The Diner is now "For Sale". The notice says the owner is moving out of state. I also see survey stakes at the old Walmart along the highway all the way to the new Walmart. I guess some new development is going in there.
Fishing has been steady off the back decks and piers. Both good size trout and reds are being caught, as you saw in my last post. The oysters boats are moving in close. The picture at the bottom here shows boats working just past the pier. The Thanksgiving weather in Rockport was not much different than the rest of the state, cold and wet. Of course, today starts the new week with chamber of commerce weather. I did plant two dozen Pansy plants in the bed in front of our place and they thought the weekend weather was just perfect.
I talked to Bill yesterday. He and Donna will be here in a couple of weeks.

Fishing has been spotty, but improving. Randy Schulte(308) went with a guide on Wednesday and reported-

"We came in with 9 trout yesterday. Fished hard from launch at 6:30 until quitting at 3:00.
Left Goose Island and went to V reef at San Antonio Bay. Picked up a couple of keepers there, I hooked a blue cat that was pretty big but he broke me off on the shell.

The water was off color and the wind was picking up. We then worked out way back with various stops around reefs in Mesquite and Carlos bays. Ended up

Fishing last at Spaulding Lake.
Used piggy perch and live shrimp.
Pretty good action most of the time, lots of short trout and reds.
Just not a great day, only fair. Other guides were calling ours out of Redfish Lodge and they were struggling as well.
Still better than sitting in an office."
Pat Noack reported that three of them drifted St. Jo. on Wednesday also with two quarts of shrimp and came back with two keeper trout.
This morning I set out two lines off the back deck and within minutes I had the twenty six inch red that you see in the picture below. I have been using pin perch and interestingly, very few have been taken by crabs or hardheads.

Its been a good week with many owners coming and going. Dusty and Darlene closed on their unit today. The new owners are Murlin and Pat Tomlinson of Granbury, Texas. I visited with them today. They have a friendly dog named Dollie that walked up to Murlin one day in his field and adopted him to be her owner. They said that Nancy Jacobs was very ill during closing and EMS had to be called. I hope it isn't serious.
Jim and Barbara came by today. It was good to see them again.
I visited with Jerry Hill during his lunch break. It was good to see him also. He has been under the weather and is not often in town. He is still awaiting the results of some medical tests to see what the problem is. Hayden and Dorothy Parrot(608) have been here a few days. They are leaving on Sunday. Ardath(102) and Gary are leaving Sunday also. Joyce and Jack Humphrey have arrived for their winter stay. I got a nice note from Pat Vonasek. He are his family are doing well. Christi Aguirre really likes her job in Victoria. She gets to see her sister Sarah every day.
Pat(602) had his front door replaced by Rob on Wednesday. I helped Ardath and Gary use the old door to replace her downstairs outside closet door. It fit very well and the price was right.
I had a big fish hit the line on the deck while I was eating supper last evening. The drag locked up and the fish broke off. I had about 50 yards of line out and when it broke, I ended up with about 40 yards of line in a heap on my deck. It had to have been a really big fish.
I picked up my copy of the monthly statement of revenues and expenditures from the accounting office today. I can not understand how we can be under budget for the year. Karra explained it at the owners' meeting and I thought I understood then. However, this statement shows we have spent $264,269.88 for the first 10 months of this year and the budgeted amount was $234,689.69 for a variance of $29,580.19. It was explained at the meeting that the board cannot spend more than $1,000 for unbudgeted items. I just don't know how this can be. I did check on the required audit that was voted against. There is no specified penalty for not doing one. That is probably why Gary Cate said that most HOAs do not do one annually. However, if a civil suit is brought against the board, it is a slam dunk to win.
I do hope that the new board will be good stewards of the money allowed. I have seen the tennis court lights on until 5 am for the last two months and told everyone who might need to know. It is a waste of electricity. At the meeting Justin said timers need to be reset, but they still burn. Yesterday I showed Rob the pier lights that are on 24/7. The meter was really spinning. I guess the photo cell is not working. There is a beach light that has been on for months on the ground under the 100 building. These little things add up.

The Kontiki owners’ meeting was held on Saturday. The meeting lasted 4 ½ hours, so this may be long and still not cover all the topics discussed.

There were 46 owners represented. There were 12 single unit owners present with, as far as I know, 2 proxies. The Crowleys own 20, so they must have had 12 proxies. With 46 units represented, 24 votes would carry any issue, but no issues were even close. Having a majority of votes at a meeting provides great power, but brings great responsibility. I thought Karra chaired the meeting very deftly and Chris listened to owners opinions. Karra tried to guide the final decision on issues to produce the agreement that was most acceptable to all.

Karra made a financial presentation to show that even though we borrowed $150,000 we had gone into the hole for only just over $100,000. Some owners wanted to assess for $2,500 and pay off the loan to avoid the 6% interest, but that went nowhere. She had the October financial statement, but no extra copies. She showed it to owners who asked. I saw that we had been charged $17,847 for pier repair in October. When I asked, she said it must be a mistake. I’m sure she will have it corrected. A question was posed about Justin’s salary. He was hired as property manager on September 22, but paid for two months in the September statements. She explained that it was less expensive to backdate his hiring for $800 per month than to pay him for individual items he had done in September. A budget was presented although it was decided to postpone adoption until later in the meeting. Board treasurer, David Schultz, again explained that once the budget was adopted, the board was not allowed by the declaration to spend more than $1,000 on off budget items, except for repairs and emergency. When I looked at the budget later I saw that nothing has been budgeted for channel easement, normally over $1,000, and for the fine that the GLO is imposing on us which is also over $1,000. So technically those items cannot be paid until another owners’ meeting is called!

It was decided to seek legal counsel to determine how to continue with breakwater problems not yet addressed by Moose.

Another utility provider will be contracted with. We are paying 12.74 cents per kilowatt-hour now and Karra found one that will charge us only 10.10 cents. There was no discussion of the security lights that either we are being double billed for or we are paying for Phase II lights. The board on September 22 asked Justin to find out what the problem was and he reported at the meeting on Friday that he had made no progress and that CPL was not being overly cooperative.

Although I still don’t think that a new roof is necessary, the consensus was that the current one has to go. The bid for a new composition roof was about $227,000. It was decided that $300,000 would be reasonable for contingency cost that would be necessary to complete the project.

A concrete entrance road would be about $3.00 per square foot. That should come to just less than $200,000. (I don’t think this includes the cost to put new asphalt on the parking area) I pointed out that we own very little of the entrance road and only have an easement from Richy. It was noted that a long-term agreement with Richy would be worked out before the work begins. Concrete should be more permanent, but I’m not sure. Our base under the existing asphalt is just sand and given the rigidity of concrete, it may crack. Many many years ago the road between here and Tivoli was concrete and the base material would not support the traffic and it had to be replaced with the more flexible asphalt. During my army service as an officer in the Corp of Engineers in Vietnam we often dealt with the construction of airfields. As everyone knows, sand is about all you have to work with there. Even the airbase at Saigon was made of pierced steel instead of concrete. I hope this issue is studied and a warranty is given.

The mailboxes will be consolidated to one location. The old ones are in need of repair, seldom used, and pretty unsightly.

The finger piers in the marina will be replaced. Justin estimated $1,500 per pier and there are 17 in total.

Security cameras will be installed. The buildings will be painted. These should total just less than $65,000. Deb Canuteson (210) will chair a committee to select colors for painting.

Some recent pier repair has been done, but the major part of this year’s storm damage still needs to be done. There was no discussion of expanding the existing L head or improved lighting as the board has discussed earlier. Chris wants one, better pier, shared by Phase I and Phase II. The breakwater, I feel, has really hurt the night fishing on our pier. Perhaps a better-lighted pier away from the breakwater would be better.

The tennis court surface repair will be $7,700. There was no estimate for the 10’ fence that is in back of the tennis court that is in need of repair. The suggestion was to allow $12,000 for both. When it all totaled up we were looking at $582,700 or about $9,400 per door. Chris suggested assessing $10,500 to allow an extra $68,000 for cost overruns. The motion passed unanimously. Karra will send a letter explaining the details for those not in attendance. The question was asked about what happens for those who cannot pay. Chris said a lien would be placed and possible foreclosure could result. He wanted to add a penalty of 1.5 percent per month for an annual rate of 18%. Karra had her declaration and the rate there was noted to be limited to 10% simple interest for late payment.

It was noted that the seller would be responsible for payment of any assessment if a sale occurs.

A budget of $250 monthly and one for $265 monthly were then considered. The one for $250 monthly was adopted.

Chris then explained that the one-bedroom units are subsidizing the larger units and Karra explained the cost of monthly dues if we switched to paying by square footage. The one-bedroom units would pay about $147 and the three bedrooms units about $298 per month. I mentioned that we had been through this before and any change of this type requires a change in the declaration. Chris asked what that would take and Vic Baltov, an original owner, said it would take 85% of the owners to agree. In addition, I’m aware that the last time we amended the declaration, we found that it requires 100% of the mortgage companies to agree.

We then discussed an audit. I read the applicable item from chapter 82 of the Texas Property Code. Which reads,” The association shall, as a common expense, annually obtain an independent audit of the records. Copies of the audit must be made available to the unit owners.” Karra said we have not had an audit in 10 years and the cost would be close to $2,000. Chris said that Gary Cate told him that when I talked to Gary that Gary told me that most associations do not do an audit. I thought that given the size of this assessment the board would welcome an audit. The vote was taken and only three voted for an audit, myself, my proxy and David Williams(603). I would be concerned that the owners just voted to ignore a state statute.

The two open board positions were voted on. Chris Crowley and Rob Mabe defeated incumbents Pack Killingsworth and Scott Schomburg. I was surprised that owners were asked to sign their name on their ballots, although I did not. The Crowley family now comprises a majority of the board. Chris and Karra have sold three of their 400 building units recently. At least two are to family members. They have a huge investment here and I’m sure that they will see that this place is taken good care of and will look as good as possible. I told Karra the day before the meeting that we were on the way to becoming nothing more that a fish camp before they arrived. Pack and Scott had contributed so much it was too bad to see them leave the board, but I expect much progress from this board.

It was decided to see if we could drop HBO and use that money to provide wireless internet. The attraction for guests for wireless will be much greater than for HBO. In fact Charter Cable does not even offer digital service at this point. The board will look at options for possible satellite service. By February of 2009 all broadcasts will have to be digital. Older televisions will have to have a set top converter. For some fifteen years of our operation we had set top boxes unless the televisions were cable ready. Now they must be digital and able to receive HD. The first several years we operated here with satellite and it is referred to in our declaration.

Just before adjournment, Chris brought up the topic of boat parking again. I had not heard Chris express an opinion on this before so I have to think it was on behalf of one of his proxies. He felt that owners should not leave their boats here. This is the only home that my boat has known for its twenty years. I explained that as far as I know there are at most three boats here. Mine, Scott’s, and sometimes Joe Mitchell (709) although Joe does not have his here now. Otis Stech (604) parks his trailer here because he has a boatlift behind his house in Harbor Oaks. I felt this was probably personal, but such is the life of a journalist. I volunteered to move my boat and not have to have a policy. Karra suggested the boats could stay except between and Memorial Day and Labor Day and would only have to be moved off the property if the owner is gone more than two weeks. Chris wanted to put in a $10 per day penalty, but that would mean that boat owners would have to check in and out to keep track of the days. This was actually the case some time back that a logbook was kept in the rental office. Karra’s plan was approved with only my vote dissenting, although given the conditions this was about as good as I could expect.

After the meeting was adjourned Chris invited everyone to Panjo’s for pizza. Five owners, Chris , Karra, Justin, Rachel and their kids ate all the pizza we could handle.

Even though all these improvements will eventually increase our property values, I have heard of owners who may sell and Nancy Jacobs was here today and that usually means a new listing.

November weather here remains fantastic. I caught another keeper red off the deck yesterday about noon. Pat outdid me with a 23 inch flounder off their deck. Chuck(107) and Gus(203) and I went out yesterday afternoon. We found many small trout around Long Reef. Gus showed us his "can't miss" red fish hole. He was right. There were many reds, but the biggest was about 16". For the last cast I used the one and only perch that I had taken along. Within seconds, I had a 17" trout. That place does have potential. Jim(210) went to Cedar Bayou with friends on Saturday. They came back with 12 trout and 3 reds, but he said he could not divulge the exact location in the bayou. Three boats of guys went to Mesquite Bay yesterday and said they found nothing at all. Randy(308) is going with a guide tomorrow. It will be interesting to see how he does.
I'm still working on the notes from the Saturday owner's meeting. I'll post them soon.

The Kontiki board of directors met this afternoon, but the meeting was a short thirty minutes. The agenda for tomorrow's meeting was reviewed. Very little information was given to owners who were present. Besides the board members, seven other owners were present. Some are here for tomorrow's meeting and decided to attend the board meeting also.
Much will be decided tomorrow. I am anticipating additional expenditures near the half million mark, with a new roof being a major part of that. Replacing the entrance road with concrete will surpass $100,000. I'm not sure how close to Fulton Beach road will be covered since our property line is only partially across the mitigation zone. Security cameras will likely be installed. The tennis court repaving will be about $7,700, not counting the fence. Pier repair will be near $17,000. It appears that two incumbent board members may face challengers. Another proposal will be to assess owners on the square footage of their units, rather than per door. That was discussed years ago, but would have required a change in the declaration. It should be an interesting meeting.
Yesterday the parking area was restriped and renumbered. Some numbered spaces were moved around. The parking in front of the 400 building was reduced to 9 feet wide to squeeze the eight spaces directly in front of the building. "Boat" parking was lettered on the spaces directly across from the maintenance building. All the repair issues marked with yellow caution tape were taken care of. The complex is really looking good.
Last Tuesday the voters of Aransas County rejected a bond proposal to build and renovate schools for 50 million dollars.
The Sailhouse development is moving along. It is next to the Bahamas. They are building a new pier where the old pilings remain from many years ago.
Renovation work has begun on unit 101. It was kind of sad to see Barbara Wagner's former possessions in the dumpster. I did salvage a few. As they say,"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

It was a pretty dark morning along the coastal bend today. The power went out about 5 am and didn’t come back until about 8:15 am. It was off from the north side of Corpus to at least Fulton. I heard that a power station in Corpus had failed.

Fishing has been a bit better. Pat and Jimmy caught six trout on the pier on Friday night and Pat picked up one while fishing for flounder on Saturday morning. The guests in 402 went with a guide to San Antonio Bay on Saturday and came back with only three trout. Pat (602) went out this morning and got his limit of trout in less than two hours. My son, Ryan, took my boat to Cedar Bayou on Saturday, but did no good. He did see a feral hog swimming across the intracoastal. He said he put a pretty big wake on him and just kept paddling along. I’ll post at the bottom of this message what I caught off the deck this evening. I’ll not say publicly how large it was, but it was big.

Rob has hired a contractor, Chuck Wright, to finish the detail work on the decks. The decks look much better after he trims all the edges and squares off the corners. Tom is no longer working for Justin. I think he is back in New Mexico. The second stucco man was let go and work is stalled on that project. The stucco was being replaced where new flashing was installed around stairs and decks.

I picked up a September financial statement last week. For the month we had budgeted $36,004 and we spent $57,429. The largest over budget item was “repair and maint-other”. It was budgeted at $350 and we spent $9,454. I have no idea what that is. Another over budget item was security. The budgeted amount was $320 (although that is not the amount on the adopted budget) and we spent $2,000. I have to think that is a result of the theft that took place in August. Paul did say his hours were increased. For the year we have gone from $6,559.94 to $94,543.26 in negative equity.

I visited with Gary Cate today. I asked him to help me understand what the legal disclosure statement means when it says,” Management has elected to omit the statement of cash flows and substantially all of the disclosures required by generally accepted accounting principles” and the paragraph that says,” The American institute of Certified Public Accountants has determined that supplementary information about future major repairs and replacements of common property is required to supplement, but not required to be a part of, the basic financial statements. The Kontiki Beach Condominiums-Phase I Council of Co-Owners, Inc. has not presented this supplementary information.” He was very helpful although we digressed somewhat into talking about deer hunting. I asked if he thought that we would have the October financial statements in time for our owners’ meeting. He said that he had one other HOA that is meeting soon also, and that “yes” he would probably have them ready.

This morning we had a very dense fog. It was opening day for the oyster season. I could hear the boats, but could not see them in the fog. It was interesting, later in the day, to see them hop from reef to reef trying to find the best oysters. Later in the season they will work for days on a single reef. This time last year Aransas and Copano Bays were closed to oyster harvesting because of the red tide.

Betty Brooks brother, Junior, was here last weekend. He said they are still in Georgia and doing fine. He didn’t know when they might return. Many have asked me about Betty and Jim. I did hear from Jim Sikes. He and Barbara have left Cloudcroft and should be in Rockport next week.

The first Whooping Crane arrived at the refuge last week. The circus will be in town this weekend. PETA is here to protest the treatment of circus animals. Yesterday, Halloween, I saw a tradition that I never heard of. I was on Austin Street about 5 pm when I saw loads of children in costume being led around by parents. EVERY business in the Austin street area had a table set up to hand out treats to the children. It was neat to see all the costumes in the daylight.

Tuesday, Bradley and I went to Cedar Bayou to try to find some reds. The water was beautiful, but the fishing was not that great. We ended up with four drum, one flounder, and one trout in seven hours of fishing. Brad caught the 18” trout at Long Reef on a white Bass Assassin under a popping cork. I don’t recall ever trying a small drum, but I have cooked up two meals off the ones we caught and they aren’t too bad.

Last night on the pier Jack and Barbara picked up seven keeper trout, but it was very late.

Edd Bowers and John got in yesterday. We had supper at Whataburger. They are both doing fine. I didn’t know that Edd had totaled his Pacifica in August. He wasn’t hurt. He’s driving a 1995 Cadillac now.

We have had a resurgence of Cut Ants. They were all over the shrub in front of my place yesterday. Ron has switched from bleach to Malathion to battle them, but they are fighting back. I went to Adam’s Nursery today to buy some plants for the bed in front of my place. I’m sure the Cut Ants will enjoy the new flavors! I talked to Mary and Thelma, employees there, about Cut Ants. They have a prepared spiel about the ants. They even have pictorial props to illustrate their presentation. They say only Grant’s has been found to be effective. They must sell a lot of it. I saw seventeen unopened cases near the register. They say people come from as far as Victoria to buy the Grant’s Ant Bait. They feel that bleach and Malathion only harms the ones it touches and has no long-term effect.

Ron has been busy washing front doors this week. I believe he has finished all of them. He has placed yellow tape on several areas of the crossbridge. It is getting pretty rickety.

Workers have been busy rebuilding electrical meter cover boxes at the Phase II this week. They tell me they will replace all of ours soon. Robbie didn’t hang up his hammer very long. He started a remodel of 705 today.

I talked to Beverly today. She said the September financials would be ready tomorrow.