Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 2013 Page: 1 of 18
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ELLIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY
South Jett
750
Thursday, January 3, 2013 ©2013
Vol. 42 No. 1
Safe ... or so he thought.
Making a break for it.
Busted!
Foiled again!
Staff photos by Alex Scott
Wily coyote’s escape attempt foiled
By Alex Scott
Reporter
On a cold morning Friday, Dec. 28, a coyote
was spotted planning a cruise on the bow of
a boat in Dennis Dreyer Municipal Harbor.
According to Port Aransas Animal Control
Officer Jim Williams, the coyote had been
running through Roberts Point Park when it
was frightened toward the docks, and found
refuge on a boat.
Williams, along with the help of other
animal control officers, began to try to scare
the coyote off the boat and away from people
who were using the marina, docks and park.
After a few minutes of failed coaxing, the
coyote suddenly bolted off of his newfound
refuge, skipped the dock and went straight
for the water.
The coyote started swimming toward the
bulkheads before becoming trapped and turn-
ing around toward the open harbor.
As the animal control officers darted to get a
noose to capture the coyote, Miles Chance, an
onlooker, made a daring, though ill-advised,
plunge into the chilly water to help round up
the coyote, Williams said.
Chance said he believed the coyote was
scared and would have gotten tired after swim-
ming from the bulkheads to the open water,
and could have drowned.
After a brief struggle in the water, Chance
was able to grab the coyote by the neck and
head and bring him toward the dock.
With the noose attached around the coyotes
neck, Chance and Williams worked together
to get it up onto the dock, before Williams put
it in his truck.
Williams said he was then taking the coyote
to the animal shelter, and afterwards would
relocate and release it back in the wild.
Little Chapel
The Little Chapel on the
Hill is a Port Aransas
landmark.
2012 Top 20
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Ferry Wait Times
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• Soldier returns
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Winter Texans
Annual arrival is slowed
by election, warm weather
By Alex Scott
Reporter
They have been called
snowbirds, RVers and many
other nicknames by towns and
communities to describe the
migrating masses that head
south for the winter.
But here — when the no-
mads of the north make their
way into the community of
Port Aransas - they are wel-
comed with the title, Winter
Texans.
The Winter Texans have
started making their way into
Port Aransas, but exactly
how many is a hard statistic
to gather.
Family Center IGA
Co-owner Mike Hall said,
after talking to other local
business operators, that Port
Aransas is just below average
for this time of year.
“From what I’ve noticed, an
election year or warm weather
can slow down the migration
down here,” said Hall. “This
year we have had both.”
Although it seems to be just
below average, Hall expects
the rest of the Winter Texans
to be here after the New Year.
“The people I network with,
hotel operators and local busi-
ness operators, expect them
to come in full force after Jan.
1,” said Hall. “We are going
to see trailer parks, hotels
and condos filling up rapidly,
but I don’t know if that is just
wishful thinking.”
RVs seem to be the trans-
portation of choice for Winter
Texans, but some local RV
‘ELECTION,’ Page 5 A
Fog no deterrent
Staff Photo by Alex Scott
Winter may be here, but that doesn’t keep local and Winter Texan fishermen from heading
to the water. Above, Jerry Sharp of Michigan fishes on a city pier on a foggy day. Sharp,
along with many others, spends some of the winter in Port Aransas.
EMS director down to three finalists
Mary Judson
Editor
Port Aransas may have
a new Emergency Medical
Services director by the end of
January, according to interim
City Manager Dave Parsons.
Police Chief Scott Bur-
roughs, who was not available
to be interviewed for this
story, oversaw the selection
process, and Parsons reported
the list of applicants had been
narrowed to three finalists.
Originally, there were five
finalists, but one accepted a
job elsewhere and the other
withdrew.
Interviews with the final
three were conducted Dec.
10 and 11.
An offer probably will be
made to one of the finalists
this week, Parsons said.
If the top candidate accepts
the offer, “it probably takes a
month to get things in order,”
Parsons said, so it would be
the end of January at the ear-
liest before the new director
comes on board.
Parsons said the quality of
the three finalists is “really
good. They interviewed well
and all have good qualifica-
tions.”
At first, advertising for the
position was limited to the
immediate area.
“We didn’t get the numbers
we wanted, so we went out to
San Antonio and that helped;
we got better response,” Par-
sons said.
The list of top applicants
was narrowed to eight, then
five and finally three.
The new director will take
the place of Yancy Gillespie
who retired after 25 years at
the end of September.
Meanwhile, EMT Daniel
Johnson is acting director,
with help on paperwork from
Finance Director Darla Ho-
nea.
“We’ve got a good group
over there; they*re just not
used to the paperwork,” Par-
sons said.
He added that even after
a new director is hired, the
EMS still will be short one
paramedic.
‘EMS,’ Page 3A
Peppe|fy pQ§f[ Control best hope
for invasive species
Mary Judson That’s Pqrt Aransas Parks pepper trees that populate
Editor and Recreation Department Port Aransas.
If you can’t get rid of them, Director David Hyde’s attitude “I don’t know if we could
control them. toward the invasive Brazilian ever totally eradicate them be-
Staff Photo by Alex Scott
Team effort
The Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Department teamed up with volunteers to eradicate
Brazilian pepper trees at the Nature Preserve in Charlie’s Pasture on a recent day. The
parks department gets volunteers to help eradicate the non-native plant once a month.
cause of trees on private prop-
erty. We can’t attack those,”
Hyde said.
And there’s the matter of a
difference of opinion.
“Some citizens agree with
getting rid of them, and others
think they’re part of Mother
Nature and don’t want to
get rid of them. The birds
still eat the berries and move
them around, so the goal is
to control them (the trees),”
Hyde said.
A monthly foray into the
Nature Preserve at Charlie’s
Pasture is one way the parks
department is working to
control the trees that, during
the fall, are “peppered” with
red berries that, when crushed
- you guessed it - smell like
pepper.
Volunteers are asked to
help with the once-a-month
clearing of pepper trees at
various locations throughout
the preserve.
“The volunteers really come
to war; we’re getting a lot of
them and they help us out
a lot,” Hyde said. “We put a
pretty good dent in it every
month when we’ve been out
there. After a year or so, we’ll
really see some progress.”
In addition to the monthly
attacks on the trees with the
help of volunteers, city crews
go to various other parts of
the city, including the Joan
and Scott Holt Paradise Pond
Birding Center. In November,
city crews went to the Port
Aransas Community Park
swimming pool area.
These efforts are possible
during the “slower time,” Hyde
said. But during summer,
crews are “pretty hot and
heavy into mowing, so we’ll
only do the monthly program
then,” he said.
A Washington, D.C., lob-
byist for the city is looking
into grants to help pay for the
program, which Hyde said
the direct cost is “a couple of
thousand dollars or less;’
The lobbyist also is search-
ing for funding to pay for
public education “to let the
public know that these are not
your good trees,” Hyde said.
“If they’re close to your
‘CONTROL,’ Page 5A
Index
Calendars
Art Center.....................6A
Island agenda.................2A
JELM..............................3B
W 3 ___
Island Life Classifieds Opinion Obituary.........................3B
Constable’s beat.............2B Real Estate..............6B-8B Dave McNeely................3A • William ‘Bill’ Newsome
Police blotter................2B Youth Cal Thomas....................3A Columnists
History corner...............8B Education notes.............7A Mary Henkel Judson.......3A Scott Burroughs ..'.........2B
OmopQRS School menus.................7A Letters to the Editor.....3A Tony Amos......................5B
Fishing report................4B Basketball Church Willis Webb....................6A
Tides & Weather.............4B Marlins................... ,9A Directory......................3B
Science & Sea................5B Lady Marlins..................8A Pastor’s pen..................3B
SOUTH JETTY NEWSPAPER PLU#
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 1, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 2013, newspaper, January 3, 2013; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth505904/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.