Corpusfishing.com

[The Trash Heap]

Actually, there's quite a lot of unfinished construction at Packery Channel if you believe the Packery Channel/TIF Information Sheet that's remained on the City website since before the TIF election. Included in the sheet's list of primary project elements:

3. Park complex
*North side channel park complex
-parking for 200 cars
-volleyball courts
-protected kids play area and beach pavilion, with restrooms, showers, and concessions
*South side beach park between south jetty and end of Padre Island Seawall
-improved parking lot
-pedestrian beach area
-boardwalks providing access for wheelchairs and child strollers
-elevated bathhouse and restrooms
-shade pavilions for picnicking
4. 8-12 foot wide walkway atop jetties from the vicinity of the Highway 361 bridge to the end of the jetties, providing easy access to water, including for those with limited mobility, and providing public access for fishing and sightseeing.
5. The channel will provide more than 7,200 linear feet of fishing access without charge.
6. Beach access parking lot on top of seawall (local project)
7. Overall greater beach access.

The list doesn't mention a boat ramp and a parking lot for it, although that and access roads to them have appeared in project drawings since early 2002.

In addition to these promised amenities, the City has since sworn at council meetings that all the parking lots will be free. Makes you wonder why it continues to charge for stickers to park on the beach at Packery Channel.

Too bad the public has already begun to trash the jetty area. I'm glad Shirley Stuart wrote a LTTE about that, and that the Caller-Times printed it. I'm far less thrilled that Joseph Huerta has taken time off from his world tours to accuse drunken drivers, careless drivers and fishermen of threatening to run over him and his son on the beach. Still, even if as he says we forget about the resort, or even if we don't, he and we should insist on the swift construction of that protected kids play area and pavilion at the north side channel park complex, and advocate a similar pedestrian area, also protected from beach driving and parking lanes by rows of bollards, stretching down the beach from the south jetty to Padre Balli Park.
-------------------
Caller.com

To print this page, select File then Print from your browser
URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/local_news/article/0,1641,CCCT_811_5063629,00.html
Still work to be done on Packery
Handicap accommodations, boat ramp are the city's major remaining projects

By Denise Malan Caller-Times
October 13, 2006

Packery Channel may be open officially, but the city wants residents to watch for construction areas around the channel and the Padre Island seawall for the next four to six months.

People still can access the jetties, which have become prime fishing and surfing venues. But from time to time, pedestrians and vehicles might not be able to access small portions of the beach.

"We just need everyone to be aware," said Tom Utter, special assistant to City Manager Skip Noe.

The beach between the south jetty and the south end of the seawall was closed to traffic for the channel dredging and construction of the jetties. The beach had been closed to traffic at various times for years before that because erosion made it too narrow for driving. Sand from the channel dredging replenished the shoreline.

The area from the north end of the seawall to the south jetty was opened to vehicles Oct. 6, the day of the channel dedication ceremony, while the area in front of the seawall opened Monday.

Construction is continuing on jetty handrails, and the city plans to install handicap ramps up to the jetties after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contractor is finished with the project. Work also continues for the next two to three weeks on a handicapped ramp from the parking lot on top of the seawall down to the beach.

The other major area of construction is a boat ramp on the north side of the channel near the State Highway 361 bridge. The city plans to install a parking lot and road to the ramp as funds become available.

"These sites should be small and temporary, and should not interfere with the general public's enjoyment of the Packery Channel area," city officials said in a prepared statement.

Utter said there had been few problems so far, but the city wants to warn people ahead of any type of work.

"So many people have expressed such great pleasure in seeing it open," he said. "We want the experience to continue to be positive."

Lawyer Mike Hummell filed a lawsuit Oct. 3 to force the city to open the entire beach because he believed construction had been finished. A district judge asked the city to set a deadline for opening the restricted area, which the city opened Monday, one day before the deadline. The city said part of the beach had been restricted for safety reasons related to construction.

Hummell said in the lawsuit that the city was trying to hide part of the beach from voters who will decide Nov. 7 whether to permanently remove cars from that stretch of beach.

Packery Channel was a sand-filled pass through Padre Island. Local officials want it open to boat traffic, thinking it would spur development along the island and improve the flow of water through the Laguna Madre. Voters approved financing channel dredging in 2001, and construction began in September 2003 with a scheduled completion date of August 2005.

After construction delays - including a major setback during the summer of 2005 from hurricanes in the Gulf - the channel was dedicated in a ceremony last week that included speeches from local officials and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Contact Denise Malan at 886-4334 or at HYPERLINK mailto:maland@caller.com maland@caller.com

Caller.com

To print this page, select File then Print from your browser
URL: http://www.caller.com/ccct/letters_to_the_editor/article/0,1641,CCCT_841_5063623,00.html
Letters to the Editor: 10.13.06

October 13, 2006

Trashed jetties

On the news they showed our new jetties at Packery. I saw them in person and was appalled. Just like our city and our beaches, trashed out.

It sure makes me sad that our city does nothing to enforce a law to fine people or give them jail time for littering. If these people who don't care got fined a large sum of money, plus jail time, I'll bet they would look for a trash can the next time. What a waste.

I am so ashamed of the people that do this and the people who are supposed to do something about it.

Shirley Stewart

Beach roadway

So many people marvel over where I've been in my life.

I have seen barracudas off Cozumel as I snorkeled. I have been down to the beaches of Phuket in Thailand. I reveled on the beaches of Bali. And in Europe, I've seen the beaches of Marseille and Barcelona, each down right on the Mediterranean Sea, one in France and the other in Spain. I've done Jamaica, Belize and Vietnam: yes, Vietnam.

Wherever I went, people were nice and friendly, and they were happy to host tourists.

I never had to worry about drunk drivers on the beaches, anywhere in the world. Except here in Corpus Christi.

I never had to worry about getting run over by careless drivers. Except here in Corpus Christi.

See, in other places they recognize the beauty of nature. No one could believe that we allow driving on our beach, no one.

As much as I like going to the beach, I have never even seen another beach anywhere in the U.S.A. where they allow driving on the beach.

Honestly, please forget about the $1.5 billion resort that will be opened here. I am simply concerned that my boy not get run over by some fisherman who so desperately wants to catch a redfish.

Now you know why I stay away from this beach.

Joseph Huerta
_________________
The Trash Heap Has Spoken!
NNYYAAAHH!!!

[mastergunner]

Most of those beaches he talks about not having drivers on them is because either they are only a few hundred feet long or have natural obstacles that prohibit vehicle access. I wish he could show me another spot on this planet where you can drive for miles and miles on a natural made beach. Also he is another person that beleives every person who fishes is a drunk driver and does so only to run people over.
_________________
Mastergunner, supporter of hardheads for state fish of Texas

[Big Ed]

Poor Mr Huerta! Goes to such lengths to show how well traveled he is and yet he is painfully unaware of any beaches anywhere in the US where driving is allowed. How about numerous other beaches right here in Texas? How about Washington State? How about the Carolinas? How about New Jersey? I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I know about where driving is allowed.
_________________
Big Ed
San Antonio

"A word to the wise ain't necessary. It's the stupid ones who need advice.", Bill Cosby

[fishmicki]

so, Huerta thinks that those of us who fish are SO anxious to get to it that we would disregard those around us? What a moron!!! While I do enjoy an adult beverage while fishing, I never get to the point of drunk....anyway, I park my car at a spot on the beach and get set up and fish....if I want to get drunk, well, that happens after sundown and the vehicle stays put.

this is really starting to annoy me!
_________________
No matter where you go, there you are....

[FB PHIL]

I know the beach near Seaside, Oregon is open to driving because I vacationed there last summer. Most beaches are not open to driving due narrowness, cliffs adjacent to the beach, or hotels/resorts/rich home owners have already closed them for their personal use like what the City Council is trying to do here.

There are plenty of other beaches in the local area where Mr. Huerta could take his kid where there is no driving. Like Magee beach or North beach, or BH Pier area. Obviously, he's a City Council shill.

[the troutman]

Our beach is unique but that's what most people love about it! I understand his concern for his children as I have little ones but there are idiots who drive through his neighborhood as well I'm sure. At least small children can enjoy our beaches as we can drive on them and get the little tikes to where the fun is. I don't see alot of people carting small children to the beach if it entails a 2 mile walk! It just kills me that with the property tax rates in C.C., where John Q. Public pays the lions share of everything, we actually have to defend ourselves to our own elected officials. You talk about out of touch!
_________________
Later,

The Troutman

Love em and leave em, otherwise known as Catch and Release!

[Bluffer]