Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 24, 2011 Page: 1 of 20
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Thursday, March 24, 2011
Vol. 42 No. 12
V Big crowd, little trouble
Public input
sought on
SH 361 plans
Got something to say
about the future of State
Hwy. 361?
The Texas Department of
Transportation (TxDOT) is
inviting the public to take
part in a “citizens’ meeting”
to review and comment on
proposed improvements.
The meeting will be from
5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday,
March 29.
2A
All-region
Spring Break
ride-along
gives insight
to cops’job
Sophomore Marlin point
guard Tyler Pate has
been named to the Texas
Association of Basketball
Coaches’ all-region team.
11A
Fishing
competition
starts Saturday
Anglers will kick off this
year’s fishing tournament
season on Saturday,
March 26, at Fred Rhodes
Pavilion at Roberts Point
Park in Port Aransas.
8A
Nice catch
This young angler didn’t
let his elders get a lead.
He held his own with a
nice stringer of redfish,
trout, sheepshead and
drum -- all of which have
been eagerly taking bait
this week.
Link
- - -vy
WWW.PORTASOUTHJETTY.COM
Ferry Wait Times
View the Ferry Line
View Beach and Surf
Conditions
L" ■ • ,* • -___-1
mtsm
View Current, Past
Videos
/irausa* ucamca as opi
Break partying peaked
Saturday, March 19. Folic
Editor’s note: For six hours,
South Jetty reporter/photog-
rapher Dan Parker rode with
Port Aransas police officers
while they patrolled Port
Aransas beaches as Spring
on
Follow-
ing is his report.
Dan Parker
Reporter
3:51 p.m.
“It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen
it in the three years I’ve been
here,” Police Chief Scott Bur-
roughs says as he walks out of
the police station to step into
his patrol car and begin his
shift. “The traffic is backed way
down (State Hwy.) 361.”
With what Burroughs esti-
mates to be more than 100,000
people packing Port Aransas,
law enforcement has its hands
full, trying to contend with
beach crowds and the mostly
minor but numerous offenses
associated with them.
4:02 p.m. Burroughs drives
his unmarked Dodge Charger
down State Hwy. 361. He turns
east on Beach Access Road 1
and finds himself in a long line
of stop-and-go traffic headed
toward the shore. The road is
only about a quarter-mile long,
but it takes Burroughs more
than 20 minutes to drive it.
The access road empties into
a massive delta of humanity
on the beach. At this single
shoreline spot alone, hun-
dreds of Spring Breakers are
walking, driving, yelling, curs-
ing, woo-hooing, drinking,
ogling, dancing, barbecuing,
Staff photos by Dan Parker
Fun - with limits
Spring Breakers in what may
have been record-breaking
numbers enjoy the beach,
above, under sunny skies and
warm temperatures during the
week of March 14-19. At left,
one Spring Breaker apparently
tested the limits and was
‘written up’ by Port Aransas
Police Chief Scott Burroughs,
right, as officerJeremy Stewart
looks on. See more photos on
Page 1B, and view a video at
www.portasouthjetty.com
flying flags, throwing beaded
necklaces and playing music
- everything from country
to rap, on gut-rattlingly loud
car stereos.
A pickup truck with several
young men and women in
the back is leaving the beach
just as Burroughs arrives.
Burroughs picks up his mi-
crophone and talks to them
through the speaker mounted
behind his car’s grill.
“Y’all need to get off the
rail,” Burroughs says. The
young folks comply, hunker-
ing down in the truck’s bed.
It’s a police mantra during
Spring Break: “Get off the
edge. Sit in the bed of the
truck.” You hear it over and
over, up and down the beach.
Officers say it’s an important
warning, a safety issue. All it
takes is a slight loss of bal-
ance for just a second, and a
passenger could plunge to the
ground, with a possibly seri-
ous injury resulting. Alcohol
makes a fall more likely.
“I don’t think they have a
clue about how hard that sand
is when they hit it,” Burroughs
says.
5:01 p.m. A golf cart stops
in the middle of the beach
road, maybe 40 yards ahead
of Burroughs’ car. A middle-
aged woman who had been
driving the cart is getting out
of the vehicle, walking to the
passenger side and letting a
girl who doesn’t look more
than 10 years old slide in be-
hind the wheel.
I like your car.
Spring Breaker
Thanks. Me,
too.
Scott Burroughs
Chief, PAPD
Burroughs pulls up near the
golf cart. His car is unmarked,
but when he flips a switch, the
headlights and taillights flash,
and small red-and-blue lights
flash on the vehicle’s visors and
out the back window.
“I just wanted her to drive
this little area,” the woman tells
Burroughs.
“You have to have a driver’s
license to drive that,” Bur-
roughs says.
“OK, yes sir,” the woman
says, and she gets back behind
the wheel.
Burroughs cruises slowly
along a seemingly endless
phalanx of Spring Breakers
who stand along the edge
of the beach road, watching
traffic stream past and yell-
ing jocular, frequently coarse
greetings at motorists and
their passengers.
Not everyone is rude,
though.
“I like your car,” one young
man calls into Burroughs’
open window.
“Thanks,” Burroughs says.
“Me, too.”
5:35 p.m. Four young wom-
en in bikinis are riding in the
‘SPRING BREAK’ 6A
Are we ready?
Consultant will help get city hurricane-ready
Dan Parker
Reporter
The Port Aransas City
Council has decided to hire
a consultant to assess how
ready the city is to handle a
hurricane.
The council voted 6-0 on
Thursday, March 17, to hire
retired emergency manage-
ment coordinator Randy Si-
jansky of Corpus Christi to
do conduct the evaluation.
Councilman Rick Pratt was
absent.
No specific price tag for
Sijansky’s services was men-
tioned, but the motion ap-
proved by council called for
paying him up to $9,000.
Sijansky retired last year
from his job as emergency
management coordinator for
the city of Corpus Christi.
He previously was a regional
liaison officer with the Texas
Division of Emergency Man-
agement.
“ I
can’t say
enough
about the
qualifica-
tions that
this gen-
tle m a n
brings to
the table,”
said May-
i _or Keith
McMullin,
who placed the assessment
Sijansky
idea on the agenda. “I think
it would be money well-
spent for the citizens of Port
Aransas.”
Police Chief Scott Bur-
roughs, who is designated
the city’s official emergency
manager, agreed.
“I think this is a golden
opportunity to bring in a true
expert,” Burroughs said.
Sijanksy said he plans to
meet with city department
heads first and then do “a
comprehensive review of the
city’s preparation, response
and recovery plans.”
Sijansky will check out the
city’s timelines for evacua-
tions. A look at ferry opera-
tions will be part of that, he
said.
The consultant also will
review the kinds of heavy
equipment that the city has on
hand and what kinds of con-
‘sijansky; 7 a
Hard at work
Shaw back home to practice
with initial prosthetic legs
Editor’s note: This is the
seventh installment in a
series of stories about Harry
Shaw, a Port Aransas man
who lost his legs in 1983 to
injuries he suffered while
serving as a U.S. Army para-
trooper in the Grenadan
conflict. The series traces
Shaw’s experiences as he gets
prosthetic legs and walks
again for the first time in
nearly 30 years.
Dan Parker
Reporter
Harry Shaw walked across
the yard, picked up a hammer
and nailed a board onto a new
fence that he, his family and
some friends were putting
up behind his Port Aransas
house.
“I can still swing a ham-
mer,” he said, smiling.
He was walking pretty well,
too. Not bad for a man who
had no legs for about 27 years
and only recently got pros-
thetic ones.
It was Wednesday, March
16, and Shaw had been home
for five days from a facility
called the Center for the In-
trepid, where for months he
had been getting the physical
therapy he needed to make
his new legs work. A part of
Brooke Army Medical Hospi-
tal, the Center for the Intrepid
serves mostly military person-
nel who have been catastroph-
ically disabled in operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Shaw had been at the Cen-
ter for the Intrepid since july
29. He’s been getting great
treatment there, but that’s
not the first thing that he
says when someone asks him
how his stay at the facility
has been.
“It’s been fantastic,” Shaw
said. “It’s actually heartening
to see there are still people,
the kind of people I remember
from my youth. I wouldn’t
say anyone sets out to be-
come selfless, but there are
a lot of selfless acts that led
these people here. Very heroic
people. There are some pretty
outstanding individuals.”
When he was 21 years old,
Shaw was part of the Ameri-
can military forces that in-
vaded Grenada in 1983. He
lost both of his legs to friendly
fire.
After healing up from
nearly fatal injuries, Shaw
tried using prosthetic limbs
for several months, but they
didn’t work out. Scar tissue on
his legs became irritated, and
the prosthetics of that era were
so heavy that Shaw decided
‘SHAW,’ 7 A
Home repairs
Staff photo by Dan Parker
Harry Shaw hammers away at a new fence that he, family
and friends were erecting in the back yard of his Port
Aransas home on Wednesday, Feb. 16. Shaw, a U.S. Army
veteran who lost his legs during combat in Grenada, was
wearing prosthetic limbs called “stubbies.”
Index
Calendars
• Island agenda.......
JELM.
Sports
• John Schepper
Classifieds
Island Life
Softball.......................
..10A
• Alice Estelle Dreyer
Real Estate...........
....5B-8B
Pet Paper Caper.........
... 8B
Baseball......................
.. 11A
Columnists
School
Law enforcement ........
... 2B
Church
• Scott Burroughs.......
. 3B
Education notes ....
..........9A
Opinion
. 2A
Church directory.........
,...5A
• Todd Hunter..............
. 3B
School menus........
.........9A
• Letters to editor ....
.....3 A
12A
Pastor’s pen................
,...5A
• Lynn Steakley............
. 6B
Outdoors
• Cal Thomas..............
.....3 A
. 4B
Obituaries..................
„..5A
• Tony Amos..................
. 8B
Fishing report.......
..........8A
• Dave McNeely..........
.....3A
12A
• Fisher W. Brown Jr
• John Fucik..................
,.9A
Tides & Weather....
.........8A
• Mary H. Judson........
.....3 A
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 12, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 24, 2011, newspaper, March 24, 2011; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth505939/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.