Inside the Moon Photos From Around The Islands A2 Moon on a Spoon A7 Catch of the Week A8 Bird City A9 Live Music A16 Issue 885 The 27° 37' 0.5952'' N | 97° 13' 21.4068'' W Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 April 1, 2021 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE Around The Work on Water Exchange By the numbers Island Island Strategic Action We’ve hit the sweet spot of the Bridge on Schedule season here on out little sandbar as Spring Break 2021 is broken and the Foundation of northbound side nearly complete Committee partiers have all gone OTB. Driving The Island Strategic Action on our beaches has been a dicey Committee (ISAC) has ten new affair this week as high spring tides members after action at the Corpus have put big chunks of our beach Christi City Council on Tuesday. underwater. ISAC is the only organization of Red Snapping its kind in the city and was formed in 2010 to advise the Mayor and Regular readers of these pages City Council on development and know that the discussion over how implementation of the Mustang- many red snapper there are out Padre Island Area Development there beyond our shores has been a heated topic as the fight over who Plan. City rules call for the should regulate snapper limits and committee to consist of fourteen how has been going on for over (14) members appointed by the a decade. The question may have City Council. been put to rest this week as a $12 Membership in one or more of the million study called the Great Red following categories is preferred but Snapper Count placed the number not required: Padre Isles Property of adult red snapper in the Gulf Owners Association, residential of Mexico at about 110 million as property owner who owns property opposed to the 36 million previously and resides on Mustang or Padre estimated by the National Oceanic Island; commercial property and Atmospheric Administration owner who owns property and marine fisheries. Don’t expect the operates a business on Mustang snapper limits to be raised by three, or Padre Island; developer of we still have more than our limit of property on Mustang or Padre bureaucrats, but some revision of the Workers are installing the rebar for the bulkhead along the canal. Island; member of the Padre limits is expected. The recent study Island Business Association; found that the increased population By Dale Rankin architect or professional engineer, estimate is almost entirely because who does work on projects on federal scientists previously relied The foundation work on the now,” said Mike Franklin, supervisor 1200 slabs of concrete were buried Mustang or Padre Island; realtor, on information from a fishery northbound lane of the Water of the project for Hass Anderson on four-foot centers 18 feet below who primarily represents buyers concentrated on natural and artificial Exchange Bridge on South Padre Construction. “We expect to have the the surface to stabilize the structure; or sellers of property on Mustang northbound side of the bridge done reefs, while the new study also looks Island Drive is on schedule in spite a feature that city officials said has or Padre Island; construction by October.” at the immense spaces in between and of the recent cold weather and crews never been done before in this area. contractor, who primarily works Count cont. on A4 more than 60% of the red snapper are preparing to cut the canal through Much of the recent work is not Further 32 drill shafts going as deep on projects on Mustang or Padre were in areas that previously had not from Lake Padre to the edge of the visible to the thousands of drivers as 74 feet below grade support the Island; representative of an been checked. The report estimated roadway in the next few weeks. who pass by the site each day because bridge structure itself and a cement environmental group; person who that about 48 million adult red it involved building the foundation for slab over a thousand feet long has resides on Mustang Island or “We hadn’t counted on having a snapper swim off Florida, 29 million the structure and is below the surface been poured below grade on the east who is an employee of a Mustang off Louisiana, 23 million off Texas freeze but my guys are back on site – and there is a lot of it. A total of Bridge cont. on A4 Island property owner; and at- and 10 million off Mississippi and large representatives who are Alabama. Congress appropriated residents of the City. Not less than $9.5 million for the study, and 14 twelve (12) members must reside universities provided about $2.5 or own property on Mustang or million in matching funds. For many Stop! Padre Island. One (1) of the at- years here we have reported on the large representatives may, but is number of snapper killed when Signs go up at Gypsy-Whitecap intersection not required to, reside on Mustang offshore rigs were removed with or Padre Island. The City Council The signs are up, the bags are off and Padre Island now has a new all-way stop explosives as required by federal may appoint not more than five at the Gypsy-Whitecap intersection. The signs were the result of a months- rules. It seems some level of sanity members of the action committee long traffic study at the intersection which City Public Works Director and has prevailed. who do not reside within the City Islander Richard Martinez told the Island Strategic Action Committee this if they own or represent the owner Seashore Learning Center month indicated that stop signs were needed at the intersection for safety of property on Mustang or Padre reasons. The study found the following results. Classes at Seashore Learning Center Island. have gone remote until at least Whitecap/Gypsy intersection Monday due to a COVID outbreak. After Tuesday’s council action Students are working remotely there, 3,528 eastbound vehicles per day the members of the committee are as follows: the other Seashore facilities are not 4,919 vehicles westbound vehicles per day affected. Numbers cont. on A4 35.82 mph average speed of eastbound traffic PIPOA annual meeting 92 mph maximum recorded speed eastbound (11 p.m.) We attended the annual meeting 71 mph maximum recorded speed westbound (1:50 a.m.) Waves Resort of the Padre Isles Property Owners Association last Saturday and 53.5% eastbound traffic over the 35 mph speed limit Starting to Look we’re happy to report there were 73.3% westbound traffic over the 35 mph speed limit was no name calling, threats, nor police action necessary. The days Empty of acrimony among board members The building at Waves resort is and staff are in the past and the starting to take on the look of a organization is functioning as A little Island history ghost town as fixtures and are being designed. All in all the meeting was removed daily. Deadline for bidders joyously boring and when it comes who bought the items to have them to PIPOA meetings boring is good – “Where Texas Meets the Sea” Chronicles How removed was this week with the we like boring. New board members power to the building expected to were elected, for details see Marvin’s Corpus Christi Lost Control of its Own Destiny be turned off by mid-April and demolition to begin soon after. column in this issue. By Dale Rankin Dog park When you pick up most history the decade from the mid-1970s to the Work is scheduled to begin on the books about Corpus Christi they mid-1980s. tend to end with the closing of fence at the Riley P. Dog Park on This relatively recent era of our Monday, April 5. It’s been a long the Texas Frontier, the end of the Indian tribes, or the arrival of the history is documented in a book time coming but it’s finally here. If published by the University of Texas you have not had a chance to look at railroads. The colorful portion of local history involves tales of Press entitled Where Texas Meets the grounds stop by once work begins the Sea by historian Alan Lessoff and check it out. The next step will be Spanish treasure, Texas Rangers, raiders from Mexico, and the fight who taught at A&M Corpus Christi The furniture has been removed to get the grass in but first things first. for several years, beginning in 1992, The days when we can walk our dogs over the Nueces Strip in the middle from the stage area. of the 1800s. and is now a Professor of History at to the park and watch the sun set over Illinois State University. He drew the Laguna are not far off. Those people and events set the much of his information for the book Easter has arrived so it’s time to put groundwork for our area but the from the special collections library our fur-lined flip flops back in the history that most effects the daily at the University and worked closely closet and break out the white pants lives of Coastal Bend residents with Thomas Kreneck who was the everybody. We have made it through today happened well after that; the former director of the department. modern history of the region really The Winter of Our Discontent. Say Loss of local control hello if you see us Around The Island. begins after the opening of the Port of Corpus Christi, the first Port The books’ title comes from a slogan Commission was seated in 1923, created by boosters of the new port in and went through radical change in History cont.