Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 34, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 24, 2006 Page: 1 of 88
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ELLIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY
700 WEST AVE. A
PORT ARANSAS, TEXAS 78373
PCCT ARANSAS
Vol. 36 No. 34
Covering Port Aransas on Mustang Island
USPS 946-020
i Inside |
this edition
Visitors' Guide
Fall edition
2006
The 2006 Fall Visitors' Guide
debuts in this issue.
Pull-out section inside
Island Focus
Freshman's first day
Reporter Dan Parker tagged
along with PAHS freshman
Scott Willey on his first day
of school.
Page 1B
Opinion
Praise for Pearson
. . . My favorites of all time
are the writings of Rachel
Pearson. Very rarely does a
reader have the opportunity
to follow the life of a teenager
as they progress through
those blossoming stages of
life. .. I will be first in line for
an autographed copy when
her first book is published!
Betty Whitt
^Corpus Christi
Letters to the editor
Page 3A
Island Life
Birds are back
fc " -
Tony Amos reports on his
failed attempt to release two
masked boobies.
Page 11B
Island Life
Columnists
•Tony Amos
11B
•Bill Slingerland
12A
•Rachel Pearson
2B
Law enforcement
...... 5B
Island agenda
2A
Opinion
Cactus Pryor
3A
Dave McNeely
3A
Steve Martaindale....
3A
Mary Henkel Judson.
3A
Letters to the editor
3A
Outdoors
Fishing report
10A
Tides & Weather
10A
Youth
New staff
7A
School menus
8A
Church
4A
Obituary
4A
* Virginia F. McGinnis
Classified
Classified Ads
. 6-12B
south jetty newspaper plu#
00000
City to float $6 million bond issue
Bonds would pay for
drainage, street work,
repairs to city hall
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
The city council will ask voters to
approve a total of $6.46 million in
bonds on Nov. 7 to pay for a program
designed to improve drainage in the
city and to repair a number of streets
as well as fix the leaky roof on the city
hall/civic center and add office space
to that building.
The streets and drainage portion of
the election will be broken into two
parts on the ballot: one, for $1,305
million, will include both street and
drainage projects; the other, for $1.38
million, will be strictly drainage.
The street and drainage questions
total $2,685 million but the projects on
the two issues do not overlap.
In the smaller of the two ballots,
which calls for "street, curb, sidewalk
and drainage" work, projects would in-
clude East Cotter Avenue, Leslie Lane,
the now-unpaved portion of South Sta-
tion Street and LaRonda Street.
The strictly-drainage ballot question
includes work on Station Street closer
to the center of town, Alister Street,
including drainage outfall 14, which
discharges into the city marina, the
concrete drainage ditch that starts at
Avenue A and goes south as well as an
outfall into wetlands beyond the ditch
and Avenue A itself.
City Manager Michael Kovacs said
although 11th Street is not included
in the bond election, it hasn't been
forgotten at city hall. He plans to use
impact fees assessed to developers
to pay for a revamping of 11th Street
south of Avenue G.
That street has been on the minds of
council members who are aware that
the character of the street has been
changing from a residential neighbor-
hood to largely rental properties.
Also not included in the streets and
drainage bond election will be the
Oleander Street drainage project and
several other, smaller, projects. The
council told Kovacs to go ahead and
do those on a cash basis.
Curtain rises on new school year
i
Staff photo by Murray Judson
Wyatt Arnold, 3, checks out what his big sister, Sailor, 4, and Ian Johnson, 4, will have in store for
them in pre-kindergarten during a Meet the Teacher event sponsored by H.G. Olsen Elementary
School teacher Ginny Shaw. The event was held Friday, Aug. 18, prior to the first day of school on
Monday, Aug. 21.
Bringing off a new, larger drainage
pipe the length of Oleander Street
will pull the city's reserve fund down
to around $2 million, Kovacs told
the council; however, he said it can
be done without endangering other
needed projects.
"If we do this (Oleander Street), it
will alleviate flooding problems from
the school and into the flats?" Mayor
Claude Brown asked City Engineer
Jim Urban before the vote to tell Ko-
vacs to go ahead with the project.
Run-off from the Port Aransas
school complex flows to Alister
Street during heavy rains and either
collects at Alister and Beach streets
or continues on to flood Avenue
A. That water, in turn, tries to flow
south toward wetlands in the area of
Charlie's Pasture. It's these problems
that the council wants to deal with by
increasing stormwater drainage along
Oleander.
Urban agreed that yes, the Oleander
Street project should take care of those
problems.
All the projects included in the
two ballot questions were part of a
bond election called by a previous
council in 2004. Voters rejected both
those questions, but current council
members believe if they explain fully
to voters how the money will be used,
voters will back the issuance of the
bonds.
Kovacs said it would take a tax
increase of 1 cent per $100 valuation
to pay for each $1 million in general
obligation bonds the city issues. That
would add $73.84 per year in city
property taxes for the owner of a
homesteaded $275,000 home.
Along with the $2,685 million for
streets and drainage, voters will be
asked to approve $3,775 million for
renovation and addition to the city hall
complex, including the civic center.
That was one option presented by
architect Carolyn James of Gignac
Architects when she briefed council
members on a facilities study she did
for the council.
Another option under city hall
improvement was to get rid of the ex-
isting Community Center and replace
it with a combination building that
would house the Parks and Recreation
Department, the library and exhibit
and other space that could be used by
citizens.
That option not only was not ap-
proved, it was stricken from the record
entirely on a suggestion from council
member Beverly Charles.
"Could we strike the language that
says the Community Center could be
See'VOTERS,'Page 6A
Goals
City council adopts
'to do' list for year
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
City council members on Thursday,
Aug. 17, approved an ambitious set of
goals for the coming fiscal year, some
of which are making a repeat appear-
ance on the goals list.
The goals were hammered out dur-
ing a workshop in June, to which each
member of the council brought his
own priorities.
Approved on Aug. 17:
• Support new Police Chief Sam
Russell and press for continued quality
improvements in the Police Depart-
ment
• Review Beach Advisory Commit-
tee recommendations and continue
to enforce permits on beaches and in
wetlands (the Beach Advisory Com-
See 'GOALS,' Page 6A
South Jetty launches online edition
By Mary Henkel Judson
South Jetty editor
The South Jetty is introducing
its online edition this week. Online
browsers will be able to access the
entire newspaper, including reproduc-
tions of each page of the newspaper,
(known as PDFs) by going online to
www.portasouthjetty.com.
This week's edition may not be
available until late today, Thursday,
Aug. 24, for Internet customers who
are served by Century Tel.
Effective with the Sept. 21 edition,
a subscription will be required to view
the full online edition. Internet users
going to the South Jetty Web site will
be able to see the first few lines of each
story. If they want to view the entire
story they can click on "More", which
will lead them to an online subscrip-
tion form.
They'll be thrilled.
That's how they keep
in touch with their
grandchildren.
Ginny Shaw, referring to her
parents who live in wales and
will become online subscribers
New subscribers will have a choice
of subscribing to the online and/or
print edition of the newspaper. Sub-
scribers to the print edition may add an
online subscription for an additional
$10. The online subscription will
expire at the same time as the print
edition subscription. Renewal notices
for both will be sent, and subscribers
may opt for the print edition, online
edition, or both.
The rate for an online subscription
will be $26, the same as the in-county
print edition rate, no matter where the
subscriber lives.
In-county subscribers to the print
edition may take advantage of the
combination rate of $36 for both the
print and online editions.
The combination rate for out-of-
county subscribers will be $39, which
is $10 over the out-of-county rate for
the print edition.
The combination rate for subscrib-
ers in foreign countries will be $66.50,
also $10 over the rate for the print
edition.
Subscribers who spend part of the
year in Port Aransas and would like
to read the print edition while they
are here may purchase a combination
subscription and have the print edition
sent to their Port Aransas address.
They still will be able to access the
online edition.
New subscriptions to the online
edition only will begin with the Sept.
21 edition.
Readers will be able to subscribe
to the print and/or online editions by
going to the South Jetty Web site and
following the instructions.
The online edition will be presented
in both text and PDF formats.
"The online edition will be a major
advantage for our advertisers since it
will allow readers to click on an ad in
the text format that will bring the ad
to full size on the viewer's screen. If
the advertiser has a Web site link in
the ad, the viewer can click on it,"
said Murray Judson, South Jetty co-
publisher.
Advertisers' display ads also will be
found in a "marketplace" of similar
ads, such as real estate and fishing/
boating, which are listed across the
top of the home page.
Advertisers will enjoy the added
value of the online edition exposure
without a rate increase through the
rest of the year, Judson said.
The online edition of the South Jetty
See'ONLINE,'Page 6A
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School bells ring
Monday to start
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Staff photo by Phil Reynolds
Courtesy photo by Barbara Brooks
First online
Retired Port Aransas City
Manager Tom Brooks takes
a break from tending to the
peach, apple and plum trees,
and grape vines he raises tp
enjoy the last hard copy of
the South Jetty that he has
received. Brooks was the first
person to register to receive
future editions of the South
Jetty online. He says that it
will now be difficult to get his
garden tractor into his office
to sit on while reading future
editions of the South Jetty
on his computer. The online
edition is pictured at left. The
South Jetty introduces the
online edition this week at
www.portasouthjetty.com.
09809
www.portasouthjetty.com
i
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 34, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 24, 2006, newspaper, August 24, 2006; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth409953/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.