July 13, 2017 | Issue

Inside the Moon Deep Sea Queen A2 Moon on a Spoon A7 Dog Surfers A7 Live Music A18 Issue 690 The Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 July 13, 2017 Weekly FREE Around The Work Island Deep Sea Rounds 'Em Up! By Dale Rankin We are almost exactly halfway Begins on through the one hundred day Island Tourist Season and so far so good. The traffic has been about what we Irrigation expect based on previous years, the roads are crowded on the weekends, System but as they say, you can’t build the church for Easter Sunday. All in all things are copacetic here on our little Around sandbar as we charge through the heart of the summer. Packery channel depth Lake Padre Crews are at work on an irrigation Those of you who are regular readers system at the property around Lake of these pages know that the water Padre from whence blowing sand has depth in Packery Channel has been been emanating during high winds. an ongoing topic of discussion. We want to give a big thank you to the members of the subcommittee of the Island Strategic Action Committee who have taken this project on and after years of inattention are pushing for a long- term maintenance plan to keep the channel dredged to a depth that it needs to be. On Tuesday the subcommittee members boarded No Deadlines, the boat owned by subcommittee member Jerry Watkins and toured the entire Packery Channel from the mouth at the Gulf to the Intracoastal noting the depth all along the way. What they found is what pretty much what Island boaters have been saying for years, with the exception of a twenty five foot deep hole just inside the The 82nd Deep Sea Round-up took place last weekend in Port A. The Bandit (pictured left) smoked the Packery Bridge the entire channel is competition in the Billfish Division. More photos by Jan Rankin on page 2. five to seven feet deep, except the last one hundred yards inside the mouth where is it four to five feet which is significantly less than the original design depth. When the channel was What are the Rules? dug it was dredged to fourteen feet and was to be maintained at ten feet. It Port Aransas Beach Amenities Fences Along is not close to that and in the past two months several boats have hit bottom near the mouth. The shallow depth at Draw Questions Whitecap the mouth also causes problems when Editor’s note: The beach chairs the overarching document for rules Editor’s Note: We had questions winds are high because it piles the and umbrellas on the beach at the on beach access and maintenance, this week from homeowners along water up at the shoal at the channel’s Cinnamon Shore development in however, the act can be altered by the south side of Whitecap regarding mouth making it difficult for small Port Aransas prompted several cities which file a Beach Management the policy of the Padre Isles Property boats to pass. inquiries this week. The question is Plan which both Port Aransas and the Owners Association concerning There have been two major dredging what are the rules regarding private, City of Corpus Christi have filed. Whitecap on through lots with their front facing adjacent streets and their projects since the original dredge, or semi-private use of the beaches We forwarded the question on back fences facing Whitecap. the latest being after Hurricane Ike in Port Aransas. Keep in mind that the rules in Port Aransas to the left sand in the channel in 2008. In the rules for Port Aransas beaches city’s Director and Planning and 2010 $177,000 from the Island Tax and those in the Corpus Christi City Development. Here is his response. Reinvestment Zone was spent to Limits are governed by different The city requires an eighteen inch By Rick Adams remove 214,000 cubic yards of sand beach management plans. The Texas silkscreen around construction sites which had accumulated, another Open Beach Act, passed in 1959, is Director Planning and Development and currently there are four on the dredge is scheduled for 2018. site at a cost of $60,000. The city Port Aransas EMC requirements are that the property Devil is in the details Let me see if I can address the issue owner prevent sand blowing off site in “Fresh” winds which are defined But the devil has been in the details and trust me, it’s a little complex. at between 19 and 24 miles per hour. of the contracts that have been used Let me start by explaining that all of However, the screens are generally in the past. The terms have been the private beachfront developments designed for projects on smaller presented to the ISAC by city staff South of access road 1A actually own A check there will find that some of acreage and demonstrably do not over the years and, as presented, to mean-high-tide (MHT). There are a the fences are ten feet from the road, work on that area when winds are they stipulated the amount of sand few exceptions such as Beachwalk I - at the border of the city easement, above that amount which has been to be removed, between 100,000 and II Mustang Royale I - II that deeded a and others are thirty feet back from often as the open area of Lake Padre, 300,000 cubic yards each time, and buffer of property between MHT and the road, and some have gates and upwind from the site means plenty of the time allowed for the job, from the back of the dunes to the City of some do not. This has meant that fetch and reach. mid-September after the sea turtle Port Aransas as it was undevelopable some homeowners there can’t get nesting season until Spring Break in and they didn’t want to pay property boats and other vehicles into their March. The problem has been that Cinn Shores cont. on A4 Fences cont. on A4 Sandy Work cont. on A4 the contracts did not stipulate where the actual dredging would be done in A little Island history the channel. The result has been that the sand that was removed was well inside the channel where a small, A Brief History of Island Water Passes and less expensive, dredge could be Editor’s Note: The following is a from the north to the south breakers. used and the sand was pumped over brief history of passes through Padre The new channel provided nine feet of the south jetty onto the beach where a and Mustang islands over the course clearance but the old channel shoaled significant portion of it quickly found of the last two centuries. We thank to four feet (U. S. Army Corps of its way back to the bottom or the Dr. Richard Watson for sending it Engineers, 1853). Between 1851 and channel. According to information our way. 1890,depths over the inlet-mouth presented by city staff leading up the bars varied from 7 to 10.5 feet (U. S. last two dredging contracts no dredge Aransas Pass Army Corps of Engineers,1890). work was done in the last 600 feet The Aransas Pass (at Port Aransas) Erosion of the north end of Mustang of the channel just inside the mouth. was extremely unstable during the Island and deposition on the south It is that plug of sand that the ISAC middle to late 1800's. Relocation of end of San Jose Island progressed at a subcommittee members found in the channel axis, changes in channel rate of 260 feet per year (U. S. Army their cruise this week. Boaters have depth of several feet, and shifting of Corps of Engineers, 1900). Because been saying all along that the mouth the inlet-mouth bars accompanied of the importance of Aransas Pass as was too shallow for safe passage. southerly migration of the inlet. a route for commercial vessels and The Conrad Blucher Institute has Frequent changes caused navigation because of the continuous changes been contracted since the opening of problems for trade vessels traveling in channel position and depth, the channel in 2005 to monitor the over the outer bars and through the numerous efforts were made by depth and report to the ISAC and/or inlet. Not only were the changes governmental and private interests the TRZ Board when dredging was frequent but they occurred rapidly as to stabilize the channel and maintain well. It was reported that during one navigable depths The first attempt at 1864 passes Around cont. on A4 week in 1853, the channel migrated History cont. on A4 July 13, 2017 Island Moon A 2 Record Breaking Numbers of Fish Caught at This Year's Deep Sea Round-up Piggy Perch contest courtesy deep sea roundup Leslie Willey Jr Send Letters and Photos to: editor@islandmoon. com and follow us on Facebook: The Island Moon Newspaper The Saltwater Bandits won 1st place in King division & the jackpot. Queen of the Deep Sea Round-up Island Creations Remodeling Total Renovation & Remodels, Outdoor Kitchens & Spas, Additions, Kitchen & Bathroom Upgrades, Sunporches, Replacement of Windows and Doors, Roofing, Painting & Stucco Landscaping Moon doggie and de facto Deep Sea Round-up Queen, Lizzy, tames unruly children Design work, Yard Maintenance, Decks, Pergolas, with her "paw of shame." Insured Installation of Rock, Grass, Plants, Trees, Walkways, Paths, Tree Trimming, Member, Padre Island Container Planting, Vacant Lot Mowing & Shade Covers.

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