Seadrift Mayor Elmer DeForest congratulates Police Chief Leonard Bermea.

A standing ovation that seemed to last minutes with a full council hall, as friends, family, citizens of the community and Council members stood to applaud the Seadrift Chief of Police Leonard Bermea at the regular scheduled Tuesday night meeting, April 1.

The evening started with Mayor DeForest leading the hall in prayer and Pledge of Allegiance. Mayor DeForest rose from his chair at the head of the council table and asked Chief Bermea to come forward. Mayor DeForest then stated:

“ I would like to take this opportunity to thank Chief Bermea for leading the Police Department and doing an outstanding job over the last year and a half as Chief of Police. Chief Bermea started five years ago as an unpaid reserve officer and through diligent application worked his way up to becoming a full time Police Deputy.

Leonard was promoted to Police Chief approximately 1 1/2 years ago, leading the Police Department and showing an ability to work with all citizens, City administration, local businesses and Seadrift School.

He and all the deputies, paid or unpaid reserves, have shown that they take crime seriously and that the safety and security of the residents of Seadrift is priority #1.

Working untold hours, sometimes 12 and 14 hours a day, he has shown that professionalism, integrity and leadership are important no matter how weary one may be from long hours of work.

I would like to thank you Chief Bermea for giving above and beyond 100% and hope you will continue to maintain that professionalism integrity and leadership in the future.And with this said, I present you with your gold stars to put on your uniform signifying you as Chief of Police. Thank you for your service”

At that point Mayor DeForest pinned two gold colored stars, one on each collar, on Chief Bermea’s uniform.
It was at that moment the crowd rose to give a standing ovation to Chief Bermea, As the applause started to quiet, Chief Bermea stated, “Thank you Mayor. I do take the safety and security of Seadrift as a serious matter, but it takes all of us working in the Police Department to get the job done, The other officers have also worked hard giving long hours when the situation dictates. Sometimes their shift calls for them to go home at 2:00 a.m. but don’t get off until 4:30 and 5:00 a.m. Today I get my gold stars, but they are also the reason why.  Thank you.”

Clint & Barnacle

Island Springing To Life

Greetings from the island everyone. Hope all of you are doing well, and remembered to get your taxes taken care of this past week. Oh the joys of taxes – of course living on a retired cops pension (I’m sure equal to or below the normal poverty level), the threat of paying a big tax penalty at the end of the year is never a concern for me. And for the first time, I went to see Cindy Alford at Tax Depot in Seadrift on a tax issue, and she will now forever be my tax consultant, as this lady is extremely tax savvy. . . not to mention easy on the eyes. Thank you, Cindy.

As I sit at the kitchen table, my 8th year on the island, this early Friday morning, April 11, drinking a cup of hot black coffee and watching three hummingbirds fighting each other as if only a single drop of sugar water remains in the feeder, I can sense that Spring has finally arrived. Of course the forecast in a few days calls for another cool norther blowing in, but it should be one of the last remaining ones. My dad always says that when the cool fronts start having a westerly wind direction to them, they are nearing the end. Well I certainly hope that the end is near.

I’m beginning to see the hummers, cardinals and various other migrating birds start to inhabit the island, using it as a stop-over to begin venturing their trek northward. The different island flowers are beginning to bloom, as well as the wild pea bushes, an excellent source of nitrogen for the first batch of Spring compost once the seaweed begins washing ashore.

The blue crabs are also coming out of their winter hibernation, making for some nice crab boils after catching them in traps tossed in the water around the island. My islander buddy from Louisiana, Joe Monroe, comes out in the Spring and Fall to stay at his camp, and he is the crab boil expert during our weekly blue and stone crab feasts.

Well, the tomato plants that I started from seed are now six weeks old and will go in the ground tomorrow. During the past week I have “hardened” them off, meaning I’ve placed them outside in a semi-protected spot, acclimating them to the sun and wind conditions prior to placing them in the ground. I’ve got an assortment of regular, cherry and large beefsteak varieties this year.

6-week old tomato plants from seeds and ready to go into the ground

Well Barnacle and I inherited two new additions to the Bennetsen island household last week, baby kittens. Some islanders discovered them as stowaways in the anchor compartment of their boat, only after they stopped to fish at the Big Jetty and tossed out the anchor rope. One of the 3-4 week old kittens became entangled in the rope and was pulled underwater by the anchor, but somehow managed to pop back up to the surface a few seconds later! I’m thinking that ordeal used up about 3 of that kittens 9 lives. Two more kittens were found in the anchor box, so I rescued two, and smartly named them Anchor & Jetty. Another islander and his girlfriend took the third kitten. Apparently a mother cat gave birth to the kittens as the boat sat in storage. So now every four hours I’m bottle feeding two kittens, hoping to start them on regular food pretty soon. In addition to those babies, in three days I’ll be receiving at the Post Office, 30 baby chicks to replace my older chickens I gave away last month. So I’m in Daddy Clint mode right now, hoping that Barnacle is gonna lend a much needed hand over the next several weeks. . . yea right!!

Well that’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and have a great day.

Clint Bennetsen lives full time on Matagorda Peninsula Island, and writes a monthly column for the Dolphin Talk, telling of his life and adventures. To contact Clint with comments or questions, you can email him at ccbennetsen@yahoo.com or dolphin1@tisd.net.

Rescued kittens, Anchor & Jetty

Graduating Seniors…

The Dolphin would like to honor those high school seniors who are graduating this year by printing their photos and a little about them in our next issue. If you are in our area, or among our readership, please send us a photo along with your full name, school, town of residence, parents names, special interests or honors, and plans for the future. These may be sent by email to dolphin1@tisd.net or by mail to: Dolphin Talk, P.O. Box 777, Port O’Connor, TX 77982. We would also be pleased to honor college and trade school graduates. Deadline for receiving your information is May 9th.

Oil Spill Response Center at Port O’Connor Community Center

When the oil spill occurred in the Houston Ship Channel on March 22, about 168,000 gallons of oil were spilled into Galveston Bay, most of which was recovered. A small portion came this way and was being skimmed until weather interfered. By the time oil made landfall on Matagorda Island on March 27, the Response Team had deployed protective booming surrounding Chester Island Bird Sanctuary and across Saluria Bayou and big Bayou to protect the small back bays and marshes and the large Espirtu Santo Bay.

The Matagorda Incident Command Post was set up at the Port O’Connor Community Center, The Unified Command established eight 25-person task forces to accomplish its plan. And by March 28 four task forces were ready to attack the oil which had come ashore at Matagorda Island. The response effort is being made by the US Coast Guard, the Texas General Land Office, US Fish & Wildlife, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Kirby Inland Marine and numerous environmental contractors.

As of April 13, representatives of the Command Center reported there were still 3.3 miles of heavily oiled Matagorda Island south shoreline left to be cleaned. 1,480,240 pounds of oil sand and oil debris have been removed and taken to a waste disposal facility in Alvin. A date for completion could not be forecast due to changing weather conditions.

Clean-up reports and photos can be found on Dolphin Talk’s Facebook page.

Combat Marine Outdoors will be hosting a group of wounded soldiers at Cliburne Ranch for a fishing trip guided by local volunteers.

They will be coming into town around noon on Thursday, May 15, accompanied by the Patriot Guard Riders.

You have the opportunity to greet them as they come into town to show them how much you appreciate their service.

Keep your flags handy, as you will get to welcome the Warrior’s Weekend soldiers headed to Port O’Connor May 16 and 17.