In accordance with its dedication to the preservation of the historical heritage of Calhoun County, the Calhoun County Historical Commission has commissioned a representative silhouette be made and given to the City of Seadrift. Mary Belle Meitzen, Chair of the Commission, was at the October 6 City Council meeting to present the details to the Council. The metal silhouette will be sculpted by Brian Norwood of Jal, New Mexico and will be based on a selected photo of one of three scenes representative of Seadrift: a shrimp boat built in Seadrift ; a 1909 locomotive; or the old bath house. Council member Peggy Gaines has secured the photos from which the selection will be made. The sculpture will be about 10 X 18 feet. Its placement site will be either at the Bayfront or the train depot, depending on which photo is chosen. The Commission has placed silhouettes at two other sites in the County: “Camel & Soldier” at the end of Hwy 316 in Indianola and “Lavaca Bay Bombardment” at the Port Lavaca Bay Front Peninsula.

The bulk of the Council meeting was taken by reports from the various department heads, including:

Seadrift Police Department Chief of Police Leonard Bermea: 337 calls for service (ranging from information to calls resulting in arrest) in the month of September. 82 Traffic stops were made, resulting in 32 citations and 42 warnings. There were a total of six arrests: three from warrants; one public intoxication; and one reckless driving/evading.

Building Permit Report: two for new construction; three for placement of manufactured housing/portables; one for repair/remodel; and one placement of RV. The total property valuation increase to the City is $66,851.00.

Municipal Court: Thirty-four new cases; 42 cases closed; 95 current cases. There were 16 notices sent out for weed/public nuisance. Total fines collected were $3,833.20, of which $2,337.39 goes directly to the City.

Animal Control reported five dogs picked up and impounded; nine dogs picked up and returned to owners with Warnings; two dogs picked up and returned to owners with Tickets; 14 verbal/writing warnings issued; eight cats trapped and impounded; 15 wild animals trapped. One dog was found a new home and five animals were hit by cars.

Council voted to amend and adopt the final year end budgets for 2014-2015. The Utility Fund Budget ended with $16,000 deficit; General Fund Budget, $64,000+ surplus; Harbor Fund Budget, $8,000+ surplus; and Hotel/Motel Tax Budget, $20,000+ surplus.

Eldon Gaines was nominated to be considered as a member to the Calhoun County Appraisal District Board of Directors. CCAD will vote on final nominees at a later date.

In the Open Forum portion of the Council meeting, a citizen expressed concern over the prospect of sheep and goats being allowed inside the city limits. Mayor DeForest noted that, with certain limitations, these animals are allowed according to a 1984 City Ordinance. (Residents should make themselves aware of the specifications of this ordinance before acquiring any farm-type animals.)

Adding Flowering Color Around The House

Greetings from the island everyone, hope all of you are doing well and enjoying some of these nice cool Fall mornings.  I know my morning beach walks have been much more pleasant with the cooler weather.   I can tell the two cats are also loving the cooler temperatures, running around and playing, hunting mice and birds and wanting to stay outside all the time. I know the two of them are making a difference in the mouse and rat population around here, as I rarely see one anymore around the chicken pen area at night.

I’m starting to clean out all my raised garden beds from this past Spring and Summer planting, so that I can till in rabbit manure and mushroom compost. I’ll let the beds then sit over the winter so they will be good and fertilized for the beginning of next Spring.

I don’t really mess with a Fall garden, but I will spread out some rye grass seed so that the chickens will have green grass during the winter. I just prefer gardening during the early Spring and into Summer, before it starts getting too hot. I start all of my seeds, primarily tomatoes and melons, in a little greenhouse before the plants are strong enough to go into the ground the beginning of April.

I’m just now developing an interest in having more flowering  plants and bushes around the house, adding a little color.  I used to feel that if you can’t grow it to eat, then why bother growing it at all?  I’ve changed my thoughts on that, wanting to branch out (literally), in order to add some vibrant colors and flowering smells.
This past Spring I planted a dwarf Magnolia tree, an Esperanza and three stalks of Plumeria, and all of them are doing very well, all three having flowered, and the Esperanza is still putting on many yellow trumpet clusters of flowers.

A very special friend recently gave me some Moon Flower seeds, which I planted and sprouted several dozen tiny plants. After thinning them, I put ten in the ground, and so far they are doing great. These vining plants produce beautiful large white flowers with a wonderful smell.  At the beginning of next Spring, I’ll add some butterfly attracting Pentas and also a few Lantana.  The added benefits of flowering plants are the bees that come around, and these bees will help pollinate my Spring vegetable and melon gardens.  As with any growing endeavor on the island, it will be a trial and error learning process, but I’ll make it work.

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

Some of the Port O’Connor Service Club members getting things ready for the annual Fall Garage Sale.

Community Connection

The POC Community Service Club Garage Sale was a stunning success! On October 10th from 8 am until 2 pm we sold every kind of knickknack, clothing, shoes, boating and fishing equipment, household goods, décor, books, DVDs and other items for bargain prices to raise money for our scholarship fund and other community service projects. This community sale provides an opportunity for people to recycle and reuse quality preowned items in a meaningful way. It helps our locals clean up and clean out regularly. It makes it possible for many to procure needed items at bargain prices. It raises a fair amount of money in a fairly short amount of time. It is a good thing. But, that is only part of the story.

Dozens and dozens of volunteer hours go into a successful community garage sale, and POC Community Service Club hosts one twice a year. Home and business owners contact club members to pick up and haul items to storage as much as six months before the sale. Club members pick up, sort, clean, repair and prepare sale items year around. Some members have a special skill or task. For example, Andy Westling repairs and refurbishes fishing gear for our sales; Susie Onishi is the master organizer of the stored sale items investing hours in labeling, sorting and preparation; Robbie and Marie Hawes use personal property and space as storage for overflow prior to sales. And that is just a taste of the work behind the scenes that goes on year around.

The week of the sale, the club members and a few faithful family recruits and volunteers haul, unpack, organize, display and price all of those generously donated items for your shopping pleasure. And face it, what better way to bond friends and develop that feeling of connectedness within a community than by working together. We always find items indescribable and without definition, (meaning we have no idea what they are or what they are used for) hilarious and hair raising objects, (meaning we wonder where in the world something came from or are icked out by its utter grossness),poignant and precious bits and pieces, (meaning we have had baby pictures donated and wedding albums tossed in the garage sale box, but have also found books inscribed by a dear departed friend and recipes cards from a cook who taught us well). We have laughed and cried, giggled and gossiped, sympathized and commiserated as we unpacked box after box and fold shirts and under things of many we never knew.

There is a sweet camaraderie in the work and a shared fun in the progress. We have amateur artists making signs and fliers. We have husbands and other volunteers who dig posts, make trips in personal vehicles, and take work time off to slave for the sale, cooks who cook, bakers who bake, and many more who go above and beyond to make the garage sale profitable. Then finally, it’s time for the sale, but it seems as if in just minutes it is over. In the first hour of the sale, by unofficial count, more than 163 people arrived to shop and browse.

The work is not finished though. Those same tired volunteers painstakingly box and bag and pack every leftover item and the club donates it all to the House of Prayer Charity to serve those most in need. The tables get washed, the floors get swept, the equipment hauled and put away. The storage room is ready to go by the end of the day, because after all there is another sale just six short months away. Those tired volunteers go home satisfied and content knowing they have raised money for another year’s scholarship awards and enriched and blessed with a new friend or a deeper connection made over dirty boxes and shared effort. Those hardworking volunteers make all the difference. Without them there would be no sale, and no money for scholarships or other local projects, and there would be no treasures for all you shoppers to buy.

Yes, whether you bought a book, chose a cake at the bake sale, or selected a whole trailer of furniture and other stuff, you helped. Thanks for helping to make the Port O’Connor Community Service Club Biannual Garage Sale a thriving and, yes, even entertaining, community venture. Our success depends on you, too. We look forward to doing it all again….but not just yet. We are really tired. And besides, we have a Community Christmas Lunch to host. It is coming in early December. Check back for all the details. And now you know the rest of the story…

Arlis and Virginia Zehr

Arlis and Virginia Zehr were honored with a going-away party hosted by Elmer and Tanya DeForest and attended by family and friends at the La Terraza Restaurant in Seadrift. Arlis and Virginia are moving to Pennsylvania to be nearer their children.

Virginia is Elmer’s sister and had a street named after her in Seadrift when the Henderson Addition was constructed in 1952. Virginia is a member of Texas First Families having a great-grandfather living in Texas before 1836. He was a member of the Texas Army during the Texas War for Independence, eventually becoming a Texas Ranger in the Republic of Texas.

Arlis and Virginia met in 1956 while he was a member of the Air Force and stationed at the Air Force Base on Matagorda Island. They soon married and ended up making their home in New York where Arlis was from and raised six children.

In 1985 Arlis retired from his job in New York and they moved to Seadrift where Arlis worked for CCISD.

Arlis says this area has the most-friendly people!