Inside the Moon P.I.B.A. Mixer A2 Backwater Adventures A4 Stuff I Heard A5 Seashore Happenings A16 Issue 735 The Photo byRonnie Narmour Island Free The voiceMoon of The Island since 1996 May 17, 2018 Weekly www.islandmoon.com FREE Around The Dolphin Crossing! Fourth Island of July By Dale Rankin Islanders with canal lights report Fireworks seeing large numbers of fish in the water of late as bait fish and those that snack on them move into Island Show is On! canals. But even more unusual, Islander Dee Haveman and her But still not fully friends were treated to a show by a pod of dolphins in broad daylight as funded they piloted their skiff through the Just as the June 1 deadline to fund south end of the canal system this half of the The Island Blast Fireworks week. Show approached, a good Samaritan showed up and saved the day. A generous donor, whose name we don’t have permission to use, mailed a $5000 check to the event organizer Jerry Watkins and the deposit is set. The fund is still $5100 short of the total of $16,000 needed to fully fund the show, but the remainder is not needed until July so the show will go on. The show is funded entirely by donations and all proceeds go to pay The dolphins have been active in Island canals this week. Photo by Dee Heverman. for the show. To donate send checks to: The dolphins accompanied them Contributions to the fireworks fund on their voyage, swimming under Island Kids Get Playgrounds! can be sent to: Island Blast, 14493 the boat for a long period of time By Dale Rankin SPIDSuite A PMB 303, Corpus seeming to enjoy the ride as much as Christi, TX 78418. Or go to the After three years of bake sales, the humans on the dry side. Dolphin Facebook page at island Blast collection efforts, festivals, and watching is a singularly unique and Fireworks Display. raffles to raise $65,000 to pay for new exciting Island experience that never playground equipment a group of gets old. Even the oldest and crustiest Island mothers this week announced among us feels like a kid again when they have reached their goal and new they find a sand dollar on the beach Work Underway equipment for the new and improved or see a dolphin swim by, they often park will be ordered. seem curious about what we human to Repair types are up to. If you are lucky The effort had stalled when Islander enough to be on the receiving end of a Jennifer Seymour told the Padre Isles UTMSI and Dolphin Show be sure to thank them Board of Directors in March the and tell them to invite their friends to group had raised $48,000 and still ARK in Port hang out in our canals! needed $16,749 in order to place the order for the equipment which will A strange deal Aransas be purchased through the City of The University of Texas Marine Our friend Andrea got a shocking Corpus Christi in order to lower the Science Institute and the Amos surprise last week as she was standing purchase price. Seymour announced Rehabilitation Keep in Port Aransas outside of her house on Topsail. this week that the additional funds Old Billish Park playground eqipment (large photo) will be replaced are digging out from damage done by Suddenly an armada of emergency have been raised and the purchase of with new equipment like that pictured in the above right inset. Hurricane Harvey. The Institute has vehicles came roaring around the the equipment will move forward. 2012 and an additional $200,000 equipment, however, they later found reopened some student dorms and corner and stopped in front of her “Because of a few local moms, kiddos from the Padre Isles Property Owners out that the fund was $16,749 short laboratories and the ARK has most house. When she asked if something out on the island will get to have a Association. The project is currently of the money needed. Since that time of its cages and tanks back up and was wrong she was told that a caller sweet looking new playground!!!” awaiting the installation of lines funds were raised. running. had phoned police to report that there Seymour said this week. for a new irrigation system with were “fifteen children that have been In an unrelated development in completion expected in June. When killed in your house.” This was news The project hit a snag several months recent weeks a donor said there is planners allocated the final funds to Andrea. ago as the final funding pieces were $50,000 now available to purchase for the project the assumption was put in place for the for the Billish Park new equipment to replace the dated Her two kids – 10 and 4 years old – made that sufficient money had been improvement project which is funded equipment in Aquarius Park. were asleep in the house as was her through a $500,000 bond issue in committed to fund the playground husband. Andrea is an attorney by profession and a cool head by nature so, unlike most of us would likely A little Island history have done, she didn’t panic. She invited the officers in to look around Sparky the duck is back at home and soon enough they were on their Walt the Salt and his Shrimper Tales at the ARK. way (finding no dead children). Of Editor’s note: We dipped into the Marine cont. on A4 course the question is who would Moon archives this week and found make such a call and we spoke to the this story from Walt the Salt that we Early Voting in PD this week? Stay tuned. ran way back in 2007. Our Moon Run for the Hills! Memory has a few gaps in the Runoff Elections narrative and this is one of them. If you are planning on going OTB We don’t remember who Walt the before about 10:30 Saturday morning Salt is/was, but he tells a good sea Ends Friday don’t. That is the day for the Beach story so here we go. to Bay run and our Island will be in Election Day danger of sinking under the weight By Walt the Salt of several thousand runners who This week I write about shrimping Tuesday, May 22 will take off early Saturday morning and the decline of the industry, a As of Tuesday evening a total of bound for the wilds of downtown. The large percent of the remaining fleet 2127 voters had cast ballots in Early starting point is near Access Road 5 is tied up at the dock rusting or Voting for the Republican Runoff and the second leg begins south of the rotting. Aransas Pass, Texas used Election between Bech Bruun and Bob Hall Pier with a handoff point on to call itself the Shrimp Capitol of Michael Cloud for the United State the north side of the JFK. The beach the World but the fleet is now gone. Representative District 27 seat south of Whitecap will be packed, as The fishermen there were a pretty will SPID. wild lot. I knew a few of them back Voting cont. on A4 in the day. I admired their ability The Pollyanna out of Port A. still brings in fresh shrimp to sell to In past years when the run takes the public. Photo by Bruce bair place the faster runners clear the to go through a $6000 paycheck P.I.N.S. eight miles of the race on The Island, in their four or five days between firearms, a few TVs and VCRs, and and swam to an offshore drilling and the road closures that go with it, trips considering they spent almost more spare parts, nets, and equipment platform. He told the drillers a Announces Rate sometime around 9 a.m. and then it all of their time in bars and mobile than they had left with. They had had great story about being washed takes another hour and a half for the homes. Not an easy thing to do. a very productive trip and yet never overboard in a storm. The only flaw Increase slowest members of the herd to get They had some pretty good sea got their nets wet. in Floyd’s tale was the fact that he Starting June 1 fees at the national had his suitcase filled with all his on OTB. If you are on the west side stories too. A captain friend of In the parlance of the day, “They had seashore will be raised to help possessions tied up in garbage bags of SPID stay there because crossing mine (who will remain nameless) a good trip man.” provide additional visitor services. SPID during the run will be a slow with him when he was “rescued”. spotted a floating bale of marijuana Park officials say 80%of the funds ride. Our suggestion, take a bike ride According to Floyd they fed him a on their way out on the first day. He Crazy Floyd the Header collected at the park entrance are used or walk to the beach and enjoy the wonderful steak and lobster dinner spent the next couple days cruising Another time a header I knew, Crazy at Padre Island National Seashore, show! before sending him on a helicopter around and dealing with other the remaining twenty percent of the Floyd, (a headers job is to pinch the ride to the mainland.