Inside the Moon Port A. Surf Rescue A2 Plant Swap A9 Port A. Easter Egg Hunt A11 Backwater Adventures A12 P.I.Y.C Adult Easter Egg Hunt A15 Issue 728 The Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 March 29, 2018 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE News from the POA Around Island Kids The Island Need Your Help By Dale Rankin There has been a bit of the prevailing Funding for new notion that that the world has gone mad here on our little sandbar this playground at week, every hour seems to bring a new revelation. Billish Park Falls Among other things each bite of the burrito has had an Island crunch through the cracks this week as thirty mile per hour By Dale Rankin winds have deposited blow sand Three years ago when Islander on everything from Gulf to Laguna Jennifer Seymour began collecting and all points in between. As of this $65,000 to pay for new playground writing on Wednesday afternoon equipment at the newly renovated we await the arrival of sixty mile Billish Park her son was three years per hour winds and sixty degree old and young enough to enjoy the temperature – if the Weather Wonks swing sets and slides the new park are to be believed. would bring. Water temperature in the low Jump ahead three years to Tuesday seventies has put what passes for a night when Seymour had to skip her chill in the air sweeping in off the now six-year old son’s baseball game Gulf even as kids from all over the Row, row, row your dragon boat. Have you seen these rowers? Story and photos by Jan Rankin on A2 to stand shedding tears in front of country cavort on our beaches in the newly seated board of the Padre swimwear during Senior Trips to our Isles Property Association as she usually balmy shores. described her feelings earlier this The high tides have been up over a Indictments at Schlitterbahn year when she found out that that foot and half on most days when a money to help finishing paying for foot of tide will send water to the base the new equipment promised by the of the dunes on most area beaches, organization had instead been spent The result is that beach driving on What does it Mean for The on a sand volleyball court in the damp beaches during low tide has new Billish Park where work in well been great, but beach driving at high underway. tide in most areas means wet tires or Island Project? “It broke my heart when I heard deep sift sand where the Ford Prius what had happened,” she said. “We and Volkswagen Passat dare not roll. By Dale Rankin Henry & Sons Construction Co., aggravated endangerment of a child which was the company in charge have been working on this for three Driving south on the Kleberg beaches Jeff Henry who oversaw the design counts tied to injuries other riders of building the Padre park was years and now we can’t afford to has been might nigh impossible and construction of the Schlitterbahn sustained on the giant slide, called also charged in the indictment order the equipment.” without a heavy-duty four wheeler. Waterpark & Resort on Padre Island Verruckt, which is German for with Second-degree murder which was arrested this week in connection "insane." The indictment accuses As the meeting developed the reason The high winds mean that the tides carries a sentence of 9 years to 41 with the death of a ten-year old boy Henry of making a "spur of the for the funding fall-through became are ripping with daily warnings years in prison. The charges listed who was decapitated on a ride at the coming from the National Weather on the Henry’s inmate page include Indictments cont. on A5 Island Kids cont. on A4 firm’s park in Kansas City billed as Service for beachgoers to beware. murder, 12 counts of aggravated the world’s tallest waterslide. To most of us thin-blooded year- battery and five counts of aggravated Island High- Rules for round Islanders who, accustomed to Henry, 62, and a co-owner of the endangerment of a child. 85 degree water in the summertime, Schlitterbahn company with his The Kansas attorney general's office Rise Buildings Changing consider any water below 80 degrees brother and sister, was arrested in said designer John Schooley, also a to be semi-Artic rip tides are Cameron County Monday on a designer of the Kansas City ride was Struggling to Bylaws to Go irrelevant because we aren’t going warrant from Kansas on charges also charged with 17 other felonies, in more than ankle deep. We leave of reckless second-degree murder. beach swimming to the kids and including aggravated battery and Rebuild after to Membership Winter Texans. Harvey Vote Bomb meeting in the bombing By Dale Rankin zone! City’s Hotel A group called Padre Island ARCH If you read this before 5 p.m. on announced at the Tuesday board Thursday, March 29, you might Occupancy Tax meeting of the Padre Isles Property want to make your way over the Owners Association that they have gymnasium at the Seashore Learning could take $4 gathered the signatures necessary to Center where the U.S. Army Corps of million hit in 2018 force a vote by the membership on Engineers is holding a public meeting whether to roll back the power of to explain the reason behind letters By Dale Rankin the board to unilaterally change the sent to residents in the area around Seven high-rise buildings organization’s bylaws, and whether to Encantada and SPID informing representing more than five hundred change a current bylaw which gives them they live within World War II overnight stay rooms on Padre and board members the power to remove Bombing Target Area B-1. Mustang island inside the Corpus other board members without cause. It’s hard to escape the irony of Christi City Limits are still struggling Kelly McFadden, an ARCH holding a meeting to caution people to re-build after damage from organizer, announced at the meeting about the dangers of a bombing area Hurricane Harvey with only one on that 665 members have signed on to schedule to be open by the one-day inside the same-said bombing area. The Schlitterbahn park in the early stages of construction in 2013. bring the issue to a membership vote; Dang! That’s got to be against some peak summer season. she said that is 12.34 percent of the kind of federal regulation somewhere The old Padre Isles Country Club headquarters is visible in the right? foreground. High-rise cont. on A7 Rules cont. on A4 The “bombs” in question were actually wooden practice bombs A little Island history armed with a .40 caliber shotgun load designed to show pilot trainees where they hit and as far as anyone can tell none have ever been found in When The Island Got Bombed the area – but try explaining that to the title company when you go to sell U.S. Army Corps of Engineers briefing March 29 your house – in a federally registered By Dale Rankin We have had several inquiries about bombing area. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the bombing ranges so we revisit the As we have reported before Bombing is holding a public meeting March topic this week. Area B-1 doesn’t show up on the 29th from 5 to 7 p.m. at Seashore The history of the ranges on Padre federally maintained website listing Learning Center – Gym in regards comes to us from a variety of sources, old bombing ranges hereabouts, but to World War II Bombing Target including the historical data compiled somehow the pamphlet got mailed out Area B-1 which, according to letters when Padre Island National Seashore anyway. So strap on your bombproof sent to homeowners in the area, was founded, a few eyewitness flip-flops and head on over to the was located near the intersection of accounts, and locals who came later bombing area for a public meeting on Encantada and SPID on the south and saw the aftermath. the dangers of the bombing area. The end of Padre Island neighborhoods. world has gone mad indeed. Pilot training began at the new Naval Several weeks ago we reviewed a Air Station in Corpus Christi began Viva Villa! history of the bombing ranges on in March, 1941 and accelerated Former mayoral candidate Ray Padre Island which were in active quickly as World War II increased Madrigal complained to the Corpus use from the World War II era until the demand for pilots. By the end City Council this week that he is 1960 when extension of SPID (Park of 1942 Corpus Christi NAS and getting no help from the city staff Road 22) went south beyond the its auxiliary bases were processing Kleberg County Line. Around cont. on A4 History cont. on A4 50-caliber bullets found on Padre Island. March 29, 2018 Island Moon A 2 Port A. Surf Rescue Squad on the Waves No One's Dragon These Boats! Port A.'s elite Surf Rescue Team were caught training on the beach last Saturday. Photos by Abigail Bair Manitoba paddling association members are training in their Dragonboat and kayaks in the canals and on the Intracoastal waterways. The team from Canada has been coming here for the last four years to take advantage of our warm weather and favorable boating conditions.