Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 13, 2006 Page: 1 of 24
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ELLIS MEMORIAL LIBRARY
700 WEST AVE. a
PORT ARANSAS, TEXAS 78373
Thursday, July 13, 2006
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i'QRl ARANSAS TX 78373-4128
750
ICfcT Aqansas
Vol. 36 No. 28
Covering Port Aransas on Mustang Island
USPS 946-020
edition
takes lead in tax revolt
Island Focus
Hooked!
Young anglers get hooked
on fishing at the Deep Sea
Roundup's Piggy Perch
Contest.
PagelB
Island Life
Launch a blast!
NASA
Guests
Throuc
Ticke
Rick Adams watched as a
former fellow Texas A&M
Corpsman and astronaut
blasted into space aboard
the Discovery.
Page 2B
Opinion
What a change
Just a short time ago, the
voters of Port Aransas had to
circulate a petition to bring to
a vote the freezing of property
taxes (not reducing) for those
who are . . . Now comes a
new council that gives all
the taxpayers who live here
a 20 percent homestead
exemption... .
Bill Sims
Port Aransas
Letters to the editor
Page 3A
mTH JETTY NEWSPAPER
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
A property tax revolt with its roots
in Port Aransas appears to be spread-
ing to other Texas coastal cities and
could result in legislative proposals
that would basically alter the munici-
pal property tax structure.
Mayor Claude Brown, Councilman
Rick Pratt and City Manager Michael
Kovacs met recently with Nueces
All wet
City dry now, but
left with mosquito,
pothole aftermath
By Dan Parker
South Jetty reporter
It's dry now, but pounding rains
earlier this month still are having ef-
fects in Port Aransas.
City crews are repairing potholes,
mosquitoes are buzzing all over town,
and lawn care services are doing a
booming business.
Tony Amos of The University of
Texas at Austin Marine Science Insti-
tute said he measured 15.02 inches of
rain from Friday, June 30, to Saturday,
July 8.
"There was an upper-level low-
pressure system over West Texas,
and it just sat there for about a week,
which is very unusual for this time of
year," said Mark Wiley, a meteorolo-
gist at the Corpus Christi office of the
National Weather Service. "What that
does is pull in a lot of tropical mois-
ture from the Bay of Campeche all the
Please see 'RAIN',' Page 3A
County Commissioner Chuck Cazalas
and officials of the Nueces County
Appraisal District to make them aware
of dissatisfaction with rising property
values in Port Aransas.
"Our citizens are being taxed past
the point of tolerance," Pratt said.
He quoted figures that show the
city's tax base rose from $685 million
in 2005 to $1.035 billion this year. Yet,
Pratt said, only $23 million of that is
because of new construction. Most of
the increase is because existing homes
are being reappraised.
Kovacs questioned the policy
of reappraising properties in Port
Aransas annually because of the
continuing market for homes here.
Areas with less real estate activity are
reappraised every two or three years,
by state law.
"Research shows the (Texas State)
Comptroller's office ... is driving
the home appraisals by their audit
and reviews of appraisal districts,"
Kovacs said.
"If a district does not reappraise
high enough, the school districts in
that appraisal district are penalized in
the state revenue sharing formula."
Kovacs said the city is sending
letters to the county appraisal office
and to the comptroller's office not-
ing the inequities and "encouraging
an examination into the specific lot
and block valuation calculations by
the (county appraisal district) board
and/or the Texas comptroller."
"There seems to be no method to
the madness," Kovacs said.
City council members helped ho-
meowners some by approving a 20
percent homestead exemption in Port
SEE'TAX','PAGE 3A
Sports
Regional swim meet ....
.....11B
Island Life
Columnists
•Tony Amos...
11B
Law enforcement
4B
Island agenda
2A
Opinion
Cactus Pryor
3A
Dave McNeely
3A
Steve Martaindale
3A
Mary Henkel Judson..
.......3A
Letters to the editor
3A
Outdoors
Fishing report
8A
Tides
8 A
WCATMPD
8A
Youth
Parks & Rec
10A
Church
Church directory
4A
Obituaries
4A
John J. 'Joe' Tracy
Curt Douglas Johnson
Classified
Classified Ads
. 5-12B
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StAWAYs
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Alternate transportation
Calvin Lofton, 20, and Jonathan Wells, 24, both of Port Aransas,
kayak down Alister Street in some of the worst of the flooding from
rains Wednesday, July 5. According to National Weather Service
Staff photo by Dan Parker
official weather observer Tony Amos, Port Aransas received 15.02
inches of rain over a nine-day period from Friday, June 30, through
Saturday, July 8.
Beach committee finds common ground
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
Port Aransas Beach Maintenance Committee
members now have something they can get their
teeth into, but they're not quite ready yet to take
a bite out of the problem.
Meeting on Wednesday, July 5, committee
members took a look at a list of how each of
them thought separate sections of the beach
should be approached, as well as how the city
might handle the issue of Sargassum seaweed
washing ashore every spring.
Having started with divergent viewpoints
of what the city should do in the way of
beach maintenance, members ended with
suggestions that some might call surprisingly
in agreement.
"I was astonished," said ex-officio commit-
tee member Richard Watson, who collected the
opinions into one list.
One item that could have led to part of the
agreement is the Texas General Land Office's
(GLO) concurrence with placing sand behind the
current dune line, effectively starting a second
line of dunes behind the most seaward line. The
GLO had opposed taking any of the sand away
from the beach; the suggestion that the sand be
put behind the dune line may have solved that
problem.
Much of the acreage landward from the beach
is owned by the GLO. Private property owners
would have to be consulted before sand could
be deposited on their property.
A key to placing sand there is that it would be
carried over the dunes instead of cutting a path
through the dunes.
In the area from Lantana to Beach Access
Road 1A, several members suggested that the
line of posts that separates vehicle traffic from
pedestrians be moved seaward. That would give
more space for depositing loose sand between
the roadway and the dunes, they argued.
Committee members also want to see equip-
ment designed to pick up debris from the
beach and separate it from the sand. If such
equipment were available, sand could be left
on the beach - satisfying the GLO - and debris
could be carted to the city landfill - satisfying
is
ml
H;
Roundup 2006: It's a wrap
Deep Sea Roundup bay/surf champion and top lady angler
Lauren Littlefield, left photo, with her dad and guide, Bruce, give
their catch a thumbs-up sign. In the photo at right, weighmaster
Duncan Neblett greets anglers coming to the dock with flags
Staff photos by Murray Judson
flying that signify billfish released in the offshore division. The
offshore champion was Damon Henderson of Aransas Pass who
caught and released a white marlin. See story, photos inside for
more on the 71st Deep Sea Roundup.
clean-beach advocates.
They also agreed that the farther south on
the beach crews go, the less maintenance they
should be doing.
Committee members heard that the GLO
appears to be close to a contract with consul-
tant Kim McKenna to study the Port Aransas
area and make recommendations of her own
for beach maintenance. McKenna was to have
been under contract to the GLO earlier this year,
with a deadline of mid-April for turning in her
report, but negotiations dragged out longer than
expected, a GLO spokesman said.
That left the local committee, which was
appointed to serve until the end of June, with
SEE'BEACH','PAGE 4A
71 st Roundup
starts with rain,
ends with sun
By Phil Reynolds
South Jetty reporter
The 71st Deep Sea Roundup didn't get off to
a great start. Friday, July 7, was rainy and windy
and one offshore captain said on the way to the
fishing grounds he ran into one of the worst
storms he'd ever seen.
As skies cleared, however, anglers began
bringing in catches that rivaled the best in the
history of the tournament.
Saturday, July 8, was a near-perfect day.
With 775 anglers entered, "plenty of good
fish were brought to the docks," according to a
longtime observer of the Roundup.
And offshore, anglers released an incredible
total of 45 billfish.
One of those - a white marlin - won Damon
Henderson of Aransas Pass the offshore title.
Henderson was fishing aboard the Excessive.
Second place in the offshore division was Da-
vid Bird of Gonazles, who boated a red snapper
on the Ante-Up.
The bay-surf division saw its first female
champion. Young but veteran angler Lauren Lit-
tlefield of San Antonio brought in the first-place
redfish (8.5 pounds) and flounder (3.7 pounds)
along with a stringer of trout (5.7 pounds), black
drum (5.8 pounds) and gafftop (4.7 pounds) to
take the bay-surf title.
Runner-up was Clancey Pearson, also of San
Antonio, who weighed in a 6.7-pound redfish, a
SEE 'ROUNDUP',' Page 8A
0 00000'09809 0
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 36, No. 28, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 13, 2006, newspaper, July 13, 2006; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth409994/m1/1/: accessed May 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.