Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 25, 2010 Page: 1 of 14
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?769 04-29-10 0071DO0 113P 3IS
ELL IS 11 EM OR IAL LIBR ARY
700 W AVENUE A
PORT ARANSAS TX 78373-4128
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ELLIS MEf'ORIAL U2RARY
700WHST AVE.A
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Vol. 40 No. 12
© 2010 Port Aransas South Jetty - All Rights Reserved
USPS 946-020
750
THIS EDITION
Opens tonight
‘Cheatin’, the newest offering
from the Port Aransas
Community Theater, opens
tonight.
Page 2A
Help-copter
A girl, who fell off the
tailgate of a pickup truck on
the beach and injured her
head, was taken by medical
helicopter to a Corpus Christi
hospital during Spring Break.
No charges were filed, and
the girl was reported to be
recovering well.
Page 2B
Links
WWW.PORTASOUTHJETTY.COM
Beach & Surf
conditions
www.portasouthjetty.com
Ferry wait times
Jumping for joy
Mason Saenz, 16, of Portland, performs a jump at the edge of a bowl at
the new skate area at Port Aransas Community Park on Sunday, March
21. A crowd of more than 100 converged on the park for a ribbon cutting
Staff photo by Dan Parker
and the official opening of the skate area. The ribbon cutting was orgin-
allly scheduled for Saturday, but a cold, wet front caused officials to delay
it until Sunday. (More photos on Page 1B.)
Dog parks on drawing boards
_—.
Find out how long the wait
times are from both sides of
the ship channel at
www.portasouthjetty.com
Index
Church
Pastor’s pen......................
,4A
This Week
Beach walk.......................
,2A
Cheatin’............................
,2A
Island Life
Columnists
• Tony Amos.....................
.7 A
Island agenda...................
,2A
Law enforcement .............
,2B
Sales tax allocation.........
.7 A
Youth
Education notes...............
..3B
Easter egg hunt...............
,.3B
Sports
Baseball...........................
,.3B
Golf.................................
,.3B
Opinion
Dave McNeely..................
,.3A
,Todd Hunter....................
,.3A
Mary Henkel Judson.........
,.3A
Outdoors
Fishing report..................
,.6A
Tides ...............................
,.6A
Weather..........................
..6A
Classified
Classified ads...............4B-6B
SOUTH JETTY NEWSPAPER PLU#i
By Dan Parker
This town is going to the dogs.
Port Aransas city officials and Nueces
County officials are making plans to
establish what could end up being two
separate dog parks in town. City officials
are investigating the possibility of putting
a temporary dog park on acreage off
Port Street. The city park, if it is built, is
envisioned to be temporary, remaining
in place possibly only until the county
dog park is built as part of I.B. Magee
Beach Park.
Grady Jones said a dog park would be
a welcome relief for Max, his five-year-
old yellow Labrador retriever. Max lives
Revamped
codes, zoning
get final nod
By Dan Parker
After months of talk, meetings and
repeated votes at city hall. Port Aransas
now has a rewritten set of city codes
and a revamped zoning map.
The city council voted unanimously
on third reading to pass a top-to-bol-
tom rewrite of city codes on Thursday,
March 18.
The council voted 6-1 to pass the
redrawn zoning map on third reading.
Councilman Charles Bujan’s no vote
came in connection with a 10-acre
piece of land located off Paradise
Point Road.
The undeveloped acreage off Para-
dise Point Road has been zoned light
industrial for years. In the relatively
recent process of redrawing the zoning
map, the Planning and Zoning Com-
mission decided it would be more ap-
propriate to zone the land TR-1, tour-
ist-recreational, because that's the kind
of development that generally has been
taking place in that area, said Interim
City Manager Dave Parsons.
The property is owned by an Okla-
homa family. The family requested
that the property remain zoned light
industrial because it would allow for a
wider range of uses, Parsons said.
Most of the council got behind a
compromise that the property be re-
zoned C-2, a zone that would allow for
some commercial uses but not as many
as light industrial. Bujan said he voted
no because he felt owners of property
surrounding the 10 acres should have
been notified by the city of plans for a
possible rezoning of the land.
Speaking generally, Parsons said it’s
important that people buying property
check how a neighborhood is zoned
See ‘Zoning’ Page 3A
with Jones on a 35-foot houseboat, the
Bayou Baby, at Dennis Dreyer Municipal
Marina.
Simply walking a dog on a leash
doesn’t provide the pooch with enough
fun and exercise, even if you do it a few
times a day, Jones said.
Keeping a dog on a leash “is like telling
a kid they can’t go to a playground,” Jones
said. “All they can do is walk around and
look at it, walk along beside you.”
On Thursday, March 18, the city coun-
cil voted unanimously to have staff take
steps to pursue the idea of establishing
an unfenced park where dogs could run,
unleashed. The site being considered is
the 67-acre piece of city property that lies
next to the Port Aransas Nature Preserve
at Charlie’s Pasture. Horses also have
been mentioned as possible customers
of such a site.
The move was made at the behest of
See ‘Dog Park,’ Page 3A
Grosse salvages dugout canoe
beached on Matagorda Island
By Dan Parker
dan @ portasouthjetty.com
Mark Grosse’s latest lawn ornament
drifted possibly a few thousand miles to
get to the Texas coast.
Grosse has obtained a 22-foot dugout
canoe that he recently found lying in a
remote area of Matagorda Island. The
canoe likely came from Central America,
said Rick Pratt, a boat builder who has
studied dugout construction techniques
of Central America.
The battered dugout, which isn’t
seaworthy, now lies in a yard behind
Grosse’s business, Mark Grosse Real
Estate. He said he intends to incorporate
the vessel into some landscaping.
Grosse first spotted the boat sev-
eral months ago while piloting his 1957
Cessna 180 along the coast about 40
miles north of Port Aransas. The vessel
was lying in the sand near the high-tide
line on Matagorda Island, nearly all of
which is uninhabited.
Grosse kept seeing the boat lying in
the same place during later jaunts over
the island. He asked Mike Roberson,
who operates Tow Boat U.S., to salvage
the vessel.
After waiting a while for calm seas,
Roberson and his crew chugged up to
Matagorda, tied some rope around the
canoe, pumped some water out of it and
towed it to Port Aransas on Monday,
March 23.
Pratt took a look at the canoe after the
crew hauled it ashore at Dennis Dreyer
Municipal Marina. The dugout likely was
built in Nicaragua and Honduras within
the last 25 years, Pratt said. Square nails
sticking out of the wood hint at a possibly
older age.
The hull appears to be dug out of a
mahogany log. Planks line the top edges.
Some fiberglass also has been added. A
square notch on the narrow stem appar-
ently was used as a mounting location for
an outboard motor.
The hull is slightly worm-eaten. Rob-
erson, who has been salvaging boats for
more than 30 years, said the canoe could
have been adrift for years. Currents in
the Gulf of Mexico have been known to
sweep flotsam round and round in broad
See ‘Dugout,’ Page 3A
Dugout discovery ST4FF FHOTO sv DAN P4RKE"
Tow Boat U.S. workers and boat builder Rick Pratt look over a dug-out
canoe found on the Matagorda Peninsula and towed to Port Aransas on
Monday, March 22. The canoe may have drifted to the Texas coast from
Central America, said Pratt, who has studied the dugout canoe construc-
tion practices of Central America.
Appraisal district
to refund city,
school district
The Nueces County Appraisal
District has agreed to refund the
City of Port Aransas and the Port
Aransas 1SD tax monies collected
and set aside in a building fund.
Page 8A
You’ve got mail:
A Census form
You got a government form
in the mail last week, and it has
nothing to do with taxes.
Every 10 years, the U.S. Census
Bureau does a survey of the nation
to learn such things as who lives
where and how the population is
distributed.
Page 4A
Candidates for
city manager
to be interviewed
Search committee members are
scheduled to conduct face-to-face
interviews next week with the final
five candidates for the position
of Port Aransas city manager,
according to Mayor Pro Tern Keith
McMullin.
Page 8A
Sunrise service
for community
slated for Easter
A community-wide
interdenominational Easter Sunday
sunrise service will be held
Sunday, April 4.
In addition to the annual sunrise
service, several Port Aransas
churches will hold special Holy
Week services.
Page 4A
Missing girls
found unharmed
Two San Antonio area girls
went missing for more than 24
hours in Port Aransas before being
found on Wednesday, March 17,
unharmed, police said.
Friends Taylor Newman, 11,
and Nicole Colla, 12, disappeared
for more than a day after last being
seen walking on the beach about
8 a.m. Tuesday, March 16, police
said.
Page 2B
New system
may expedite
jury selection
A new jury summons system
going into effect in Nueces County
won’t change jury duty much,
but it may affect how you report
for jury duty - or even whether
you report at all, county jury
administrators say.
Page 8A
Sandsculpting
lessons kick off
SandFest April 3
The 14th annual SandFest, the
largest master sand-sculpting
contest in the U.S., begins a week
in advance on Saturday, April 3,
with free sand-sculpting lessons
from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Page 8A
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 40, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 25, 2010, newspaper, March 25, 2010; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth505796/m1/1/?q=architectural+drawings: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.