Inside the Moon Bio Blitz A2 Mingo the Flamingo A8 Fishing A11 Eagle Scout A16 Live Music A18 Issue 791 The 27° 37' 0.5952'' N | 97° 13' 21.4068'' W Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 June 13, 2019 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE Around Waves Resort What’s in the Sargassum? Grand Opening The Island Floating seaweed provides protection for young turtles By Dale Rankin Thursday, June 20 We’re two weeks into Hurricane Free concert: Season 2019 and so far we’ve had a quick heat wave followed by a Music from the “cold front” that dropped temps into the low 90s, and a few hard Moon 6 p.m. rains that are always gonna fall. The The recently completed and renamed narrow beaches of late haven’t kept Waves Resort Corpus Christi will the crowds away and last weekend hold a Grand Opening Celebration at the people were out in spite of the 10 a.m. on Thursday, June 20 at the hot weather. The City Parks and park and the public is invited. Recreation managers report they sold Scheduled to speak are State 1900 beach permits on Memorial Day Representative Todd Hunter, Mayor Weekend and even on non-holiday weekends normally sell about 1500. Waves cont. on A4 The lifeguards have been busy with the riptides in full bloom and report By the numbers they made thirteen recues in May and thirty-three so far in June. There have been some concerns about swimmers Top Employers getting too close to the Packery Jetties which can be dangerous and in the Coastal also of kiteboarders and swimmers Photo by KatherynJager and Gary McAlea. competing for space in the surf near Bend As a light crop of Sargassum weed in the fl oating seaweed mats for as reach the size we see swimming in the shoreline. The city is also hiring Corpus Christi ISD 5944 has begun washing up on local long as the fi rst fi ve years of their the channel. lifeguards. beaches this week we take a look lives to feed and hide from predators. City crews are now leaving the living Naval Air Station at the sea life it brings along on its Fourth of July Fireworks Scientists say that if a newly hatched seaweed in place until it dies before Corpus Christi 4500 journey. As you can see from this turtle can fi nd cover in the fi rst removing it from the beach. So while H.E.B Stores 3840 The seventh annual Island Blast photo the Sargassum is home to a seventy-two hours of their lives their it may be inconvenient and provide Fireworks Show is on. Organizer wide variety of marine life like the Christus Spohn chance of survival is good. It provides an olfactory challenge leaving it in Jerry Watkins says with the money small fi sh and seahorses visible in the Hospital 3400 food and protection until the turtles place is good for the beach and the sent so far and the pledges for more photo. are large enough to venture out into the show will go on. He is still raising sea life that depends on it. Corpus Christi But the Sargassum is also crucial to the open water. The turtles often seen Army Depot 3400 money to put aside for next year and Dale Rankin the survival of sea turtles who live swimming in Packery Channel likely to make the fi nale of this year’s show hid under a mat of seaweed until they City of Corpus Christi 3202 a humdinger. If you recall last year Driscoll Children’s the show had to start early because Update on Island Projects Hospital 2136 of incoming weather causing the Seawall Beach fi reworks team to have to rejigger Packery Channel Dredging Corpus Christi their shooting plan and the fi nale Likely to Medical Center 1885 wasn’t the fi nale that was planned. Jetty Repairs Remain Closed Kiewit Offshore We want to thank the Padre Island Services 1750 Business Association, Island Italian, Water Exchange Bridge to Traffi c for at Bay Ltd. 1700 and the Padre Island Yacht Club for By Dale Rankin eight council members and Mayor Del Mar College 1500 their generous donations this week, Joe McComb as well as recently For the fi rst time in its history Least Two Years and especially the out of state donor hired City Manager Peter Zanoni Nueces County 1440 the governing body that controls By Dale Rankin with a big Island heart who for the and heard from citizens and city staff $15,924,759 in Island tax money held second year in a row mailed in a on a variety of issues. Here are the City staff told the Island Strategic a meeting on Padre Island this week. $5000 check that put the event over highlights. Action Committee on Tuesday that the $16,500 mark needed to make The Board of Directors of the Tax the two-thirds of Michael J. Ellis City Losing the show a reality. The launch site, as Reinvestment Zone #2 (TRZ) met Park Road 22 Water Exchange Beach along the seawall currently always is at the west end of Whitecap Tuesday night at the Holiday Inn Bridge closed to traffi c is likely to remain Almost $1 adjacent to the Padre Island Yacht Express. The board consists of all of that way for at least two years. Club. It is solely funded through According to current plans $4 million the Corpus Christi City Council along of the $15.9 million is earmarked to Gulf Beach and Natural Resources Million per Year private donations. Barring weather, with representatives from Nueces Superintendent Darren Gurley told the show lights up ten minutes after cover the cost of the bridge, currently County, the Nueces County Hospital estimated at about $12 million. the group that the temporary sand Occupancy tax on sundown – usually around 9:20 p.m. District, Del Mar College, and the barrier now in place just north of the – and lasts for about twenty minutes. county Farm to Market Road fund. City staff told the group that progress seawall parking lot will be replaced private residences To donate send checks made out to Each of the taxing entities dedicate on the Park Road 22 Water Exchange by wooden bollards due to the Island Blast 14493 SPID, Suite A their tax revenue on improvements Bridge which according to an narrowing of the beach. Rules from goes unpaid PMB 303, Corpus Christi, TX, 78418. agreement signed by the city and the inside the zone since 2003 to fund the Texas General Land Offi ce call By Dale Rankin It’s time to start thinking about a improvements in the zone which owners of the adjacent property more for the closure if the beach to traffi c Fourth of July party. Moon Mike used covers the area from the Gulf of than two months ago should have once the width of the beaches fall The City of Corpus Christi is losing to say that Island parties are like a Mexico, across Lake Padre, and the already gone out to bids, is being held below 150, the width required for $957,000 per year due to a lack of seven-layer bean dip; when they start businesses along SPID. It does not up by a question of whether ditches two traffi c lanes (50 feet), a twenty- collection of the Hotel Occupancy Tax out they are rather stratifi ed but by the include Island residential areas. along the roadside of the site between fi ve foot easement at the base of the from local residents who lease their time they are done everything is all Commodores and Whitecap have to seawall, and 75 feet from the water’s property short-term directly through mixed up together. The board which is chaired by be mitigated as wetlands. However, internet sites, according to Paulette District 4 City Councilman Greg edge where it is not legal to drive. POA Smith and was attended by seven of Updates cont. on A4 Seawall cont. on A4 Taxes cont. on A4 The recount for the March 2019 election at the Padre Isles Property Owners Association is now underway and we should have the result by next A little Island history week. If you read this before 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 13, there is also a A Writer and an Old Texas Ranger Turn Out a Tale of Town Hall style meeting for the Sea Pines members at 6:00 p.m. at the How South Texas Got Rid of its Bandits Holiday Inn Express on Windward. The meeting is to discuss issues Editor’s note: This the last in last issue he and another Ranger lived regarding Sea Pines leaving the POA. the series of stories based on the and worked in an isolated part of the book Taming the Nueces Strip by ranch and kept their stories between Mingo the Flamingo Texas Ranger George Durham who themselves until the other man died Our story last time about Flamingo was a Ranger under Captain L.H. leaving Durham as the last of the 492 who escaped from the Wichita McNelly when they rode off into breed the area between the Nueces and County Zoo and was seen in Lavaca Beginnings of a story Bay drew a huge audience on Rio Grande Rivers in 1875 to rid theislandmoonnewspaper Facebook the area of gunfi ghters and cattle Clyde Wantland was a reporter page. Guide John Humbert, who took rustlers.