Seadrift Mayor DeForest swears in Councilmen Geoff Hunt, June Cantrell, and Kenneth Reese.

Seadrift Mayor Elmer Deforest recently swore in one new and two re-elected City Councilman at the Seadrift City Hall. Councilman Kenneth Reese, 70, replaces Councilman Buddy Cross who decided not to run again. Councilman Reese is a former “Shift Supervisor” for Victoria and Coleto Creek Power Stations were he served for almost 45 years. Councilman Reese is a native of Seadrift who worked for Koehls Grocery in Seadrift from 1962 to 1964 and then graduated as a Sandcrab in 1965. Mr. Reese then went on to marry Barbara Gray of Seadrift and moved to Victoria, but returned to Seadrift on a weekly basis to visit family and friends. Mr. Reese retired and moved back to Seadrift in 2012. Mr. Reese stated, “I love Seadrift. I didn’t realize it until I had to live through the daily grind of the big city for 45 years. After moving back I wanted to stay in touch with city business and began attending Council meetings on a regular basis. In the past years I have seen Seadrift make a turn for the better. I decided to run for Council because I wanted to be a part of keeping our city moving in a positive direction. I want to see Seadrift grow and prosper so our kids and grandkids can grow up in this beautiful little town”

Re-Elected Alderwoman June Cantrell, who is also Mayor Pro-Tem, has a lifetime of legal experience starting at age 19 working in a one girl and three attorney legal office. She then went on to work for a legal firm in Phoenix for several years before moving to a very large law firm in Houston She eventually moved back to Austin where she was hired as a Executive Assistant to the Managing Partner of another law firm, Later she served as a paralegal to another partner, advancing to Office Administrator, and eventually worked for attorney John Griffin of Victoria, After her life in the legal field, she went into the ministry. Ms. Cantrell has also spent the last seven years as Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Seadrift and Austwell. She stated that she has always had an interest in government and how government works and, “giving what I can to our community.”

Re-Elected Councilman Geoff Hunt, 33, has been employed with Point Comfort Towing as a Captain of a harbor tug for 10 years. He grew up in Seadrift and now raises two young daughters who attend Seadrift Grade School. Mr. Hunt has been working diligently on streets and drainage and has been instrumental in being the first contact with many residents in regards to their questions about streets and drainage. He has assisted tremendously with the implementation of the Council’s street and drainage plans.

From Mayor Elmer Deforest:

“I’ve enjoyed working with several Councils over the last few years. The City has made progress in addressing numerous issues because the council members have seen the needs and have put aside differences to concentrate on the important needs of the City so that it has the potential to get better and grow. In the last few years the City has gained numerous new residents who have constructed residences because they can see the potential and like the fact that the overall crime rate has been reduced, making the City a safer place and better place to visit and live.

The City gained its first franchise business when the Family Dollar came to town. It is hoped that more will eventually discover this “City by the Sea”. During my first and second year as Mayor, the City had to borrow money to be able to make payroll and pay bills. Since then, the City has paid off those loans and now we can see the City operating with a small surplus and adding to the funds used to repair and rebuild selected streets and drainage. The City has been able to begin the process of repairing and rebuilding some streets and drainage, with a few more yet to be done in the next eighteen months. Council will revisit the street work next year to review and select some additional streets to prioritize. I wish we could do all of them at the same time here and now, but our meager finances will only allow a few to be done each year. The City has other challenges coming up in the future with wastewater and water system improvements necessitated by growth taxing the City’s current capacity and to satisfy regulatory requirements.

I look forward to working with the new Councilman, Kenneth Reese, as well as the existing Council members as we continue working together to the betterment of the City as a whole.”

Summer is here, school is out and traffic in Port O’Connor has increased. Always following Memorial Day, it starts getting crazy here. All the Memorial Day weekend activities were such a success. King Fisher Park & Beach was overflowing with people enjoying fun and summer activities.

Coming up next is the “Annual Fireworks Display”, July 1st, 2017, less than a month away. So if you haven’t made plans, now is the time to do so. The Chamber depends on donations to make this event possible. EVERY DONATION COUNTS, NOTHING TOO SMALL OR LARGE. I hear this year’s display will be another fantastic event!!!!

The Chamber will be sending out emails, reminding the businesses that have not renewed their 2017 memberships, now is the time to renew to avoid being deleted from portoconnorchamber.com. Membership for a business is only $65.00. In the last week I have had three calls for phone numbers of businesses that are not members and my replies had to be, “Sorry, they are not members, so I can’t give information.” Missing one customer would have paid membership, so get involved and get your info out there.

July meeting will be Monday, July 10, 6:30 p.m. at the Port O’Connor Community Center. Everyone welcome. Come out and get involved in the community.

New & Renewed Members:
Family Affair Creations/ Butler’s Landing
Josie’s Mini Mart
Liberty Arms Boat & R.V. Storage
Virgil & Ursula Price

Greetings from the island everyone, I hope all of you are doing well and adjusting to this pre-summer warm weather. It will officially be the south Texas summer season in a few days, and not having AC out here, I’ll definitely start feeling it. But that’s ok, after all these years without it, I’ve conditioned myself to tolerate it.

A few weeks ago I went in for the day and attended the POC Kids Fishing & Kite Flying contests held at front beach. Oh my goodness, to see the joy on those kids faces while catching the tiniest of fish off the pier was priceless. It didn’t matter the size or what type of fish it was, they were having a great time. I did see two brothers, at the very end of the front beach seawall, bring in two very nice 24”+ redfish to win the big fish category. Those were some nice reds!

And the kite flying contest was a blast to watch as well. I was surprised to see so many kids down there flying their kites and later accepting their awards for different categories. But trust me, every kid at front beach was a winner that day.

The tomato plants are nearing their final stages of production, and I am so happy with how well they did this Spring season. I’ve given away so many delicious tomatoes to friends so that they can enjoy them as well. And a few Saturday’s ago, I went in to Susan and Britt’s, and for the very first time, we made homemade salsa from the tomatoes, and it turned out great. I’ll start a few tomato seeds for Fall planting and will definitely make more salsa.

On June 2 my new baby chicks arrived at the Post Office, yay! I got 16 Black Star hens, 2 Welsummer roosters and 8 assorted baby guineas ( keets ), to raise with the chickens, and they were all only 48 hours old upon arrival. Right now I am raising them in a brooder in a separate building, and at five weeks old I will move them into the regular chicken pen. I’m taking Corky into the raising area several times a day so he can adjust to them, and he seems to be doing very well. I have cleaned out the pen area from the previous flock of chickens, so I’m ready for the transfer in a few weeks. I’m looking forward to fresh eggs in 5-6 months.

It’s been beautiful beach combing weather lately, especially since the mosquitoes have slacked off after over nine inches of rain in two weeks. The island needed rain, and we certainly got it. The seaweed has been minimal this season, and a few sea-beans have been washing in with it. It’s fun and relaxing walking the beach looking for and collecting different treasures that have washed ashore.

My friends and I are still having beach bonfires under the island moon and stars. It’s so relaxing to sit in front of the fire on a beautiful full moon and listening to music, just enjoying life. But we sure need more wood to start washing up. The driftwood, limbs and tree trunks to gather and burn are getting very slim, so more wood is definitely needed.

Here recently my Dish tv satellite receiver box went out and needed upgraded after 14 years, so for ten days I was without tv until the Dish guys could come out to install a new system. I brought them out by boat and within a few hours I was back in business. I enjoy watching some early morning and late evening tv, so not having it for those ten days caused me to be on my IPhone more, enough to go over my data usage and pay an extra $15 the next month! Plus I know I ordered a few non-essentials using the phone during that time, so not having that tv cost me a few hundred bucks I’m sure. Bad Clint!

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

Marine Agent Rhonda Cummins and Republican Club President Russell Cain

Rhonda Cummins was the guest speaker at the June 5th meeting of the Calhoun County Republican Club.

Rhonda has been our County Marine Agent for over nine years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Marine Resource Management from Texas A&M. As Marine Agent, her responsibilities generally fall into the main focus areas as defined by the Sea Grant program, including Healthy Coastal Ecosystems, Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture, and Environmental Literacy. Rhonda is involved with our local fishermen, oystermen and shrimpers concerned with fishing and oystering issues; with the local kayaking trails; semi-annual beach clean ups and has for the last several years hosted a successful series of cooking demonstrations to promote local seafood, She also manages a low-powered radio station at Magnolia Beach and teaches local middle school how to build and sail small boats.

Rhonda is one of four extension agents in the Calhoun County Extension Office. They include: 4-H Agent; Agricultural Agent; and Family Consumer Science Agent. “We are all here to answer people’s questions and help them solve their problems,” Rhonda said. County residents are always welcome to come by the office at the Fairgrounds.
The Calhoun County Extension Office is one of 250 Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Offices across the state. AgriLife is a partnership between the Texas A&M University System, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the County Commissioners Courts.

Texas has 18 coastal counties, of which seven are served by a Coastal and Marine Resource Agent (a.k.a Marine Agent). This person not only works for AgriLife but also for the Texas Sea Grant College Program with is a federal program under the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Reflecting Rhonda’s commitment to the County, she was named Texas Sea Grant’s Woman of the Year for 2015.

Other business conducted at the Republican Club meeting included the announcement by Chairman Jim Faulkner of the two $500 scholarship winners this year: Andrie Castillo, who will attend the U of H Victoria, and Colto Blink, who will attend the University of Texas at Austin.

The Heritage Center:

There was also a discussion of the funding problems currently facing our local Heritage Center. Some months ago transportation contracts were let to private companies. Funds from transportation were the main source of income for the Center. If transportation funds are not returned to our local center, it will soon have to close its doors. That means, in addition to seniors having no place to gather, there will be no meal deliveries to shut ins in our area.
Please contact our State Representatives to voice your concern: Rep. Geanie Morrison, (512) 463-0456; Senator Lois W. Kolkhorst (512) 463-0118.

The POC Community Service Club is going to the movies! We will be showing family friendly classics suitable for all ages at the Community Center, inside the main building, the second and fourth Tuesday of the summer months. We moved it inside to avoid the flies and mosquitoes and enjoy the air conditioning. Please bring your lawn chair, sleeping bag or blanket to make your floor spot comfy, and enjoy the movie no charge. We will have fresh popcorn too. Doors will open at 7:00 pm on June 13 and 27, July 11 and 25, and August 8 and 22. Bring your family and your friends and join the fun.

We are so proud of our local students and their many accomplishments this year. The Service Club helped with rewarding A/B Honor Roll Students at the Elementary School and awarded two scholarships for college studies to hometown kids. Congrats to Kinzie Stringo and Johnathan Pitonyak! Read their stories under Scholarships 2017.

We are beginning the sorting and planning for the October 7th Fall Garage Sale. Your donations of gently used clothing and household goods will make our sale successful. If you have items you want to donate now, please call Linda Orrick at 719-650-3433, Diane Cooley at 903-467-6335, Kelly Gee at 817-929-2564 or Marie Hawes at 361-920-2322. They will help you out.

Summer is a little slower for club because we are so busy everywhere else. We only meet once a month. Come see us July 6th at 10:00 a.m. at the Community Center. Even on our abbreviated schedule, we have projects progressing and volunteer positions open. Check to see if one might be right for you.

So, until next time, be safe, live simply, love openly, forgive generously and remember this quote by Norwegian poet and playwright Henrick Ibsen who said, “A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.” If you join us on our ship we will teach you how to steer and never throw you overboard!

FREE MOVIE & POPCORN at the POC Community Center
June 27, July 11, July 25, August 8 & 22