Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 11, 1980 Page: 1 of 8
eight pages : ill. ; page 19 x 14 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
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PORT ARANSAS
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VOLUME 10, NO. 25 - PRICE 25 CENTS ON MUSTANG ISLAND, TEXAS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1980
Peace Justice
Fisher Dies
Justice of the Peace Thomas E.
Fisher, 58, died December 2nd in
a Corpus Christi hospital. A
resident of Port Aransas since
1945, Fisher had served six years
as Justice of the Peace here after
spending a number of ye&rs as a
Nueces County Deputy Sheriff in
j Port Aransas and Corpus Christi.
He was the resident Deputy
Sheriff in Port Aransas before the
City established its own police
department eleven years ago.
Bom in Boston, Massachusetts,
Fisher made his home here after
serving in the U.S. Navy. He was
a member of St. Joseph Catholic
Church.
Survivors include his wife,
Virginia Fisher of Port Aransas;
one son, Thomas M. Fisher cf
Houston; two daughters, Gayla
Cutsch, Gloria K. Fisher; two
grandchildren, Thumper and Cort-
ney Gutsch, all of Port Aransas.
Funeral Mass was celebrated
Friday at St. Joseph Catholic
Church in Port Aransas. Grave-
side services were held Friday at
the Nordheime Cemetery in Nord
heime, Texas.
Pallbearers were Alan Yaffe of
Corpus Christi, Judge John Cox of
Corpus Christi, Van Courts of Port
Aransas, Bobby Sherwood of Port
Aransas, and Edward Nelson of
Nordheime.
Mustang Park
May Re-Open
This Spring
The Mustang Island State Park
may be reopened for at least
limited use by Easter, according
to reports from Texas Parks and
Wildlife Department officials. The
park facilities suffered some $700,
000 in damages as a result of high
water and heavy seas that
accompanied Hurricane Allen in
August.
listed among the damages and
losses resulting from the storm
were the paved camping area and
its utility services, paved beach
access roads, beach lighting and
the bath house.
Efforts are now being made to
secure an interagency contract
between P&W and the Highway
Department for repaving of the
access roads. If this contract is
approved soon, park superinten-
dent Tommy Hicks said that it
may be possible to open the Gulf
beach area of the park for day use
and camping by Easter. The
holdup on reopening of the paved
camping area is the need to
replace all the water and elec-
tricity lines that were destroyed
by the high water.
For the first time, the P&M
department is seeking Federal
Emergency Management Agency
funds for repair of hurricane
damage to this and other state
parks in south lexas. These
applications are now being pro:
cessed by the agency, but the
timetable for funding is not know.
The park, finally opened in
mid-1979, after a number of
construction delays, had been
opened just one year before the
extensive storm damage forced its
shutdown. The only portion of the
park facilities now opened for
public use is the Mustang Island
Water Exchange Pass, better
known as the “fish pass”. Access
is permitted to both sides ot the
pass for fishing, both east and
west of Park Road 53.
Meanwhile, the metal bridge
grating across the pass is still in
the process of being replaced by
concrete beams. Weather had
deteriorated the metal bridge
portion, that was originally in-
tended to be easily removable to
allow maintenance dredging of the
pass.
Even though the pass is heavilv
NORTHERS BRING OUT THE FISH AND THE FISHERMEN
silted, there has been no dredging
since its construction, and, with
the new bridge work, it seems
unlikely that ease of maintenance
dredging remains a priority item.
Much of the 3,750 acre park,
which includes about five miles of
Gulf beach frontage, has been left
in an undeveloped state by P&W,
and most of the park facilities are
in the vicinity of the water
exchange pass. A two-mile portion
of the Gulf beach south of the
pass has limited vehicle access,
and is controlled by the now-
closed park entrance booth.
Manager Names
Police Chief
December 18th
City manager Gus Pappas will
announce his selection of a police
chief at the regular council
meeting, to be held on December
18th. The duties of police chief
are included under the City's
Department of Public Safety, of
which the police chief is director,
with responsibility for the admin-
istration of the police and fire
departments as well as the
emergency medical service am-
bulance.
Pappas, this week, closed
applications for the top public
safety position, and is now-
reviewing the applications submit-
ted hoth from outside the City and
from locals who are seeking the
position.
According to the City Charter,
the city manager hires department
heads, but with the consent of the
City Council. Therefore, Pappas’
announcement to the council of
his selection will be one of
seeking council consent for his
decision to hire a particular
individual.
The public safety position
became available in early Novem-
ber when police chief Roy Maddox
announced his resignation and left
the City to enter private enter
prise in the Houston area.
Maddox resigned exactly one year
after taking up the duties of police
chief here.
Working as acting police chief
now, for the second time, is Don
Perkins, who also served in the
position previous to the hiring of
Maddox, and after the resignation
of Dee Wayne Mathew's. wno was
just recently successful in a bid
for election to the local Constable
office. Mathews defeated two
term Constable Ben Cash in the
Mav Democratic Party Primary,
and again topped Cash in Novem
her. when Cash launched a
write in campaign to retain the
office.
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Frishman, Steve. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 10, No. 25, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 11, 1980, newspaper, December 11, 1980; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth601517/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.