Final Voyage of the Kinta S.
Issue 544
Free
FREE
The voice of The Island since 1996
The Island Moon
September 18, 2014 Around The Island By Dale Rankin
Time for The Island to decide
You got to beat that drum Lizzy!
All Island registered voters encouraged to attend
editor@islandmoon.com Over in Scotland voters are deciding whether to sever 300 years of unity with the United Kingdon. Party leaders in England are lining up to promise the Scots many good things if they will vote against independence… maybe there’s a lesson for Islanders in there somewhere. Meanwhile, Island dogs got a shock this weekend when water suddenly began falling from the sky. They didn’t know what it was. They just stood out there in the yard and batted their eyes. It was rain is what it was. Rain we say! The kind that would have made Bill Starbuck proud; or as it will be known for the next couple of weeks – skeeterjuice. When the rain comes in the mosquito population can’t be far behind, so get out the skeeter spray folks.
Legislative priorities In just over three months the Texas Legislature will kick off in Austin and the City of Corpus Christi has lined up its priorities for the session. In no particular order here are some of them. • $80 million to revamp the Port Aransas ferry system and build passing lanes on SH 361. • Revamp the Texas Insurance Windstorm Association to include more ratepayers instead of majority of industry people. Lobbyists for the four large insurance companies who write 57% of the windstorm policies in the state are spending up to $12 million in lobbying prior to the session to hold off an attempt by the fourteen coastal counties in Texas to open the windstorm underwriting process to smaller, more cost effective insurance companies. At the heart of the fight is whether to place keep the fourteen coastal counties in a separate risk pool or place them in a statewide pool. • City lobbyists are also pushing for law changes that would allow cities to access local sources of energy for desalinization plants. • They are also pushing for legislation that would allow cities to regulate windfarms within their boundaries.
Island Moon Newspaper ArtWalk returns After a hiatus the Island Moon Newspaper ArtWalk is returning on Saturday, October 25 at the Schlitterbahn Waterpark. Vendor booths will be on a first come/first served basis. To reserve a booth e-mail Jordan at jgreer@schlitterbahn.com
Island Political Action Committee Endorsement Meetings Are this Week
The election season is upon us and the Island United Political Action Committee is holding their endorsement night in the races for Mayor and City Council District 4 at the Holiday Inn, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 18; the following week the IUPAC will hold its meeting to endorse candidates in the At-Large races at 6 p.m. on Thursday, September 25, also at the Holiday Inn.
Election continued on A12
Port Aransas Art Center Helping Islanders discover their inner artist By Linda Walsh Have you ever just wanted to pick up a brush and paint a beautiful picture on a canvas but didn’t because you don't know what colors you should have on your pallet, how to blend them, or where to put your first stroke? Many people feel this way; I did and so did some of my friends. Then, we heard about Wine, Whine & Design. A monthly, Sunday evening three hour class put on by The Art Center of Port Aransas, for people just like us. Not only do they guide you step by step on colors, blending and where to put your first and last stroke, you can drink your favorite wine while creating! How fantastic is that! Well, I now have four originals hanging in my home and I am proud to sign my name to them. I will continue to attend every month because it is so much fun, and I feel like an artist now, but I still need the classes so I can continue to improve.
Art Center continued on A9
Drones Banned at PINS
The last day of the season for the park will be Sunday, October 12, but a portion of the grounds will be open for the ArtWalk.
We’re number 137!
Say hello if you see us Around The Island.
155-Foot Sunk
Kinta S will be home to sea life, attraction for divers and anglers
By Dale Rankin About twenty boats battled sporty seas late Wednesday morning to witness an historic addition to the underwater landscape off the Central Texas Coast. By late morning the center of attention, the 155-foot coastal freighter Kinta S, was on site, towed ten miles out from Port Aransas by a tender vessel, but by mid-afternoon the ship was still afloat, late for its rendezvous with the Corpus Christi Nearshore Reef located on a 160-acre site about equidistant from the Port Aransas and Packery jetties in 73 feet of water. The flotilla of private vessels and from Texas Parks and Wildlife battled 3-4 foot seas and waited anxiously for the
Reef continued on A4
Texas Hurricanes and Windstorm Insurance
The National Park Service embraces many activities in national parks because they enhance visitor experiences with the iconic natural, historic and cultural landscapes in our care. Sometimes new kinds of activities appear. Each new activity needs to be examined to see how it could impact park resources or the visitor experience. Over the course of the last year the use of quad copters and drones has risen dramatically across the United States. To examine potential impacts Jon Jarvis the Director of the National Park Service issued an interim policy earlier in 2014 banning the use of unmanned aircraft at all national park sites until a determination could be made. Management Policies 2006 1.5 and 8.2.2 state the National Park Service will not allow new park uses until a determination has been made that the new use will not cause unacceptable impacts on park resources and values.
Drones continued on A8
Inside the Moon
Lobbyist: Island Rates Need to Go Up “20-30%”
By Greg Smith
We are getting close to the end of another hurricane season. For the Atlantic season which includes the Gulf of Mexico the peak activity date is September 10. For we Texans the date is earlier, August 18, using the 51 storms that have struck the Texas coast since 1891. In fact only six storms out of the fifty-one that hit our shoreline struck after September 17. As the hurricane season winds down the Texas Legislature season is starting to heat up.
meetings to discuss changes in our Windstorm Insurance. Much of the talk was the same as the past. State Rep Drew Springer said “We’re charging so much below what the private market charges for the risk and we have to come up with something more reasonable. “ One lobbyist representing about forty percent of the Texas homeowners market said “premiums are getting closer to market rates but still need to go up another 20 to 30 percent” at the House of Representatives hearing.
Beginning January 13, 2015 the next session begins and will end on May 31. Last week both the Texas House and Senate had Interim Committee
Windstorm continued on A15
For all we suffering coastal folks paying these wallet busting insurance premiums this is tough talk. Are these
Sailing The Potomac A5
On the Rocks A6
A little Island history
The Mother Lagoon and Spanish Treasure
Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of excerpts from the book Islands on the Edge of Time by Gunnar Hansen who visited The Island in 1991.
the volume here; much was coming from passing ships, oil spills, and the offshore oil wells. Throw it- or spill it – into the Gulf and it will wash up on a Texas beach.
By Gunner Hansen
There was other debris, big stuff – a boiler from a ship and three mooring buoys, six feet across. And endless trash – plastic, cans and bottles, rope six inches thick, barrels, a bird with a six-pack plastic wrapped around its legs.
Back on the beach I began to notice flat asphaltum pancakes a foot and a half in diameter – big cow flops of congealed oil. They were everywhere on the beach, mostly in small pieces the size of coins; the bottoms of my shoes were soon black. Evidently this asphaltum occurs naturally, seeping out of the sea bottom in the southern Gulf of Mexico and washing up on the beach. In fact the Kawakawa Indians had decorated their pots with it. But the seepage would not account for
Further Island Moon Artwalks will be held weather permitting through the winter months with regular monthly events next year. WalletHub analyzed the 150 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States this week and pronounced Corpus Christi as the 12th least educated city in the country based on nine key metrics including educational attainment, the percentage of workers with jobs in computer, engineering and science fields, and the number of enrolled students in the top 200 universities per capita. Here’s how we placed with 1 being the best and 75 being average. 138th – Percentage of High School Diploma Holders 136th – Percentage of Bachelor’s Degree Holders 133rd – Percentage of Graduate or Professional Degree Holders 134th – Number of Doctors per Capita 126th – Percent of Workers with Jobs in Computer, Engineering and Science Fields 74th – Public School System Ranking 127th – Percentage of College or Associate's Degree Holders
Weekly
Big Shell Beach stretched roughly6 from the twenty-two to the twentysix mile mark, in the convergence zone for the coast. South of there , the littoral drift was northward, carrying sand and debris from the
Fishin' with Farah A7
History continued on A4
Island Legends By Jackie Bales
Twistin’ Hooties…
Election 2014 A12-A14
“Don’t you come into my place with your foul mouth”, it was Jessie Mathews dusting of her hands on her flour sack skirt. She padded back inside on her bare feet, I don’t remember her in shoes. I’m wondering what just happened. She grabbed the guy by the seat of the pants and scruff of the neck and tossed him over the front rail. That was a good five foot drop. I decided to take the back way around. It was Mathews fishing center in the post hurricane Celia era. Ralph Plumbley acquired the property and named it the Sports Center (We always marked our time periods my named hurricanes) it must have been 1965. And me? I’m just the kid that sells gas and shrimp on the front dock.
Jessie Common sense will tell you to avoid Jessie when she has her “mad on”. She served as Supreme Commander when she worked somewhere. Pete Peterson was the manager but he
Legends continued on A4
Live Music A18