Randy(308) sent this note about the fellow in the car wreck near Tivoli.

The man injured in the south bound car is a friend of mine. He is State Farm Agent David Denham in Port Lavaca. He lives in Rockport, has a very nice place on the south side of Sportsman Manor on Fulton Beach Road.
He drives to Port Lavaca for work but returns home at night to his Fulton home.
Has a nice place, with Spanish tile roof and is some shade of yellow. 1101 N Fulton Beach Road, Rockport.
He has a pier across the road and it has a cabana with the tile roof as well.
David's wife owns the little cottages on the west end of the property that fronts Hwy 35.
David is doing well after being flown to San Antonio to an air force base for treatment of his burns.
He also had a fractured vertebrae in his neck that was nondisplaced and did not cause paralysis.
He had surgery on the neck but the doctors went back in to re-do the screw as they did not like the angle it was at after the first procedure.
He should be coming home later this week.

The Aransas Appraisal District has completed the appraisal process for this year. Values at Kontiki are all over the place. One owner of a three bedroom unit has his value lowered to $210,000. I would guess that those who are trying to sell their unit want the appraisal to be higher to increase the chances of a higher selling price while others want the value lower to pay less in taxes. The values can be seen at www.aransascad.org. Select "address search" and enter "2292" in the street number location and "fulton" in the street name location. Uncheck the mark in the "exact" box. The list of all condo values should come up.

My weekly google stats arrived today. They show there were hits from 29 different cities in Texas last week. Overall 93 unique computers accessed the site. I'm not sure what is prompting this activity. It could be the advertising of the units for sale or maybe owners and others interested in the pier construction or sales of condos.

This article appeared in the Rockport Pilot this weekend. Pat(602) said that he came upon this accident on his way to Rockport and was forced to detour back and drive through Bayside. This section of Highway 35 gets a lot of traffic and I don't think there are any plans right now to improve the road.

Rockport man escapes fiery crash
Published:
Friday, June 26, 2009 1:59 PM CDT
Rockport resident David Irvine Denham, 69, was injured in a head-on accident Tuesday, June 23 at 5:39 p.m. on Highway 35 a little more than six miles south of Tivoli.

According to Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Danny White, the accident occurred when a northbound 2002 Honda Accord, driven by Alberto Rene Salinas, 22, of Fresno, skidded across the center stripe, striking Denham’s southbound 2008 Ford F-250 pickup.

White said it appears the Honda’s right rear tire blew out.

Angela Marcela Montoya, 21, of Houston, the front seat passenger in the Honda, was killed. She was not wearing a seatbelt and was ejected upon impact. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

According to White’s report, Denham took evasive action in an attempt to avoid a collision. Denham’s pickup was engulfed in flames shortly after he was pulled out of the vehicle by passing motorists.

Denham and Salinas were transported to Victoria’s Citizens Hospital in stable condition with incapacitating injuries. Denham was later transferred to a San Antonio hospital via air transport because of neck injuries.

Denham was reportedly in good spirits, awaiting surgery at the San Antonio hospital.

Note from Scott(702).

This is the Wharf Cat out in the Gulf.. I thought it was interesting that we saw the Wharf Cat out there yesterday because almost one year to the day we were on the Wharf Cat fishing around the anchored ships catching King fish and yesterday we were there on our own catching King fish at the same ships. I love the independence of going where we want to go when we want to go. And the sandwiches on our boat taste better and cost less!

Note from Scott(702).

This is a picture of Meg, Hannah(friend) and Meredith swimming in the Gulf on Saturday. We are about 8 miles out. We went out as far as 18 miles on Saturday. The water was beautiful. You can see that their arms and legs can be seen below the water. It shows how clear it was.

This is the parking area off the back of the 700 building. It has been converted to boat parking and the lines have been put at an angle to allow for easier backing. Given the number of boats parked here, I would say it is working well.

This is how the new crossbridge looks in the evening. It not only looks very nice, but I think the fishing may be better even than the longer piers in the bay.

Here is another note from Scott(702)

Amy, myself and the girls were coming in from fishing this past Saturday when we were stopped by the Coast Guard in the Gulf. We were about a mile out of the jetties when they pulled up along side of us. They asked me to put the throttle in forward at an idle and they would pull alongside and come aboard. The water was fairly rough for this maneuver but it did not seem to phase them. One game warden from TP&W came aboard along with one Coast Guard person. They informed me they were doing safety inspections. They were polite but focused. They asked to see our fish; which consisted of one legal sized King fish. They then asked to see all items you can imagine: fire extinguisher, whistle, flares, life jackets, throwable flotation device, boat registration, fishing license and probably several other items I have forgotten. I explained that I had spent a small fortune on purchasing the numerous items to be legal and would be more than proud to demonstrate ownership of each and every one of them. Gotta get my monies worth out of them. The experience was interesting and educational. Amy was impressed with the Coast Guard boat . . . time to upgrade. This is the third time I have been stopped in the past three years by TP&W in the vicinity of Port A. They certainly keep their presence in the area. You never know when they will show up or where.

Last week on Friday, the parking spaces were again numbered. I had really hoped that they would remain unnumbered. The numbering causes more problems than it ever solves. I'm sure Pop had to deal with complaints about people in the wrong spaces this weekend. One of the problems is that on a busy weekend, when parking spots are at a premium, some owners will not be at the complex and their numbered space goes unused. Another problem is that it is difficult to place all owners numbered spaces as close to their front door as they would like. Even though two spaces were added to the 200 building parking, I don't have an unmarked space on either side of my unit. I had talked to Karra about this when they remarked the last time. I had always had an unmarked space to the south of my marked space. I have come to understand the political issues that are now present and I realize I'll just have to wait it out. I generally don't have but one car there at a time so it really is no big deal. This is not too different from the "Larry's boat rule" that impacts only me. I can deal with it for now.
I am still having trouble making sense of the monthly financial report. After the first five months of the year, we still have liabilities that exceed out assets. For the five months we had budgeted $61,957.00 and spent $353,377.30 for a net variance of $291,420.30. I asked Karra, the last time I visited with her, if we could return to a practice of having the property manager include some notes with the monthly financial report to allow owners to better understand exactly where we are financially. She seemed receptive, but it has not be done. Since anyone can search the internet for "Kontiki Condominiums" and be directed to this blog, it is some concern to me that a prospective buyer for a condo might be repelled by our financial position that I have pointed out even though there may be a rational explanation that I am not aware of. Very very few owners have requested a copy of the monthly reports so maybe they are more comfortable with the disclosures than I am. In fact, paragraph one may be related to paragraph two!

The following is an email from Chuck Madsen(107) that owners might need to know about. A scammer might have better luck fishing for trout in our swimming pool than trying to scam Chuck.

Larry,
You might find the following amusing and want to pass it on to others.

As you know, I originally had CP&L electric service at Kontiki. I changed to Riverway in May 2008. All payments for CP&L between 2003 and May 2008 were automatically deducted from my checking account and thus paid on time and in full. Yesterday, I received a phone call from an outfit called ER Solutions stating that I had an outstanding debt from CP&L for $322, that I could settle immediately for $156 and that if I didn't settle by the end of the month, they would file with the credit bureaus. Note that this was out of the blue. I had received no notice of an outstanding debt by any means.

I called CP&L this morning and they said my account was current and there was no outstanding debt. I then gave this info to ER solutions and now they said that CP&L had turned this bill over to another branch of their company called Direct Energy. Yesterday they had actually given me a CP&L account number which was bogus. Now they say it is a Direct Energy account number. I told ER that this sounds like a scam and they assured me it wasn't and that they will collect the substantiating information from Direct Energy and send it to me.

I'll let you know the outcome.

As you might guess, I'm pretty fed up with the Texas electric system. It sounds pretty good on paper. However, I switched to a lower cost company and they went bankrupt within a week. The next company couldn't use my Amex card for auto payments for some reason and was inaccessible by phone, email or mail until I contacted the BBB. The third company seems OK so far but who knows.

Keep up the good work on the blog. You probably know that you get quite a few hits from Alaska.

Chuck

Note from Scott(702).
As most of you know the wind has been blowing steady for three weeks now so on Sunday the 21st Amy, Meg, Meredith and I spent the afternoon in ski basin. It has become a new favorite place of ours. We enjoy tubing and skiing. After we are worn out we anchor in the south end of the basin, throw the tube in the water and tie it off to the boat. Throw a couple lifejackets over as floats and we have our own swimming hole. The skiers and jetskiers provide idle entertainment as we eat lunch, swim and enjoy some refreshing beverages. Our name for this adventure is the Flotilla. We encourgae others to join. It is a good family oriented time. The picture is of Amy and Meredith with their "no-hands" pose on the tube.

The new pier construction continues. There appear to be twenty six spans and each one is ten feet so it appears the length is now 260 feet. Rob hopes to complete the construction about the middle of July.

There may be very few trout in the bay, but there are sharks. My son in law and his brother took my boat out about halfway to Scotch Tom reef and caught this Hammerhead Shark on a pin perch.

I visited with Karen Meador on Thursday. She is the Texas Parks and Wildlife biologist responsible for Aransas Bay. She said they have just completed their spring gillnet survey that lasted for ten weeks. She won't have the final numbers available to the public until about July 13th. The early results show what we pretty much know, there are very few trout in the bay. She said the patterns they are seeing is what they usually see in the early fall. The salinity in Copano and Aransas bays is holding at thirty five parts per thousand. That is above what is normal for the gulf much less the bay system. She said the guides are having trouble putting clients on fish also. Perry Trail, in charge of Corpus Christi Bay, is finding his surveys are not much different than those that Karen is seeing.
It is strange when you see so few crab traps out in the bays while boating and very seldom do you see a shrimp boat. She did admit that opening Cedar Bayou would help, but what is needed most is a whole lot of rain.

Our dredge barge didn't leave town after they finished with us. Here it is working on the channel from Key Allegro into Bayhouse and Harbor Oaks.
Thursday is the last day for Heather Snyder at Johnson and Cate. She is leaving to work for the IRS office in Corpus. I wish her well, but we are sure going to miss her. She was the friendliest face I have seen at the accounting office. She did a really good job for our HOA. She took great pride in her customer service and well as the accuracy of her bookkeeping.
I talked to Lynn Edwards of Save our Cedar Bayou today. She is still plugging along to try to get a permit to dredge the bayou. Fishing in Aransas and Mesquite Bays has really been poor. The trout are just not there. Many of the old timers are saying they have never seen it this tough. Lynn told me that she has some research that says that ninety per cent of the people who visit Rockport come to fish. If things don't improve, the local economy will suffer. While I think opening Cedar Bayou would help, I don't know why an area like Lydia Ann Channel would not be producing trout catches right now. That channel is so close to the jetties, it gets good water circulation and still no fish.

The Rockport beach saw a kite competition this last weekend. A look at the palm tree tops shows that the wind was howling. At least someone wanted to see some wind. One of the local guides noted on the fishrockport site yesterday that this has been the windiest year he has ever seen.

Work resumed on Monday on the last of the concrete work. By the end of the week it was completed. Justin said we had just barely enough money to finish the job. He did say there may be a need for more money via assessment to make other ends meet.
As of Monday, only one of the recently marketed condos was under contract.

Rob and his crew made a lot of progress on the new pier this week. They have about 180 feet completed and have 300 feet to go. He says they plan to put up ten metal halide lights at a cost of $1,000 each.

Day three work saw about eighteen more posts added to the pier.
I tried to find some trout yesterday. Three of us went to Half Moon, Long Reef, Paul's Mott, and the Sandollar Reef. The grand total was one undersized red. I've not seen anyone else bring anything in.
We are starting to get some of the crazy summer crowd here. The folks in 105 shot two seagulls yesterday and then put one on a hook and put out a line to try to catch a shark!
I forgot to mention on Wednesday that early that morning Tony(Rob's helper) went on the deck of 101 to plug in an electrical cord. He noticed the window had been totally broken out. The screen was destroyed and the glass was almost all gone. Even the window frame was bent. Rob got a key to see if anything was missing. Chris and Karra have some of their personal stuff in that unit. He said he did not see anything missing. That unit has been burglarized before. It's pretty easy to pull up to the back of that unit and not be seen.

Here is how the pier project looks after day 2.
Pat(602) went out this morning and fished Carlos Bay. He caught three drum, one red, and one trout. I tried Paul's Mott with pin perch and didn't get a bite. Tomorrow Otis(604) is going out with his sons, David and Rau.
The concrete work is still stopped. I'm beginning to think we may be out of money. For the first four months of 2009, we are $113,219 over budget. Additionally, owners are collectively $22,462 behind on payments. I would not at all be surprised to see another assessment just to make ends meet.

This is a recap of real estate activity in the area for April. Pretty dismal! This won't format well, but I think it is readable.

April Sales in Rockport/Fulton (includes Lamar but not Aransas Pass)
Price Range No. for Sale No. Sold in April
Total 393 18
$150,000 and under 94 8
$151,000 - $400,000 181 10
$401,000 - $4,000,000 101 0

Large subdivision sales during April 2009
Sold For Sale (as of May 1, 2009)
Bahia Bay 0 10
Harbor Oaks 0 12
Key Allegro 0 31
Rockport Country Club 1 36

Townhomes/condos: 97 currently on the market, of which none sold in April 2009.
Per MLS listings – Rockport Area Association of Realtors

Work began today on rebuilding the Phase II pier. This picture shows just part of the lumber and materials that will be needed. Square posts are going to be used. This should make for a stronger construction. The pier will be five feet above the average water level. The end will be 10 feet by 50 feet, if all goes well with the permitting.
The dredging company came by this afternoon and hauled away the fuel container that was stored near the boat ramp.

This is what's left of the Phase II pier. Now the wait is for the School Land Board to meet and approve our permit for a new and bigger pier.

The concrete work has not progressed during the last ten days. The proposed last pour for last Wednesday did not happen. I don't know what the new schedule is. This picture shows what is left to be done to complete the parking lot project.