On Friday Richy and I were sent this email from Amy Nunez. It pretty much describes what I posted a couple of days ago. I'm sure the board will deal with it when they meet on the 9th.

Good afternoon,
Yesterday I received a call from Larry Biggers concerning the Kontiki project. He stated that there has been some talk about expanding the width of the T-head at the southern pier. I explained how everything on state-owned submerged land must first be approved by the GLO before it can be constructed. The current T-head is 10' x 30' which is slightly larger than what was approved, but I included it with the penalty action for the added fish platforms. As per my conversation with Mr. Biggers yesterday, I recommended for the T-head to be expanded to 14' x 30'. This would give 4 extra feet of width for casting. I just figured it is much easier to add it in now and you would already be approved for it. If you don't get to it right away that is fine, you are already approved, whenever you decide to expand the T-head. However, when the T-head is expanded it must be 14' x 30', no larger or we will have to go through enforcement procedures again and the result will be much stiffer. Of course all of this must be approved by the School Land Board, so there is a chance it could change. I will keep you informed. If this is not what you want, just let me know. Thanks and have a nice weekend. Amy Amy Nuñez Asset Inspection Texas General Land Office 361.825.3038
amy.nunez@glo.state.tx.us cabins@glo.state.tx.us

Saturday was a day of mishaps here. Early in the day I saw one of Don Knight's friends sink his trailer in the boat ramp. That was the first time I saw a tandem axle go down. The low tide makes our ramp way too short and the dropoff is deep. A tow truck came out and winched the trailer back on the ramp. That was a quick $40. When that was done, I looked across the marina and saw Bradley's boat going down in the slip behind 505. Only two ropes were keeping it afloat. I called Andy and she was shopping downtown. She called their son, Randy, who was with Brad over on Lamar. They hurried over and bailed out the water. Come to find out,Randy had put the hull plug in the live well drain.
Fishing continues very slow. Pat(602) did get his ten trout on the St. Joe shoreline on Friday. He said he had to measure only two. Brad and Randy went to Cedar Bayou with a guide, Starvin' Marvin, and got their limit of Black Drum today. Pat and Jimmy and Barbara and Jack are here and the flounder better beware. Today Barbara snagged two and Pat one.
Marv and Rita Kreuter left yesterday. Marv said that they left early because Rita had developed bad allergies.
I have not yet tried the Cancun Cantina, the Back 40, replacement. I heard that they now have a new manager and the food is better. The cook from the now closed Duck Inn is now there. Their marquee says they have brought back the popular 2-2-2 breakfast.
The cuts ants seem to be under control. The bayfront shrubs are doing much better.

The strong north winds have driven the water out of the bay system. The tide dropped about two and one half feet from Monday to Tuesday. It has remained very low. Our channel is so shallow that I have to raise my engine just to get out. The winds have made fishing difficult at best. I have seen three trout, two reds, and one flounder brought in from the pier and bay this week. Marv and I went out yesterday and fought the wind and waves. Unfortunately Marv took a fall while trying to get into the boat so I guess you could say we had one small trout on board and one man overboard. Marv was fine, just a little, make that a lot, wet. Brad and Andy Phair came in yesterday and Brad and Marv went into Copano today and did better, one small trout on board and nobody overboard. The Phairs were supposed to stay in Edd’s place, but the AC unit failed and they were moved to 103. As cool as it has been, I’ve used the heat more than the AC.

Yesterday Chris Crowley had his sleeves rolled up and helped Tom clean out the old maintenance shed. They had a mountain of trash. Chris said that if I saw him throw anything out that shouldn’t be to let him know. I said, “When in doubt, throw it out” and all I saw was a lot of trash.

I talked to Mark Brooks today. He has CMT lawn service who has our contract now. They are doing a great job. They have trimmed, hedged, and mowed the whole complex in the last two days. He is charging only $240 a week and $5 per tree to trim the small palm trees and $12 for the large ones. His uncle is fishing guide Robert Brooks. Mark’s wife, Shelly, was helping him today. His stepfather, Michael, did the mowing yesterday. I guess you could say it’s a family business.

A young lady from Bug Free came by today, as scheduled, to treat the condos for critters. She handled that heavy pressure container pretty easily, but then she said she is former Marine.

I met the new employee of Johnson and Cate who has been assigned our account. Her name is Beverly Peddy. She is from Indiana, but moved to Texas when she married a Texan. They have lived in San Antonio for some time, but have decided to retire here. Her husband is looking forward to doing a lot of fishing in his new Flats Cat boat.

Ron has progressed almost to the end of the 200 building with the flowerbed work and river rock placement. Work has halted on the decks. I was told that we are out of money and the 700 building cannot be finished at this time. The latest financial report has not yet been sent, so I don’t know exactly what our money situation is.

In a recent post I mentioned that I had seen people from the General Land Office doing some investigating here. I thought it had nothing to do with us. Today I googled GLO Corpus to try to follow up to see what they had found. The name Amy Koltermann popped up along with her phone number. I called and asked for her and I got Amy Nunez, they be one and the same, and surprisingly she was the one working on our situation. She said she had talked to Richy yesterday and explained to him that we were being fined for not obtaining a permit to add the fishing islands to our old pier at the time that we built the breakwater and extended the pier. She was very informative. What they do is basically tax folks for the square footage of their piers and it is impacted by the real estate values in the near proximity. Every five years a review is done prior to renewing a permit. Our permit is up for renewal on 2/28/2008. The review process discovered the additional pier square footage that was not permitted. She said it would be a one-time fine of $1200 and a yearly very small addition to our current annual fee. When the board discussed adding those islands I didn’t see any need for them because I don’t like to fish in the channel. I recall one board member said that winter Texans would like to use them to fish for flounder next to the breakwater. To my surprise, the islands have proved very popular. Last evening there were people at each one, possibly because the wind was crashing into the north side of the pier.

I told Amy that the board had discussed increasing the size of the end of the pier. She said it was permitted for 8 feet by 31 feet. She said the standard size is 10x30. She said that given the number of people using our pier it could be a safety factor to have it so narrow and 12x31 would be very reasonable. She said it would be easier for her to incorporate the request to expand the pier while we are renewing the permit rather than have it as a separate submission at a later time. I told her I had heard of no opposition to the expansion but it would probably be discussed at the next board meeting. She said that the permit would not require us to build immediately and if cost were an issue we could postpone the construction and keep the permit so we could begin work when we felt it was appropriate.

We also talked about the HEB property. She said she had received several emails about that situation and some folks thought the Texas Open Beaches law applied, but not so. What happens, is a study of tides is done over an 18.6-year interval. This determines the average tide mark that separates the state land from individually owned property. I guess that means that when walking on the HEB beach, half the time you are on state land and half the time you are on HEB property. This issue seems to be behind us as I see people on that beach area and the fence remains open. I hope it stays that way.

A hot issue in town is the development on Lamar and at the old Sea Gun. A meeting was held at Paws and Taws this week to discuss the development of those areas. They are planning to treat the sewage and dump the effluent into Aransas Bay. TXDOT and TCEQ representatives were present to address the large crowd. It was pointed out that in addition to the pollution that will be introduced, the added fresh water would be detrimental to aquatic life. The bays are too fresh as it is with Cedar Bayou closed. After years of debate it was also revealed that Little Bay is polluted with fecal material. For years the smell was horrible, but the claim was that decaying vegetation was the cause.

The new Chili’s is almost finished and looks to be ready to open soon. Catfish Charlie’s has reportedly been asking around town to try to find a location for a restaurant. Supposedly they offered The Diner $490,000 and it was a no deal. They looked at the B&P location yesterday, it is priced at $950,000, but felt the one-acre site was too large.

While we have recently spent a LOT of money addressing safety issues, to me, the roof is a really big problem. This picture is of the end of 601. The tiles are missing nails and only gravity is holding them in place. A good wind will bring them down like a bunch of dominoes. Some tiles on the edge of 608 have already fallen. The solution here is simple. Replace the missing nails with longer screws or nails. The original nails were far too short and longer ones should do the trick. Tony told me that a roofing company was being contacted to come out to reattach the loose tiles. With all the recent heavy rains, I would have thought we would have had some leaks from this, but I have heard of none.
The board had discussed obtaining a roof certification from someone to attest to the integrity of our roof. Karra reported at the last board meeting that roof certification must be a California thing and it does not exist in Texas. Texas does however, have roof consultants that are not affiliated with any commercial roofing activities or companies. Contracting with one would probably be about the same thing as a roof certification. The problem with having roofing companies check out our roof is that they have a financial interest in seeing that this roof is replaced at a great cost. I think I know what they would say if asked if we need a completely new roof.

Last Wednesday a State of Texas truck, perhaps a GLO truck, parked at the end of the pavement nearest the Phase II pier. Two women walked along our bulkhead and took several pictures from about 108 all the way to Richy's new bulkhead. Someone speculated that since a personal injury accident had occurred during the construction of the new bulkhead there may be an investigation or even a question about permitting for the bulkhead. I understand that the injured worker is not a happy camper and may be looking to cause some trouble. Phase I is not involved in this issue.

Marv went with another fishing guide last Saturday. As has been the case, the reds were easy and the trout not so easy. They caught their limit of reds in no time in Redfish Bay, but only four trout at Traylor Island.

The annual owner's meeting will be held on the second Saturday in November. A board meeting will be held at 4 pm on the preceding Friday afternoon.

Although some leads were forthcoming, no arrests have been made. This display is parked at the car wash in downtown Rockport. I have heard comments that this signage may cast a negative light on the security of Kontiki and may even deter guests from renting. Everyone that I have talked to feels that this was the work of one or more previous employees. As you can see on the sign the theft occurred on two consecutive nights.

The tide is still extremely high. In the area where we wash boats, the water is so high that it is flowing back up on the roadway rather than running down into the mitigation site.
Marv Kreuter has sent a fishing report. I've included it below.

Larry, Rita and I are well into our second week of our month stay at Kontiki. The weather has been one sunny day after another with only one rainy morning. Happy to see and greet several other Condo dwellers that return here yearly.
Haven't taken the time to fish the piers so far but over the weekend, daughter, Hazel
and family were our guests. Son-in-law and I were fortunate in obtaining the services of fishing guide Scott Jones this past Saturday. We left the boat ramp before 7: AM and by noon had our limit of 20 Trout and 6 Red Fish in the cooler. We were wade fishing in Mesquite Bay using live bait and found the fish concentrated just short of the shore grass line in an area no more than 1000 yards wide.
More visitors this week end and another Guide lined up for tomorrow. If we are equally successful, I'll give an accounting.
Hope we can find the time and good weather in the next two weeks to try our combined amateur fishing skills in your favorite and hopefully productive spots in Aransas Bay.
Marvin

Insurance questions still seem to be owners' minds. I took an owner's email question to Angie Ruddock's office on Friday. She was able to quickly send an answer. She told me that she will ask Richy and Karra if she can send some information to be included with the next billing statement.
Former employee, Ryan Martinez, came by to visit on Saturday. He is currently employed in Corpus. I talked to Jerry Hill yesterday, his birthday. He is having problems with his old Vietnam wounds. He's finally going to go to the VA next week to get some help. He's living in Beeville now.
The cut ants have been very active. Ron has put many gallons of bleach on their mounds, but they still come out at night and attack the shrubs. They seem to prefer the new hibiscus plants in front of the 100 building. I don't think bleach is going to do the job.
At the board meeting, it seemed the board may be looking at getting a new roof. The last two weekends we have had heavy rains, but I've heard of no leaks. What I did see is a lot of loose tiles. Chris said at the board meeting that falling tiles present a real risk and I agree. I looked at the end of the building at 108 this afternoon. I count about 54 edge tiles. Each tile should have two nails. I could see only five that seemed to have two nails. The nails are not rusted. They just never were long enough. I would think renailing those and others would reduce a lot of the risk.
The tides have been really high. Some roads in Corpus have had to be closed. We have a coastal flood warning in effect until noon tomorrow. The tides and wind continue to remove boards from our pier. The pier damage from last weekend was repaired by Pack Killingsworth(307) with a bit of help from Rob's crew.
The high tides don't do much for the fishing. I went out in the boat four times last week and came back with just one trout.
Justin had the tennis court lights repaired last week. Only four of the eight were working. New bulbs got them on again. With the big crowd here for Seafair, the courts had plenty of use. There are still many lights out, but Justin said many of them have resulted from the work crews working on decks that have damaged the wiring. He said when all the work is finished, he will have an electrician come out and get everything going.