Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 27, 2011 Page: 1 of 20
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ELLIS r.'E’IORIAL LIBRARY
7C3 WEST AVE, A
Fall BacKHnr
Bits to run between Old Town and festival site
Going to the Fall Back Festival?
Gont want to drive?
You don’t have to.
Grganizers of the event have
arranged for a bus to take revelers
to and from the event on Saturday,
Oct. 29, on the grounds of the C Bar
Late at Cinnamon Shore.
A bus will depart from Pelicans
Landing at the corner of Alister and
Roberts streets in Old Town, at 6,7,
8 and 9 p.m.
The bus will make return trips at
9:30,10,10:30 and 11 p.m.
The cost is just a tip for the driver,
Fred Waring, who is a regular bus
driver on the RTA’s B-bus.
The bus being used for this event
is courtesy of the city’s Parks and
Recreation Department.
The 17th annual Fall Back Festi-
val will be from 7 to 10 p.m., featur-
ing a wine tasting, samples of food
from Port Aransas restaurants, live
music and dancing, a Chinese auc-
tion and a costume contest. Cost is
$30 a person, and it benefits the Port
Aransas Community Theatre.
Advance tickets may be pur-
chased at Gratitude Gift Shop, 316
N. Station St. Tickets also may be
purchased at the gate.
The fun will take place on the
grassy knoll surrounding the C
Bar Cafe at Cinnamon Shore.
Those who want to drive their own
vehicles need only to travel one
mile south of the golf cart bridge
at Newport Dunes Golf Resort on
State Hwy. 361.
Party-goers will find a large
lighted grassy circle surrounded
by a low wooden fence with many
openings. This is a new venue for
the Port Aransas tradition, and will
offer plenty of tables and chairs for
Number 1!
Port Aransas High School’s
Marlins brought home
the cross country district
championship Monday,
and the Lady Marlins took
second, earning both
teams berths at regional.
Festival fun
The addition of carnival
rides proved popular at the
PTO’s annual Fall Festival
on Sunday.
Canine costumes
The first Howl-a-Ween
Dog Costume Contest
attracted a crowd.
12A
Link
WWW.PORTASOUTHJETTY.COM
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wnm*i
DEO
chatting with friends.
A bandstand in the center is
where the Myndfields will play.
Back for their second year, the
band with leader Glynn Garcia, will
perform a variety of music genres,
including pop, western, rock and
blues that had the crowd rocking
out last year.
Food tables and wine tables will
be alternately placed around the
circle inside the fence. A number of
area restaurants, including Pelican’s
Landing, Fins Grill & Icehouse,
Castaways Seafood and Grill, Shell’s
Pasta & Seafood, Haydee on the
Side Catering, Lisabella’s Bistro,
Coffee Waves, Port A Pizzeria and
Slice of Chicago, will provide tasty
treats. More may join their ranks
before festival time. Seating also will
‘FALL BACK,’ 8A
Come on out! SwF PH0TO BV DAN P,RKER
Organizers and sponsors of the Fall Back Festival, set for Saturday,
Oct. 29, gathered at the new site on the grounds of the C Bar Cafe at
Cinnanmon Shore to go over plans for the fundraiser for the Port Aransas
Community Theatre. They are, from left, Jeff Wilkinson, Cinnamon Shore
resort manager; David Bendett owner of C Bar Cafe; Michael Ahlstrom
of Pelican’s Landing, and in front, Betty Crawford of the Port Aransas
Community Theatre.
South Jett
Thursday, October 27, 2011
©2011
Vol. 42 No. 43
Real ghost stories
Guest disappears, father visits son, friend calls on high school buddy
Dan Parker
Reporter
• An otherworldly guest
checks in at the Sportsman’s
Lodge
The late Carlos Moore friend, Matt Ward,
makes a benevolent visit to Port Aransas does indeed
his son, Trent. have its ghost stories. But the
• The victim of a fatal car tales that follow aren’t told in
wreck watches out for his jest, as so many are at Hallow-
een. The residents and former
residents who tell them are
serious when they say they’ve
seen things from beyond, enti-
ties from the other side.
The ultimate check-out
George Harris, 75, lives in
Hallettsville now, but from
1971 to 1991, he and'his wife,
Mary, were the owners and
managers of the Sportsman’s
Lodge, a cluster of motel cot-
tages located at Alister Street
and Avenue A. George said
he’ll never forget a certain
guest who came in on a Friday
about 30 years ago.
Courtesy photo by Steve Harris
ii
Boo(ts)!
A ghost’s cottage?
Staff photo by Dan Parker
Just after sunset on a recent day, guest William M. Thomas of Hot Springs, Ark., stands in
the doorway of cottage No. 2 at the Sportsman’s Lodge on Avenue A, just east of Alister
Street. George Harris, who formerly owned the motel, said a ghost once made a brief visit
to the cottage in the early 1980s.
City manager gets pay hike
The Port Aransas City
Council has decided to give
City Manager Robert Brad-
shaw a three percent raise.
Bradshaw’s salary goes up
from $108,992 to $112,257.
The council voted 7-0 on
Thursday, Oct. 20, to approve
the pay hike after a 15-min-
ute session behind closed
doors. Texas
law allows city
councils to
meet in closed
session to dis-
cuss person-
nel matters.
The discus-
sion in the
closed session
Robert
Bradshaw
was “brief and unanimous,”
Mayor Keith McMullin said.
“We remain very support-
ive of our city manager,” Mc-
Mullin said.
Most city employees got
pay raises of at least three
percent in the city budget
passed Sept. 8.
‘Bradshaw’ Page 8A
.. .while I was
under water, I
could see my
father, He was
telling me,
‘Don’t worry,
son, it’ll be OK.’
Trent Moore
“I remember he was a young
man, about 25 years old,”
George said. “He came into
the office dressed in a western
shirt and Levis and all, and
he wanted a room for the
weekend.”
George had the man fill out
a short register and directed
him to cottage No. 2. The man
These are the boots that
were left at a Port Aransas
motel by a guest whom
former inn keeper George
Harris believes to have
been a ghost.
asked where a grocery might
be. George directed him to the
Family Center IGA.
The man left. Neither George
nor Mary saw the man again.
On Monday, when it came
time to do some cottage clean-
ing, George and Mary visited
No. 2.
“We opened the door and
walked in, and there was a
little kitchen table to the right
of the door, and there were two
sacks of groceries that never
had been unsacked,” George
recalled.
“And, right two steps inside
- this is the wild part - there
were his boots, pants, under-
wear and shirt, like he had just
‘GHOST,’Page 5A
Voters to decide beach fate
Dan Parker
Reporter
Port Aransans will decide
for themselves whether they
want rules changed so the city
could someday allow sales of
food and beverages on the
beach.
The city council on Thurs-
day, Oct. 20, voted to allow
the issue to go to a referendum
election to be held May 10.
The vote was unanimous, with
all seven council members
present.
The council voted 4-3 on
July 21 to alter the city’s Coast-
al Management Plan (CMP) to
give the city the power to later,
if desired, create an ordinance
to provide for food and drink
concessions and beach-related
services such as surfing lessons
on the shore. That vote later
was challenged by a group of
Petition leaders
Edwin
Myers
Charles
Bujan
Glenda
Balentine
Port Aransans who circulated
a petition to hold a referen-
dum on the idea.
The council could have
voted to reverse its decision,
thereby avoiding a referendum
election. That’s what council
member Glenda Balentine
urged.
‘Why do we need to have a
(referendum) vote on it when
it’s clear what (voters) are tell-
ing us?” she said.
Councilman Keith Donley
said a referendum should go
forward, and he indicated that
Port Aransans might end up
approving of the CMP change
after “disinformation” on the
issue is cleared up.
“All we’re saying is, if (the
beach) ever is broke, give us
the tools to fix it,” Donley
said.
If the CMP change ends up
being approved, the council
still would have to approve,
on three readings, a new or-
dinance to institute a program
for letting vendors sell food
and drinks on parts of the
beach that are run by the city.
(That’s pretty much everything
south of Lantana Drive, to the
city limits.)
Food and beverages are sold
at Horace Caldwell Pier, but
that isn’t on a city-run area
part of the beach. It’s operated
by Nueces County.
As currently written, the
CMP allows the city to have
only one beach vendor, and
the document specifies that
the business must be the kind
that rents items like umbrel-
las and chairs. The vendor
also must sell beach parking
permits.
Although the council voted
three months ago to change
the CMP’s language, it won’t
be officially altered until after
the Texas General Land Of-
fice signs off on the idea. The
process hasn’t gotten that far
along yet.
Opponents of the CMP
change have said that the
amendment would allow the
beach to become too com-
mercialized.
A majority of council mem-
bers have said they don’t want
to use the CMP change to
pass an ordinance to set up a
program that would actively
solicit vendors to do business
‘BEACH’ 8A
■Bnammi
Index
Classifieds
Real Estate..............5B-8B
Sports
Cross country...............7A
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■I
Youth
School menus.............
,...6A
Columnists
Scott Burroughs.....
.....2B
Calendars
Island agenda......
2A
Education notes.........
,...6A
Tony Amos................
.....8B
Art Center..........
10A
Opinion
Lynn Steakley ..........
.....8B
JELM........
3B
Dave McNeely............
,...3A
Todd Hunter............
.....6B
Outdoors
Cal Thomas................
...3A
Church
Fishing report
4B
Mary Henkel Judson....
,...3A
Church directory.....
.....3B
Tides.............
4B
Letters ....................
...3A
Pastor’s Pen............
.....3B
Weather................
........4B
■nMHa
Island Life
Law enforcement......... 2B
Pet Paper Caper.........12A
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, October 27, 2011, newspaper, October 27, 2011; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth505862/m1/1/: accessed April 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.