Tony's Lawn Service came by today and removed much of the freeze damaged vegetation. There are many plants that will have to be replaced.
I tried the pier last evening. There were trout, but they were very small. It was nice to see some fish under the lights again. For the most part, no one is catching much of anything. Live bait is nowhere to be found. Most bait stands are closed. Don(guest in 210) did manage two keeper reds last Saturday near Estes Flats. He and a couple other winter Texans tried Sailboat Pass on Monday and caught a few sheepshead.
More rain is expected tomorrow and water is still standing all over the area. It is interesting to drive along highway 239 from Goliad to Tivoli and see the utility polls all leaning askew. The water is still standing along the road between the fence lines and the roadway and the saturation depth is so great the polls are leaning every which way at precarious angles. Only the electrical lines are preventing further displacement.
Pop is a happy camper these days. J.R. got him a heater for the security office about three weeks ago and he can't say enough about how nice it is to stay warm. He used to spend most of the evening in his truck with the motor running to keep the heater warm. He even has most of the cameras working again.
The picture below shows work being done between 402 and 403. New flashing is being installed, the windows were replaced, and the stucco will be replaced. I guess there was a water leak from all the recent rains.

This new electrical switch box was installed about two weeks ago. The old one had rusted almost completely away. The lights still don't work, but this time of year that is not a real problem. During the summer the lights need to be on every evening to establish a pattern to draw in the fish. At those times the box could be locked because if someone turns it off one night, the next night the lights won't automatically go on and guests may think they don't work.

This is one of the larger cracks in the concrete in the parking area. At first the concrete just cracked, but now I see some flaking off from the sides of some of the cracks. I think this needs to sealed very soon before the flaking gets even worse.

This is the first of what will likely be several sidewalk repairs that will be done. The sidewalk aprons that approach the sidewalk along the concrete wall of the marina have sunken into the ground and present trip hazards. J.R. has unique connections to bring out help on a time and material basis when workers have a break from other jobs and can fill in their schedule with work on our projects.

This Kinsel Construction barge pulled into the marina this afternoon. I was hoping that maybe they were returning to finish the job on our breakwater that they had abandoned last year. However, when I asked the crew, they said they were just parking here for the evening.

I had posted that perhaps a side effect of the cold weather might be that the mosquitoes would be gone for the year or at least severely depleted. That really has not happened and I received the note below from Chuck(107) about his experience with mosquitoes in Alaska. I had hoped the Texas mosquitoes were not as tough as his Alaskan variety, but maybe they are!

I was somewhat amused at your wishful thinking that the mosquitoes would be gone when the temp hit 26. In Alaska, we have to have temps considerably below freezing for quite awhile before they are gone for the winter. And then they come back in late spring even if the temp gets to -50 during the winter. Also, we have a mosquito magnet which attracts and catches mosquitoes. When the basket is full you have to dispose of them and they are still alive. I tried several methods of killing them before emptying the basket _ I didn't want to use insecticides because I was afraid they would "melt" the plastic parts. I tried putting them in the freezer for several days. As soon as they warmed up, they were as healthy as ever.

I received this note from Scott this evening. I am still in San Antonio trying to take care of the water damage from the frozen water line in the attic.

JR is jumping on the list that I passed to him several weeks ago. Saturday morning I saw several trucks (one with a trailer and one with an air compressor) enter the property. They stopped back between 400 and 500 buildings. They jackhammered a portion of the sidewalk out that had dropped and has been a trip hazard. They are going to hammer out 4 areas of sidewalk on the south end of the property that need to be repoured.

He asked my opinion on how to stop the erosion just off the back deck of 308 alongside the concrete bulkhead near the start of the Phase I pier. I am not sure about how to do that. If I could solve that I would open a hydraulic engineering firm in Rockport and work 2 days a week and fish the rest. He suggested either stabilized sand or large boulders. Anyone that knows the answer please speak up.

The fish cleaning table at the back of 501 is officially "electrified". My two daughters and three of their friends were cleaning sea shells on the table when they said the shells were tingling. I could not feel the tingle. I thought they were being silly but to be safe we cleared the shells off and finished that project on our back porch. I mentioned it to JR and he said he will have an electrician fix it Monday. Later that morning I used the fish cleaning table to cut up some mullet. After the water ran a while there was so much electricity coming through the wet cut mullet pieces that I could not touch them. Using my wood handle fillet knife I had to sweep the pieces into a bucket to get them off of the table just so I could pick them up to bag them. Like I said, it is officially"electrified". There is a bench leaning against it and tape across it so no one else gets hurt trying to use it.

I continue to be impressed and pleased with JR's assertiveness on getting things done. He is good for the property and the property owners.

This advertisement for Phase II condos continues to run in the Rockport Pilot. Notice the ad says "pools" and "tennis court". One pool and the tennis court are Phase I common elements. The Phase II condos are being marketed as having full access to our common elements. We just had a repair cost on our tennis court last week. I'm sure that cost was not shared, nor should it have been. Advertising another property's common elements is like advertising a property and throwing in the neighbor's amenities as enticement to buy. Phase I owners need to let our board know about this. I might think a new Phase II owner might find that the property was misrepresented by the realtors.
This all comes about because the onsite rental pool likes to advertise as "kontiki Beach Resort" and there is no such thing. Many people mistakenly think this is all one property.

Is this a beautiful boat or what? A few weeks ago when I took my neighbor Steve(202) fishing he asked if I knew anyone who had a boat for sale. I told him that I had not seen Gus(203) use his in a while and maybe he was not finding time to use it and would sell it. Sure enough, they got together this weekend and made a deal. Scott(504) went with Steve to MacPort to get the boat our of dry storage to run it and a deal was made. I told Steve he needs to keep it at MacPort because it will be the envy of every fisherman if he leaves it on the complex. This could lead to some marital discourse on spending priorities.

After helping Steve on Saturday, Scott went into the Gulf on Sunday. They tried reefs and rigs as well as the surf and never got any type of bite. Monday Dick(guest in 505) and Don(guest in 210) took Don's boat under the causeway to try for trout. They caught two big sheepshead, but no trout.

Our channel and breakwater committee of two, Scott and Rob, have been in contact with Coast and Harbor Engineering of Austin. They have agreed to look at our issues at no cost. Then if they feel they can be of service to us, offer their services for a fee to find a more permanent solution to the channel shoaling and the shoreguard maintenance. They are currently working with the city of Rockport on a project so they are in the area anyway. I think this is real progress for the problems we have experienced. The price of good information is well worth the cost. In the last few years we have spent over a half and million dollars without any construction engineering input. The time has come.

Rob and his crew were busy this week replacing the facade of the Phase II recreation room. The inclement weather on Wednesday forced our winter Texans to use the rec. room for their weekly covered dish get together.

I had a note today from an owner asking for some more blog fish reports. This time of years those are hard to come by. Here is a picture I snapped on Monday of a stringer of sheepshead hanging from the end of the Phase I pier. This is about the only "hot" fishing spot I know of at the present. I have tried at night from the pier with no success at all.

Randy(308) sent this article that says the fish survived the cold.

January 12, 2010
Lower Coast appears to escaped freeze with minimal fish loss

Although I'm still waiting for 'official' word, from my observations and that of several fishermen and guides I've spoken with over the past few days, it would appear the Lower Coast weathered this latest freeze event fairly well. One guide reported seeing a handful of dead fat snook. Several people noticed schools of mangrove snapper swimming slowly near the surface on Sunday. But, by and large, no one has seen any sign of a major fish kill. That said, it's always possible there is an area of dead fish that has gone unnoticed either because the fish are on the bottom or in an area that hasn't been frequented by fishermen since the freeze. But, at least at this point, it looks like anglers can breathe a tentative sigh of relief.

On the other hand, my San Antonio house was not so lucky. Even with precautions, the water pipes in the attic had multiple freeze related leaks. By the time it was discovered, the ceiling had fallen in and the cleanup crew worked all day today to begin the recovery process.

This reminds me of the way all the Kontiki remodels began. An undiscovered upstairs water leak in condo 207 produced results just like this. Rob did a complete remodel to repair the damage and when it turned out so well, all the other remodels followed.

Jim Sikes sent this link yesterday. You may need to cut and paste into your browser.
It gives the latest inspection ratings of restaurants in Aransas County.

http://www.aransascountytx.gov/~aceh/scores.php

The new light fixtures went up today behind the 500 and 600 buildings. I have not yet seen them illuminated. I'm sure they look great. This completes the lighting fixture replacement project except for the deck lights on 711 and 712.
The weather here has been like most of the nation, very cold. Friday morning my outside thermometer read 26.3 degrees. To make matter worse, at 7am we lost electrical power. I called the AEP and they said there were 500 residences without power. The electricity did not come back on until 12:35pm. The temperature got down to 52 degrees inside the condo. One would have hoped the cold air would have done in the mosquitoes. Alas, that's not the case or at least not entirely. Now when getting mail from the mail box only about two mosquitoes per square inch can be seen. Before the cold weather it was more like five per square inch.
All the timers on the complex were then off schedule too. J.R. got most of them reset on Saturday. The new pier was still 6 hours off so today I saw Ed in the area and showed him where the box was to reset the pier lights. Interestingly, while we were there talking an older car with 12 foot fishing rods stuck out the back window, drove up to the new pier. It was pretty obvious that they did not belong here. Ed went right over to ask them for a parking pass. Sure enough, they were from Guatemala and said they thought this was a public pier. I was glad to see Ed be proactive in taking care of our property.
The tennis court fence supports that were rusted away were replaced today.
Early this morning I missed a Kodak moment. I looked out and saw Dick(guest in 505) holding the ladder while John(guest in 204) was busy replacing the flag pole rope that winter Texans use to announce the covered dish suppers on Wednesday. Later in the day I saw Dick coming off the Phase I pier with pole in hand. He said it was too crowded for him. I counted eleven folks on the end of the pier fishing for sheepshead. It looked like they had about eight on the stinger. You can't do that on the new pier. Some people don't understand that the summer fishing is best on the new pier, but the winter fishing is all about the old pier. It all has to do with water depth. The old pier is twice as deep at the end than is the new pier.

Posted for Scott Schomburg

January 9, 2010
Subject: Latest at Phase I
Dear Kontiki Owners,
At the owner’s meeting in November there was talk of a new communication program being established but I have not heard anything about it lately so I have asked Larry to post this information on his blog to get it out to the owners. As I had promised from my last communication with you I wanted to give you an update on the latest communications at Kontiki. I had a very good meeting this morning with JR Gimler, our new property manager. JR met me at my unit this morning and we talked about the many “to-do” items at Kontiki. With him being new to the property I also offered some suggestions on things that will need attention as time goes on. See the following list. This is certainly not all but it is a good start. Some items are small, some are large, some have a sizable cost and others are minimal. We went down the list and discussed the more complicated ones. JR is very dedicated to taking good care of the property. Shortly after our visit he was already working on some of the quick and easy items. I applaud his enthusiasm and I think he will be very good for Kontiki. One thing we discussed at length was not creating any liabilities that would require another assessment. JR and I were in full agreement that we do not want to create any new assessments but want to get as much done as we can with the budget we have.
We also reviewed the separation of the HOA and the rental operations. JR has been in the construction and management business for many years and once it was explained the responsibilities of each entity and where they are separated he had a very clear picture. I expect that more scrutiny of billings (accurate billings as well as monthly reviews) will lead to a more cash rich bank account.
Regarding the internal audit performed by Alan Koemel (108) and Larry Biggers (201), there are a significant number of items that Alan and Larry found that need to be further reviewed by the Board. I am mailing copies of these documents to the Board members next week. These will likely be discussed by the Board at the next Board meeting in February, if not sooner.
Regarding the new Owner’s Directory, Angela Koemel (108) is almost finished with it. I got a sneak peek over Christmas break and it looks great. Angela has been working hard to get as many pictures of owners as possible to put in the directory to personalize it a little more. When we last spoke she talked about distributing it via the monthly bills through Johnson & Cates. Not sure when it will come out, but rest assured it is being built.
Please feel free to call me with any questions, 713-725-3860.
Thank you,
Scott Schomburg (504)
Kontiki HOA-Secretary

Kontiki Repairs
Single Items
· Concrete sidewalks on both sides of 400 Bldg and in front of 207
· Security Cameras
· Wireless Internet
· Tennis courts fence – new supports
· Replace rotten window trim
· Warranty repairs on concrete in front of dumpster by 400 bldg?
· Concrete repairs next to 701 and in front of 101
· Replace or repair utility box covers
· Repair and clean lift station and control panel
· Repair area at the start of Phase I pier and breakwater in that area
· Replace cutting area of fish cleaning stand
· Replace light fixtures behind 500 and 600 buildings
· Pick up soaker hoses behind 707 and in front of 106
· Complete shrub planting next to 608
· Fill in trench next to tennis court
· Inventory and clean maintenance shed
· Remove two big posts in the mitigation site
· Move cleats on finger piers
· Check on warranty repair on tennis court surface
· Identify security lights that we pay for
· Clean up commercial account access
· Collect and store written contracts, agreements, warranties

Constant Maintenance
· Swimming pool furniture and area clean up
· Tennis courts lights
· Pier Lights, replace burned out lights and adjust alignment of others
· Clean barbecue pits
· Empty trash cans regularly
· Remove trash from mitigation site

Grounds
· Keeping grass and bushes trimmed
· Keeping sidewalks, curbs and tennis court properly edged
· Treating grass with pesticides and herbicides
· Treating for fire ants
· Trimming palm trees

Scott and I went back to the spot under the causeway on Sunday. The tide was the opposite direction, but the fish were still there. We caught three keeper trout and two large sheepshead. Again we caught no undersized trout. Two of the trout from Saturday were taken to Crab-N. Wow, they do a good job. I had one piece broiled and the rest fried. I did find out something useful too. I had no room for the oh so good sundae that they serve, but they sold me a pint of the chocolate topping for $7. I was able to make my own sundae on Monday. That is the way to go. It looks like a pint of the topping will make about eight sundaes. I'm getting an appetite for another sundae just writing this.
The holiday treats keep coming my way. Sunday Stephen and Jane(711) gave me a box of really good cookies and Monday Amy(504) brought over a plate of her special brownies. I think men of a certain age are hard to buy for and everyone knows sweets are always welcomed during the holiday season or anytime for that matter.
Paul(505) had a bad experience this weekend. He went to Walmart for a few minutes on Sunday morning. When he got back here be noticed that a compressor and several tools had been taken from the bed of his truck. He doesn't know if they disappeared on Saturday night here or from the trip to Walmart. He did file a police report. Ideally, our security cameras would have recorded any activity around the area of Paul's truck, but our cameras seldom work and have not worked at all since the tennis court lights were redone. Someone told me the three cameras on the post near the boat parking draw their power from the post that the tennis court light switch is on. It may be a coincidence. The security cameras have been a persistent problem and expense from day one. Pop says he always writes up the problems, but he doesn't know if anyone ever reads his reports.
The coldest weather in years is expected this weekend. J.R. has a crew coming out tomorrow to wrap the water pipes. They will also wrap the pipes at the Villas and Phase I. J.R. came by last week and caulked the window screen on my upstairs window. The screen rattled loudly when the north wind blew, but not anymore! It's much quieter now.
The blog stats from last week showed that access was made eight times from Harker Heights. I have no idea who is in Harker Heights, but I remember that place well from my Fort Hood days. As I recall Killeen was in a dry county(no alcohol) and Harker Heights was not. As soon as you crossed the county line, the package stores were lined up.
Chuck and Sandy(107) got back from North Carolina at 4:30 am on Monday. However, his 93 year old mother is in the hospital in Kerrville and they may have to go there the next day or so.
The winter Texans are slowly arriving. There are not nearly as many here this year as in previous years. I know of ten owners who wanted winter guests, but have not yet been booked.
I noticed today that there was an AT&T repair truck parked at the 700 building. That is a better thing than seeing Wilson Communications here working on phones.

When fishing in January, always expect the unexpected. The trout are not where you would expect to find them. Here Scott and I show the four we, along with Paul, picked up this afternoon. The smallest was 17" and the largest was just a hair short of 20". We had planned a short trip to see what was happening besides sheepshead. We tried the Goose Island shoreline and picked up only one not quite big enough red. We tried a well and found a lot of sheepshead. We then tried fishing under the causeway at its highest point. We stayed there only about forty minutes and caught several sheepshead and these trout. These were the only four trout we caught. That is unusual in itself.
Wednesday Scott and Alan(108) fished up and down St. Joe and all points in between with no hookups at all.

The burned deck boards on 103 were repaired on Thursday. Ed, who has been working at the Villas, worked on them for most of the morning. He had a hard time getting the old boards out. When Rob rebuilt the decks he secured them pretty well. The question here is, who pays for this repair? This unit is exclusively rentals and some renters had a barbecue on the deck. Is this an HOA responsibility to fix the problem or is it the responsibility of the company who rented the unit? There are four rental management companies who rent condos at Phase I. To what extent is the HOA responsible for damages caused by rental activity? We used to have a policy on this. Later Thursday afternoon, I saw Wilson Communications doing a telephone repair in the 400 building. The worker told me there was a loose wire at the pedestal. J.R. told me he did not call for the repair. If the company that manages the rental units in the 400 building called in the repair instead of calling AT&T, that company should be responsible for the repair cost. No rental management company should obligate the Phase I HOA. That all should come through the property manager. I'll have to watch for that bill.
The tennis court lights work well now. One switch does it all. J.R. said the total cost was just over $300.
The lift station continues to be a problem. J.R. said it has not been serviced regularly and the circuit panel needs a lot of repair. We are working on only one pump right now. He will have to pull out the pumps with chains and do some maintenance and repair next week.