Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 22, 2006 Page: 1 of 24
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mw*m****#*#CAR-RT WSHMR 001
276? 04-29-07 59W 158P 46S
ELLIS flEMORIALLIBRARY
700 U AVENUE A
PORT ARANSAS TX 78373-4126
Thursday, June 22, 2006
750
Vol. 36 No. 25
Covering Port Aransas on Mustang Island
USPS 946-020
Island Outdoors
Fish on!
The Corpus Christi Big Game
Club, which homeports
in Port Aransas, reports
standings after tournament
two.
Page 12A
Island Life
Back in time
Tony Amos, with his brother
and sister, visited the Amos
homestead in England.
Page 11B
Opinion
Timing
... Every summer the state
works on the ferry system,
putting a terrible ordeal
on people trying to get to
the island. . . . Isn’t there
something that can be done
to get the state to work
on the ferry system during
the winter months? The
temperature isn’t a factor.
Bill and Jan Easum
Port Aransas
Constable kudos
____The last few issues of the
South Jetty have reported...
several instances of citations
being issued for littering on
the beach. Congratulations
to the constable’s office.
Gerry Wettersten
Port Aransas
Letters to the editor
Page 3A
Index-
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
With some reluctance, city council
members agreed on Thursday, June 15,
to kick in $1.7 million toward a pro-
posed improvement program for State
Hwy. 361 south of Port Aransas.
The project was in a gestation period
for a few years, with engineers at the
Texas Department of Transportation
(TxDOT) working on design and
planning. But after city engineer Jim
Urban discovered that those plans
didn’t provide for draining water from
the east side of the highway to the
west, engineers stopped work and the
project fell into abeyance.
It was revitalized last year when
Urban reminded the council that if no
action was taken, about $8 million in
TxDOT discretionary funds tentatively
earmarked for the improvement might
be spent elsewhere. Earlier this year,
the city agreed to pay for drainage if
plans would include a hike and bike
path trail parallel to the highway.
City Manager Michael Kovacs told
the council on Thursday that a com-
mitment to the matching funds could
well require a city tax increase in fiscal
year 2008 to cover the city’s part of
the project.
“I’ve been here (on the city council)
four years, and haven’t seen anything
happening on streets and drainage,”
said councilman Bubba Jensen. “I
want some assurance that something
will be taken care of downtown before
we commit money to the highway
project.”
Jensen questioned whether the
highway department was important to
tourism, and, if so, if local hotel-motel “That sounds like a stretch,” said cilman Mike Hall. “While $1.7 mil-
tax - earmarked by law for tourism- city attorney Mike Morris. lion sounds like a lot of money, it still
related projects - could be used to “I think we’re looking at local wouldn’t do what you want to do in
help pay for it. drainage no matter what,” said coun- town. What we need to do is educate
Staff photo by Murray Judson
Best of the rest
Lynn Abney of Corpus Christi, left, took honors in the pro drum division of the ladies-only PowderPuff
Fishing Tournament on Saturday, June 17. The redfish from teammate Leslie Reagan of Port Aransas
powered the team to the overall stringer trophy. Their guide was Steve Reupke of Corpus Christi. Turn
to Page 11A for results and more photos from the tournament.
the public, tell them what we’re doing,
explain what we’re doing, and I think
we’ll have the support we need.”
Hall was referring to the failure last
year of two bond issues that would
have repaired streets and drainage
in several areas of the city. Opinion
at city hall is that the bonds failed
because voters didn’t adequately
understand how the money would
be used.
“This restarts the whole (State Hwy.
See ‘CITY,’Page 2A
Drainage
plan gets
first okay
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
A new master drainage plan for the
city has taken the first step toward
approval, with city council members
voting to accept the plan on Thursday,
June 15.
The plan would provide guidance
to the city on how residents want
to handle storm water and runoff. It
would replace a plan that was first
approved back in the 1980s.
The council unanimously approved
the plan on the first of three readings,
but only after hearing resident John
See ‘DRAINAGE,’ Page 9A
Hall of Famer lived off land, sea
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
Back then, you weren’t just a fishing guide.
Leonard Grover Carpenter guided fishing
parties, did some hunting, and even fished fresh
water creeks and lakes part of the time.
Oh, you didn’t recognize Leonard Grover
Carpenter? How about Peg Carpenter then, the
name by which most people knew him.
Even so, there’s a good chance many people
might not know the name. Peg Carpenter, one
of this year’s Port Aransas Boatmen Inc. Hall
of Fame inductees, died in 1967, two years after
suffering a stroke.
The memories of his tenure as a guide and
member of the organization are supplied by his
daughter, Shirley Whiteside, who still lives in
Port Aransas.
That’s 69 years after Carpenter brought his
family here from St. Petersburg, Fla., where
he’d been a guide earlier.
“He knew Ed Roberts (a Port Aransas fishing
guide) and they had corresponded, so Daddy
packed up and left St. Petersburg,” Whiteside
remembered.
“It took us two weeks to get here.”
Things weren’t easy as the nation was trying
to dig its way out of the Great Depression, and
Mustang Island wasn’t known as being a luxury
place to live anyway. The family stayed in a tent,
which Whiteside recalled was floored and had
walls halfway up the sides.
It was where the Venetian Hot Plate now
stands, at 232 Beach Street.
That tent blew down in a storm in 1941 or
’42, when the family fled to the old Dreyer home
ahead of the winds. They lived in that home for
some time, she said.
“It took that tent and just laid it down,” Wh-
iteside said.
“We were fixing to leave, but Daddy hadn’t
gotten his boat out yet and the ferry left before
we could get to it.”
Back then, the Port Aransas waterfront boast-
ed such places as Fisherman’s Wharf, Barney’s,
Mathews’, Wilson’s and Green’s fish house. Fish
were shipped from Green’s in barrels.
Carpenter’s boat was also a victim of that
storm: it sank.
“He got another boat and went right back to
fishing,” Whiteside said.
Within a few years, Carpenter had made such
a reputation that he sometimes took as many as
three parties fishing in one day, she said.
He preferred to fish bays, but would take
clients into the Gulf of Mexico for fish if that’s
where they wanted to go.
That boat was about 28 feet long, she said,
and had a motor. Carpenter was guide, captain
and deckhand all at once.
“People were always asking Daddy where he
went to catch those fish,” she said. “He’d tell
them that fish have tails and fins, and they don’t
stay in the same place, so there’s no use in me
See ‘CARPENTER,’ Page 4A
Peg Carpenter in a 1950 photo.
Sports
Swim meet results......
......9A
Island Life
Columnists
•Tony Amos...............
....11B
Law enforcement.......
Island agenda............
.....3B
.......2A
Opinion
Cactus Pryor............
Dave Me Neely............
.......3A
.......3A
Steve Martaindale.....
.......3A
Mary Henkel Judson..
Letters to the editor .
Outdoors
.......3A
.......3A
Fishing report............
Tides & Weather.......
.....10A
.....10A
Youth
Parks & Rec..............
Church
.......8A
Pastor’s pen..............
Classified
.......4A
Classified Ads...........
. 5-12B
Safety, drainage concern residents
near proposed right-of-way change
[south jetty NEWSPAPER PLU<
Staff photo by Murray Judson
National Park Ranger Shelby Walker
photographs Hannah after the sea turtle
nested on Mustang Island. See Page 1B
for more on the event.
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
City council members agreed after a lengthy
debate on Thursday, June 15, to postpone a
final decision on abandoning 2,600 square feet
of right of way at Cotter Avenue and North
Street.
The abandonment was requested by brothers
Mike and Charles Sullivan, who have said they
want to build two houses on property on North
between Cotter and Tarrant avenues. They say
the additional footage will give them more room
for the setbacks from the property line that city
building codes require.
But residents have protested the proposal at
the first two hearings in an ordinance to abandon
the property, saying the city should first ensure
it will have enough land to fix a curve in Cotter
Avenue at that point and to provide adequate
drainage.
Speakers at the April and May council meet-
ings, when the matter also came up, declared that
the issues of traffic safety and drainage were tied
together and couldn’t be separated.
City Director of Planning and Projects David
Parsons told them and the council that abandon-
ment of the 2,613 square feet would still leave
the city enough right of way to realign Cotter
Avenue and to provide drainage.
But Thursday, resident Nancy Kilgore showed
the council a petition signed by 100 residents,
many of whom live in the area, asking that the
council postpone a third and final vote on the
ordinance until engineers can take another look
at the intersection.
Kilgore quoted the petition as saying signers
“believe traffic issues, flooding issues and safety
are not separate.”
Planning and Zoning Commission chairman
Becky Corder pointed out that commission
members believe there is adequate right of way
for sidewalks, bike trails and street improve-
ments, but agreed that they might not have
looked at drainage problems in the area.
Engineer Orlando Ortiz of Urban Engineer-
ing, the city’s engineering firm, said he had
reviewed the proposal for easement and space,
and believes it will have adequate space for
future improvements. He said engineers “didn’t
do a full drainage study, because the proposal
is residential. It fits with the master drainage
plan, and will probably fit with the (new master
drainage plan) that’s being proposed.”
Councilman Rick Pratt said he’d spoken with
resident Flip Burleson before the council meet-
ing, and was told that Burleson doesn’t believe
either the city staff or residents are competent
engineers, so reports that the city can create a
safe street should be amplified.
“They haven’t properly addressed the issue;
that’s why he’s opposed to going forward,”
Pratt said.
“Ms. Kilgore’s problems aren’t with the
flooding,” he continued. “We’re being asked to
approve the return of a piece of property we’re
not going to use, and the other side is saying we
don’t know that we’re not going to use it.”
In response to councilmember Beverly
Charles’s suggestion that the council wait until
a drainage plan was in place, councilman Mike
Hall said, “I don’t want to wait until we have a
drainage plan, because that could take weeks or
months or even years.”
Mike Sullivan reminded the council, “At
the first meeting there was no drainage (issue),
there was an issue with the property being
(commercial) C-2, and we agreed to re-plat it
as residential. Then was brought the drainage
issue. The council at its last meeting went over
the traffic issue. I don’t know where the drainage
comes into play - it’s just a small intersection
we’re talking about, and only so much water is
going to fall there.”
“I’d want you to be treated with the same
respect if your name was on the petition,”
Mayor Claude Brown told him. “I think we owe
(petitioners) that.”
“My position is about the city giving away
right of way when we don’t even have a land
use plan,” Charles said. “When I asked how it’s
going to benefit the city, I was told it’s going to
add 2,600 square feet to the tax rolls, and I don’t
know how much that is.”
“If we conclude that we’re not going to use
the land, we have an obligation to give it back
to the property owner,” Hall said. “We don’t
have to benefit from giving it back. It’s their
land - if we’re not going to use it, we ought to
give it back.”
“So,” councilman Bubba Jensen asked, “the
decision we’re making right now is to redraw
the intersection?”
City Manager Michael Kovacs: “Yes.”
Please see ‘COTTER,’ Page 4A
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, June 22, 2006, newspaper, June 22, 2006; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth556325/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.