
By Dale Rankin
$38 million Downtown Corpus Christi $42 million SPID Corridor $65 million Port Aransas $150 million South Padre Island $155 million Galveston $250 million Port Aransas and Corpus Christi $10 million North Beach Corpus Christi * All areas of the city are not listed
Port Aransas Council Ups Fees on Golf Carts By Dale Rankin Due to an increasing number of golf carts on Port Aransas streets and the subsequent uptick in the number of tickets and accidents involving the carts, the Port Aransas City Council on Monday voted to increase the licensing fees on commercial carts from $50 to $100 per cart. The fees for personal carts will remain at $50, but more rules changes may be in store over the next few months. The attention to the carts on Port Aransas streets comes as city police have written 325 tickets for golf cart violations since this year. The fee increase will be used to fund a police officer position dedicated to enforcing golf cart regulations and a clerk to process violations. Port Aransas Police Chief Scott Burroughs told the council that during the first two years after the carts were made legal on Port Aransas streets his
Texas Sales Tax Holiday This Weekend August 7-9 Tthe annual sales tax holiday is scheduled for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 7 - 9. The law exempts most clothing, footwear, school supplies and backpacks priced under $100 from sales tax, which could save shoppers about $8 on every $100 they spend during the weekend. Lists of apparel and school supplies that may be purchased tax-free can be found on the Comptroller's website at TexasTaxHoliday.org. This year, shoppers will save an estimated $87 million in state and local sales taxes during the sales tax holiday, which has been an annual event since 1999.
Tax Holiday continued on A4
A Little Island History...
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New State Laws
Texas to New York: Give Us Back Our Gold!
When Legislators get together in Austin every other year the most of the bills they pass take effect on September 1 of that same year. Here is a look at some of the 1200 bill signed into law in the past session. This year much attention was paid to the border, human trafficking, and veterans struggling with the mental scars of war, and gold. Yes, gold.
Trucks from the Nueces County Emergency Services District #2 respond to Island brush fires A proposal to raise taxes on Island homes by more than 300% to pay for a new fire station on The Island drew fire from members of the Island Strategic Action Committee Tuesday night.
Services District #2, commonly referred to as the Flour Bluff Fire Department, currently collects a tax of 3 cents for each $100 of property value on homes on Padre Island and in Flour Bluff and is placing an item on the ballot for the November
The five-member Board of Directors of the Nueces County Emergency
Fire Station continued on A12
Update on Island Projects
Island Land Use Map, Traffic Light and Water Exchange Bridge
By Dale Rankin City planners on Tuesday revised an Island Land Use Map which would have severely restricted development along both sides of State Highway 361 as well as the land around currently undeveloped canals at the end of Sea Pines known as Cape Summer. City planners told the Island Strategic Action Committee (ISAC) on Tuesday that those areas, which were designated as Flood Plan Conservation and un-developable under the old map, will be changed to Medium Density Single-Family Residential. The new map also changes a parcel of land on the bay side of SH 361 just north of Mustang Island State Park and the land around Island in the Sun church to Planned Development. The city staff also told the ISAC that any zoning currently in place on The Island will remain as is under the new map. The previous map also called for the city-controlled land between Zahn Road and the north side of Packery
Channel to be Permanent Open Space, but under the new plan The Land Use Map is part of the Plan CC 2035 which draws a broad scope for development throughout the city for the next twenty years. The ISAC will draw up an Island Area Development Plan which will be included Plan CC and the Land Use Map will be part of that plan. The entire plan will be presented to the city’s Planning and Zoning Board where the public will have a chance to comment before going to the Corpus Christi City Council for final approval. The previous map drew fire from landowners up and down The Island, but primarily in two areas. One along the Gulf beach adjacent to SH 361, about eight miles of territory that is now mostly undeveloped, where development would have been restricted to residences on quarteracre lots; meaning no townhomes
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The Early Days
By Bobbie Kimbrell Editor’s note: Bobbie Kimbrell moved to Flour Bluff, where he still resides, in 1943 and was a commercial fisherman there until his retirement in the 1990s. The earliest known settlers of Padre Island were the Karankawa Indians who waded across the Laguna Madre from Flour Bluff to get there. What year? Who knows? But it was before Indians acquired horses from the Spanish explorers. The Indians main camp ground was at the highest point on North Padre Island where E.O. Leman put in the first motel ever on Padre Island that was across SPID from
A Texas gold bank This one has actually already taken effect. HB 483 created a Texas Bullion Depository—a fortified safe house for the state to stash its gold and other precious metals. No other state has such a facility, but then again they’re not Texas are they? And who can trust those New Yorkers to take care of Texas gold. Governor Greg Abbott says the facility will
New Laws continued on A12
The Island, July 1968 the Whataburger restaurant. Most of the Indian artifacts and arrowheads found on The Island were found in that location.
Bob Hall in its early days.
Most of those artifacts were found by Louis Rawalt year before Mr.
Rawalt put in the Coastways Baitstand next to the JFK Causeway. Mr. Rawalt, at that time was with the National Audubon Society that monitored sea birds up and down the Texas
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