Port Aransas
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Inside the Moon Seashore Happenings A2 Stuff I Heard A5 Mask-erade A9 Arists Showcase A9 Issue 856 The 27° 37' 0.5952'' N | 97° 13' 21.4068'' W Photo by Jay Gardner Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 September 10, 2020 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE Around The Island Political Island The Kids Are Back! Action By Dale Rankin We weathered the Labor Day Storm Committee and all in all it wasn’t so bad. In spite of 101 traffic stops on our little Gears up for sandbar over the weekend we still had eleven wrecks along the SPID City Elections corridor. You know it’s been a busy weekend Be Informed, Vote, over on the beach side of Padre Island when you drive down Whitecap and Help IUPAC on Monday morning and catch that pungent aroma of raw sewage Unify an Island wafting out of the Whitecap Stink Factory. When all of that weekend Voice effluent from the touristy side of By IUPAC town makes its way to the four-inch The Island United Political Action force main near the Gypsy Bridge Committee (IUPAC), will hold three and the pump backs` up, well, it Candidate Endorsement Forums to smells like a busy Island weekend. endorse candidates in the upcoming Some weekends we hit the quinella About 80 percent of the students at Seashore Charter Schools took the option of returning city elections. and our little sandbar is both affluent to the classroom in person this week. More photos on page A2 and effluent. As holiday weekends IUPAC is a non-partisan Island go this one wasn’t as jammed up as group committed to creating a unified some as there was some open beach Island voice in city elections and still available south of The Bowl. See Lifeguards Save Nine-Year- LaPosada endorses candidates in the races for the traffic numberson page A5 of this District 4 City Council, Three At- issue Old Girl from Drowning 2020 is ON! Large council seats, and Mayor. Lighted Boat IUPAC cont. on A4 Parades will see Bob Hall changes but will Demolition happen Now Under By Fred Edler Labor Day near Bob Hall Pier. After a great deal of thought, Scrutiny The good news around here is that discussion and Community outreach, we got a bit of relief from the heat in the LaPosada Foundation has made Engineering firm the form of what passes for a Cool the decision to hold the LaPosada Front and the temperature dropped all IBC Bank 2020 Lighted Boat asks for more time the way down to somewhere south of Parades. stifling and sticky. While the Weather By Dale Rankin The Parades will be held Friday, Wonks won’t say it out loud locals One week after the announcement December 11 & Saturday, December know that when the first cool front from a county official that Bob 12. blows in the Jet Stream has wound its Hall Pier would be torn down due way southward and for all intents and The family back together. While we have concerns about the to damage from Hurricane Hannah purposes the Hurricane Season for us COVID-19 Virus, we have had so Nueces County Commissioners on is over even though it officially runs For a quarter of an hour the parents many community leaders, sponsors Wednesday said not so fast. through November 30. There are still called for their daughter and waited and individuals encouraging us a couple of storms rattling around out while city lifeguards searched the to hold the Parades, we made the there but let’s hope the pattern holds nearshore waters. There was hope decision to proceed with the Lighted true for 2020. as the girl was known to be a strong Boat Parades. swimmer and had a paddle board La Posada There will be several changes this with her. We’ve had several questions this year to make the Parades and the week about the La Posada Lighted Lifeguards said the rip currents supporting activities safe. While the flowed south to north near the shore changes will continue to evolve as Boat Parade for 2020 so organizer The lifeguards found the girl several Fred Edler sent us an update which but reversed course further out to we get closer to the Parades and the hundred yards south of where she sea. Lifeguards searched the water status of the virus in our community; The cement panels on the pier will we include in this issue. If there is went into the water. one thing we can say about Islanders near the shore to the north of the spot the Lighted Boat Parades will follow be removed this week. it is that they like to plan their parties where the girl entered the water and the same routes and times as last year. not finding her began working further in advance. Some of us even leave A Corpus Christi couple lived Because of the virus and the changes Nueces County Judge Barbara out while moving south and found the our Christmas lights up all year! through a parent’s worst nightmare we have had to make, we expect our Canales told the court that the girl just outside the breakers. She was early Monday morning when their annual donation to the U.S. Marines engineering firm studying the damage County budget nine year old daughter disappeared upset but unharmed. has asked for more time to inspect As we went to press Wednesday into the surf on Whitecap Beach. Dale Rankin LaPosada cont. on A4 the forty-year old structure before a Nueces County Commissioners final decision is made. Canales said approved their budget for the 2020- Bob Hall cont. on A2 2021 budget. We will have a complete A little Island history review next time when we have time to look through it. Tax rules are Repairs to clear as mud but here’s a thumbnail; Early September Has Been an Active Time for property values on Padre Island are Offshore Well up about 8 percent and 10 percent in Coastal Bend Hurricanes Port Aransas the amount of county By Dale Rankin Continue property tax on each $100,000 of property value will actually drop by As the first cool front of the season Taking longer than $2.66. That means if your property rolls through historically speaking value didn’t change you will pay it marks the effective close to the expected less, but keep in mind that is across local hurricane season. Nueces County. On Padre Island and But in years past the list of in Port Aransas with values up 8% the hurricanes that have slammed into countywide drop will be offset by the the Texas Coast in the first two increase in property value. As is often weeks of September is a regular the case the large print giveth and the rogues gallery of storms. The most small print taketh away. devastating storm to this area was The good news is that across the the 1919 Hurricane which swept county property taxes are going up away downtown Corpus Christi by 2.7 percent which is better than and inundated much of The Island. the 8 percent we have had in most We dodged a bullet in 1988 when recent years. A change in the state tax the massive Hurricane Gilbert set law in the last session of the Texas his sights on The Island. The storm Photo by Scott McKinstry Legislature cut the amount of tax grew to a Category 5 and bore down The surge tide from Hurricane Ike ran visitors off the beach at the seawall. on The Island. The barometric hikes allowed from the traditional of the Rio Grande. Then just two history of the hurricanes that have Repairs to the rig two miles offshore pressure recorded in Gilbert’s eye 8 percent to 3.5 percent annually years ago it was Ike who threatened hit our Island in the first half of from Bob Hall Pier that blew natural was the lowest ever recorded in the without an election and this is the first an early September arrival on The September. gas and condensate for almost twenty western hemisphere and the storm’s budget cycle the new rules have been Island before turning north toward four hours last week have hit a snag winds grew to 185 m.p.h. As Gilbert in effect. Galveston. Hurricane Ike 2008 and will take longer than they first neared landfall the eye began to believed. The end of summer is two weeks designate and the storm turned So keep your fingers crossed and Hurricane Ike in 2008 was one away everybody. Say hello if you see southward making landfall south your tank full of gas. Here’s a brief that we played chicken with and us Around The Island. History cont. on A4 Repairs cont. on A2 September 10, 2020 Island Moon A 2 Bob Hall cont. from A1 Seashore Happenings the final assessment is due by September 29. The t-shaped structure at the end of the pier was destroyed and the question at hand is whether to repair the pier or take it down and rebuild it. In the meantime, she said, a company has been hired for $189,050 to remove the concrete panels on the pier this week to make it easier to inspect the substructure. She said the county has received three bids for removal of debris from the damaged pier from surrounding water. The number for repairs reported last week was $13.4 million but Precinct 4 Nueces County Commissioner First graders in Dawn Brent Chesney said this week he doesn’t believe Seashore Middle Academy White's class work at the ends that will be the final cost once the engineering sixth grader Lacy Gould of tables, further protected by studies are done.