2nd Logo for Franke Realty South Padre Island Real Estate ×

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Laguna Vista has a habit of caring for its community. It cares about the community and even the pets that reside there.
In keeping with its “caring” endeavors, this idyllic bayside town has launched a new program to instill good qualities in pet owners and in pets.
Laguna Vista will be conducting a month-long initiative titled Laguna Vista CARES “About Its Pets” to be held during March to raise awareness about pets and to educate the local residents on the importance of being responsible pet owners.
Town officials also will be using the initiative to encourage pet owners to spay, neuter, collar/ID and microchip their pets.
This initiative stems from elevated incidents of loose or unleashed dogs.
“We know most of these dogs have owners,” City Manager Rolando Vela said.
To prevent undue harm to the animals and sorrow for the owner, owners are encouraged to be more responsible with their pets.

The Texas Shrimp Association may be in line for a $300,000 grant from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which will distribute a portion of the billions of dollars in RESTORE Act money generated by fines paid out by BP stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.
TSA is a nonprofit trade group representing the Texas Gulf shrimp industry since the early 1950s. The organization is comprised of — and solely funded by — 275 shrimp vessel owners and roughly 200 affiliate members from Texas ports and neighboring states.
The proposed grant is included in a draft project list of more than 200 Texas projects totaling $1.1 billion that were submitted for RESTORE Act funds. The list will go into creation of a draft “Multi-Year Implementation Plan,” which eventually will be posted in the Texas Register for a 45-day public comment period before a final MIP is developed. That document then will be submitted to the Treasury Department for final approval.
In other words, the grant isn’t a done deal, though TSA Executive Director Andrea Hance is keeping her fingers crossed. TSA would use part of the money for marketing and promotion, part of it for consumer education and tourism — including shrimp tours for Winter Texans — and some of it for social media campaigns that market wild-caught Gulf shrimp directly to consumers as opposed to restaurants, she said.
“We’ve had good luck with social media,” Hance said. “We get a lot of exposure doing that.”
Hance said she didn’t have high hopes for winning the RESTORE grant, for which TSA applied in April, partnering with the Texas Department of Agriculture on the application, though being passed over wouldn’t be for lack of trying.
“We did a lot of campaigning for this RESTORE Act (funding),” she said. “We went around and talked to politicians and the community basically saying, ‘We deserve some of this money.’”
A Feb. 21 TSA press release quoted state Sen. Eddie Lucio describing shrimping as “the most important commercial fishing industry in Texas” and expressing gratitude to TCEQ for including TSA’s grant submission in the draft project list.
While Texas’ shrimping grounds weren’t impacted directly by oil from the 2010 spill, Texas shrimpers certainly were, Hance said.
“We were still affected to some degree, because when that oil spill took place it was right when our season closed,” she said. “Our fleets were forced to shrimp in Louisiana and Mississippi. We were over there shrimping just as much as the guys in Louisiana and Mississippi. Our catch was affected.”
If TSA ultimately wins the grant, it will be the first time the group has received help from the state, even if the RESTORE Act funds originate with the federal government, she said.
“Hopefully this is the start of bigger things,” Hance said.
It’s difficult on TSA’s limited budget to promote an industry beset by “heavy regulation, pressing economic challenges and the flood of inexpensive imported shrimp,” she said. Hance noted the industry also is bucking a lingering misconception among some members of the public that Gulf shrimp are tainted since the BP disaster.
If TSA wins the grant, it will be required to monitor how the money is spent and measure the effectiveness of those expenditures, she said.
“If we continue to do that there may possibly be other grants we can apply for,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting my hands on this money so we can take it up to the next level.”

Just a few weeks ago, a record 721 volunteers collected 54,075 pounds of trash from the island.
It was the annual adopt a beach winter cleanup organized by the Texas General Land Office. SPI accounted for half of the volunteers and about 75 percent of the weight of the trash picked up along Texas beaches that day. Volun-teers on SPI collected the trash from five miles of shoreline and the collection was an all-time record.
The other coastal areas had 73 volunteers at eight sites who removed 18,406 pounds of trash from 30.5 miles of beach. Among those locations were Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, Rockport, San Jose Island, North Beach Corpus Christi and Padre Island National Seashore.
Following that success from earlier this month, Boca Chica and area leaders are hoping for a similar effort on that beach. But the concept didn’t start just recently.
At last year’s Valley Environmental Summit, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Commissioner Toby Baker made a promise to attendees to return and spearhead a cleanup at Boca Chica Beach. He will follow through on that promise.
He will be joined by members of the TCEQ Harlingen Regional office.
Cameron County Commissioner Sofia Benavides, Precinct 1; Rep. Eddie Lucio, III, Dist. 38 and Rep. René Oliveira, Dist. 37 and their staff members have also been invited to participate.

The sound of the demolition of the pavilion and tollbooth at E.K. Atwood Park was masked by the sound of high tide’s crashing ebb and flow.
This beach-side destruction was not a sad moment. Rather, it marked the beginning of $3.7 million in park improvements by Cameron County.
The construction will bring improvements including an elevated plaza structure with five pavilions and picnic tables, two restrooms, community rinse stations, two new dune walkover structures, five designated parking areas for food truck concessions and other associated improvements.
County officials estimate the project will be complete by mid to late summer.
“I’m looking forward to the new improvements at E.K. Atwood Park. The improvements to this popular beach access area will result in positive changes that children and families will benefit from for years to come,” said Sofia C. Benavides, a Cameron County commissioner.
County officials held a groundbreaking ceremony recently at the E.K. Atwood Park announcing the improvements.
“The goal of the Cameron County Parks and Recreation Department is to improve the quality of life for our park visitors by making the necessary improvements to our community and coastal parks in order to make our parks a safer and better place for our visitors to enjoy,” said Joe E. Vega, Cameron County Parks director.
In 2015, because to safety concerns, the county decided to close the existing pavilion. This prompted the decision to restore the park and make the necessary improvements that will better serve beach visitors.
The park will have Americans with Disabilities Act parking, using a pervious paving system that is environmentally friendly.
The parking lot’s unique construction will reduce storm water runoff by allowing rain to infiltrate through the pavement and subsoil beneath, resulting in much cleaner runoff water making its way back into the waterways and groundwater.
E.K. Atwood Park is the first project of the $20 million investment in Coastal Park Improvements that Cameron County will undertake.
Funding for this project comes from bonds and paid by beach user fees. The beach user fee was increased to $10 in January 2016 to pay for improvements to the Gulf-side amenities at Isla Blanca Park, Andy Bowie Park, Cameron County Beach Access No. 3 and E.K. Atwood Park.
The park was originally constructed in 1996. It attracts thousands of visitors annually and is a popular place for beach visitors, especially during the summer months.
“Our County Coastal Parks on South Padre Island are a destination for many visitors. These parks offer an array of amenities and recreational opportunities,” said County Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr. “I’m excited to see improvements to E.K. Atwood Park and I’m also excited about all the improvements to come to the rest of the County’s Coastal Parks.”

By RAUL GARCIA Staff Writer

Debi Plamondon was riding with the wind as she pedaled her bike Wednesday down Padre Boulevard, and every turn was for a good cause.
This wasn’t the first time she participated the Tour de Padre bike tour and pub crawl, which takes participants to different Island restaurants. Plamondon, a Winter Texan from Maine, said she and her partner, Phil Baker, had done the tour together in 2009.
But this time she was riding alone, remembering him and at the same time helping to educate people about becoming a life-saving organ donor as a registered donor.
Plamondon, also the ambassador for the state of Maine for donors, organized Wednesday’s event to remember Baker, who died five months after a lung transplant. She said he had pulmonary fibrosis and initially was told he would only live two months without a transplant.
His life was extended by five months after receiving a transplant.
“I really saw the benefit that a transplant can do for people,” Plamondon said. “Then I became an advocate for organ transplants.”
She still carries a photo in her phone of the helicopter that flew to the hospital with the lung for Baker, 72, who received his transplant last year at DukeUniversityHospital.
But he never fully recovered after the operation.
“It was something special to see that helicopter fly in,” Plamondon said. “Hopefully more and more people will donate, and we will not need to wait for organs in the future.”
In Baker’s case, he didn’t have to wait very long after he was cleared for a lung transplant. Others wait for years.

By RAUL GARCIA Staff Writer

 

With a shudder and jibe, a brown pelican slews right and back left trying to stay level in the gusty winds off the Gulf of Mexico.
Along the shores of the 6,500-acre Bahia Grande, white pelicans and egrets, ducks and shorebirds are resting or probing the muddy brown banks for a meal.
Less than 15 years ago this now-vibrant saltwater wetland was mere wasteland, a place Port Isabel residents learned to curse when those same robust gulf winds swept the dried husk of a bay, sending periodic sandstorms across the town.
Welcome back, Bahia Grande.
“What a difference from those days,” said Boyd Blihovde, refuge manager for Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge who counts the Bahia Grande Unit as being under his umbrella.
The Bahia Grande “desert” was born 70 years ago when spoil banks from dredging the nearby Brownsville Ship Channel were piled along the edges of the channel.
Then State Highway 48 was constructed along the same edge of the bay, essentially cutting off the area and depriving it of a life-giving pulse of tidal current. Bahia Grande, or BigBay, and two smaller bays, Laguna Larga and Laguna Chica, simply dried up.
A grassroots environmental effort involving more than 65 partners, and the acquisition of 21,700 private acres surrounding the bay by the Laguna Atascosa refuge, led to one of the largest coastal wetlands restoration projects ever conceived.
Their success, and a pilot channel dug from the ship channel to the bay in 2005 and two interior channels to the smaller bays that allowed saltwater to flow into the basin once again, has brought Bahia Grande to the point where some of it could be opened to the public.
“In 2005 the restoration began, so it took almost five years to get that water back into the system, and almost 10 years later we’re slowly enacting it,” Blihovde said yesterday. “My goal is to at least evaluate as to what types of public use or public activity can be supported on the property, and get some level of openness to Bahia Grande for the public.”
To be sure, some people are using the bay as a fishing hole already.

By RICK KELLEY | Staff Writer

A day at the beach with kites. What could be better?
The 2017 Kite Festival has arrived. Many gather from across the country to take flight or just enjoy the sights.

Whatever the reason, this event has categories for all. There’s small kite sections for anyone to enjoy. Synchronized kiting where the pros show off their best moves.

And then there’s the big elephant in the room, or shall I say squid? The large kites are indeed large. Some larger than the vehicles they were brought in. The sights make it easy to get carried away, but everyone started somewhere…even large kite users.
Phil Burks, “We started flying kites just like everybody else with small kites on the beach and start flying bigger kites and bigger kites. Pretty soon that’s where it winds up.”

But safety is paramount. In fact, one of the reasons they’re off to side is because a large kite can pull hundreds of pounds of pressure. They are usually hoisted by rock climbing equipment. Passersby can get severely injured if a gust of wind pulls up in a few seconds. So a lot of pressure goes into the kites.  These experts recommend you start small then go large. Kite Veteran of 25 years tells us what can happen even to the experienced.

Doug La Rock, “Shattered both ankles, broke both legs, broke my hip, my pelvis, some bones in my back, broke a rib or two  collapsed a lung,  tore up my elbow, broke both wrists.”  But despite all the trouble, Doug says it’s a fun hobby that keeps him coming back.

The kite festival continues on Saturday, February 4 on the flats, next to the SPI Event Center.

By: Alfredo Cuadros

For Russell Louden, jumping out of a plane is considered “old hat.” At first, all you could see was the small plane and nothing else. “Russell’s in free fall,” said a voice over a walkie talkie.
“Copy, ok he’s out of the plane and he will free fall for almost a minute,” said Skydive South Padre owner Frank Shisler.
After about a minute, Russell appears out of the clouds, goggles on, parachute open and a big smile on his face. As the parachute swooped down on the beach all you could hear was the raucous whoops of this now experienced skydiver.
Once he was steady on his feet it was nothing but excitement and adrenaline after that.
Yesterday, the 94-year-old completed his fifth jump and landed gently on his feet in the soft sand on sunny South Padre Island.
It was a real show. Several of his friends had lined up their chairs along the beach and were ready to watch him land. The Canton native and veteran was just 90 when he went skydiving for the first time on his birthday.
That was with the help of Skydive South Padre, the company he’s jumped with ever since. Since then, it’s become his birthday ritual. Once all the paperwork was signed and sealed, the fun began.
The plane took off from the Brownsville/South Padre International Airport and set him up for the parachute landing directly on the beach.
Even though, he started in his 90s when most skydivers start in their 20s, Russell doesn’t let a little thing like age slow him down Russell had dreams of skydiving at a much younger age.
“When I was in World War II, I really wanted to be an officer in the paratroopers, but the school was closed for officers,” Russell said. “Ever since, I wanted to jump out of a plane.”
Russell was in perfect hands during his tandem jump with his now good friend Rodney “Sparky” Pap. Pap, who was connected to Russell during the entire trip, has more than 8,000 jumps under his belt and was Russell’s jump buddy the first time and every time since.
According, to the company’s website, all jumpers are required to tandem jump or jump with an experienced jumper who is neatly secured on their back.
“I won’t ever jump without Sparky,” Russell said. When asked if he would jump next year at 95, Russell said he’s “shooting for it.” Shisler has more than 11,000 jumps under his belt, which he says is pretty standard for an experienced skydiver.
“I’ve jumped all over the world and South Padre Island is the No. 1 or No. 2 place to jump with year-round conditions,” Shisler said. “Based on the view at 11,000 feet, the Island looks like a landing strip.”

By KAYLEIGH SOMMER Staff Writer