November 17, 2015
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Meetings & Discussions      
On Monday, November 9, 2015 City Manager Bill DiLibero and Planning Director Dr. Sungman Kim met with Brett Jackson to  discuss possible plans for development on lots between Verna Jean and Georgia Ruth west of Padre Blvd. and possible zoning  changes.

On Tuesday, November 10, 2015 City Manager Bill DiLibero participated in the EDC's Business Development Committee  meeting. Mr.  DiLibero also attended the Board of Director's meeting at the South Padre Island  Chamber of Commerce.

City Secretary Susan Hill attended an Education Class Day on November 4, 2015 with the Leadership Laguna Madre XX class in  which the class toured several schools and campuses in the Rio Grande Valley. Susan presented a short report to the  Chamber of Commerce Directors at their regular meeting on November 10, 2015

On Wednesday, November 11, 2015 City Manager Bill DiLibero attended the Veteran's Day Ceremonies for South Padre Island,  Port Isabel, and Laguna Vista. Mayor Barry Patel and Mr.  DiLibero also attended the World Birding Center  meeting at the McAllen Convention Center.

On Thursday, November 12, 2015 City Manager Bill DiLibero and Assistant City Manager Darla Jones attended Coffee &  Conversation to hear Surfrider Foundation South Texas Chapter Chairman Rob Nixon discuss County beach erosion.

On Thursday, November 12, 2015 Mayor Barry Patel and City Manager Bill DiLibero met with Frank Espinoza from American  Electric Power to discuss underground power lines and electrical upgrades on the island.

On Friday,  November  13,  2015  Council  Member  Dennis  Stahl,  City  Manager  Bill  DiLibero,  Finance
Director  Rodrigo  Gimenez,  Senior  Accountant  Eddie  Salazar,  Content/Communication  Specialist
 Nancy  Botello,  Hotel  Occupancy  Tax  Intern  Georgina  Ramos,  Public  Information  Officer  Gary
Ainsworth  and  Elena  Jones  met  to  discuss  Hotel  Occupancy  Tax  ordinance  enrollment,  new
revenues  brought  in,  future  activities,  and  related  press.

On Friday, November 13, 2015 Assistant City Manager Darla Jones attended the Texas City Management Association - Region 10  meeting to discuss next year's Annual Conference hosted on the island.


Transit Department Program Administrator Debbie Carpenter attended the LRGV Active  Transportation and Tourism Plan Stakeholder meeting last week in San Benito. Regional Partners have  been awarded a Legacy Foundation grant to develop a plan that will connect the communities in the LRGV  through active transportation such as walking and biking, and promote our area for active tourism.

Welcome Back Barbara! 

Barbara Johnson is back! Barbara is a Windsurfer and has been vacationing in our Island since 2006. She windsurfs on the Island April & May, October & November. Welcome back Barbara and thank you for paying us a visit at the South Padre Island Visitors Center!! 

Texas Turkeys say Happy Thanksgiving!

Be sure to stop by the South Padre Island Visitors Center to snap a picture of the all new Thanksgiving themed sandcastle! Thanks to artist Andy Hancock for this amazing sand sculpture! 

Veterans Day Celebration

South Padre Island Convention & Visitors Bureau Director Keith Arnold had the honor of emceeing the 4th Annual Veterans Day Celebration on November 11, 2015 at the Hilton Garden Inn. 

APS

APS, Adult Protective Services, filled the South Padre Island Convention Centre with 400 plus wonderful attendees. This year a portion of  their program concentrated on the needs of Veterans and Karla from Karla's Katering, surprised them with a  beautiful cake featuring the 106 year old veteran pictured in their conference logo. Many of their participants had  a wonderful time taking advantage of the photo booth provided at the Centre. Our own Police and Fire  Departments made us very proud providing the opening session color guard. What an awesome job they  did!

Police Department

On Wednesday, November 11th, SPI-PD Officers Schiltz, Cisneros and  Castaneda participated in the Color Guard for the  Veterans Day Celebration held at the Hilton Garden  Inn. Chief Smith was also present at the event.

On Thursday, both Chief Smith and Asst. Chief  Garza attended an SPI Marathon meeting to discuss  the final logistics for this Saturday's event.

Fire Department

On Wednesday, November 11th, SPI-FD Firefighters Montanez and Gonzalez participated in the Color Guard for the Veterans Day Celebration held at the Hilton Garden Inn.

The South Padre Island Fire Department 
conducted 5 business inspections this week.  The Fire Department also  responded to 16 calls this week. This call volume consisted of: 13 EMS calls and 03 fire related calls.

Prominent Scenic City Certification

The City of South Padre Island was officially awarded Gold  Scenic City Certification by the Scenic City Certification  Program of Scenic Texas on September 24 th in San Antonio.
Newly re-certified, South Padre Island is one of 20 cities earning  certification or recertification in 2015.  The Scenic City Certification Program is the first in the U.S. to  incorporate a comprehensive set of model standards for design  and development of public roadways and public spaces into one  program. The program draws a direct correlation between the  success of a city's economic development efforts and the visual  appearance of its public spaces. The program recognizes  municipalities that implement high-quality scenic standards.
South Padre Island has hit on highly successful strategies to develop scenic and quality environment for both  residents and visitors. South Padre Island first earned its Silver certification in 2010 and increased its  certification to Gold in 2015.

Recycling

Approximately 830 pounds of recyclable material were collected! Thank you to everyone for doing their part in keeping South Padre Island beautiful! A Call2Recycle box is located at the EHSD for properly disposing your batteries and/or Cell phones.

Brush Time

The Environmental Health Services Department would like to remind you to please place your brush and bulky items on the right-of way from the 25th to the last day of the month for pick up on the first three workdays of the month. Thank you for doing your part in keeping South Padre Island beautiful! 

Mosquito Minimization

Larvaciding and pesticide spraying have been conducted throughout the entire island to minimize the mosquito count. Staff will continue to monitor both weather conditions and mosquito activity to target areas of need. 

Multi-Modal Project

Transit staff held its Bi-Weekly OAC meeting and conducted interviews
with constructions workers to satisfy the Davis Bacon Act requirements for the project construction. Due to  recent rain, minimal progress was completed last week.

Gulf Boulevard & E. Sunset Street Improvement Project

Last week the contractor completed paving the south bound lane and the parking bays along Gulf Blvd.  The valley gutter between Venus and Saturn is pending along with some additional paving to resolve  some ponding issues on the shared pedestrian and bike lane.

East Sunset

Lobo Communications, the sub-contractor for Time Warner, broke a 16" water line on East Sunset on  Tuesday afternoon. They were boring under the street to install a cable line . The LMWD was on site until 2:00 am to complete the repair. Time Warner has  met with the Public Works Director Armando Gutierrez, and cost estimates are being obtained to repair  the street damages caused by broken water line.

John L. Tompkins Park

Bryant Industrial Services has removed the vegetation and should complete grading the property this  week. They are scheduled to install the sanitary line that will connect to East Sunset this week.

BULLETIN BOARD
28th Annual Lighted Boat Parade


Christmas Celebration 2015


Lighting of the Christmas Tree 2015


TUBACHRISTMAS 2015


HOT Tax Permit Registration 

Final compliance date was July 1, 2015!
Notices of Violation have been, and continue to be sent to several property owners on the island.
The City of South Padre Island has passed Ordinance 15-03 requiring all property owners who advertise their property for short term rental to register their residential rental unit (s (house, condo, apartment or bedroom) with the City, AND to comply with all applicable laws including the collection and remittance of hotel tax. Register today online at 
www.myspi.org/hottax , the final compliance date is July 1st 2015. 
To learn how to comply with the new City Ordinance please view the pre-recorded webinar. 
We will also be available by phone to answer any questions you may have. Call Georgina Ramos: (956) 761-8382 or Email:  [email protected].
If you have a Rental Property Manager on the island they may be handling the registration process for you.

Water Conservation 

At South Padre Island we're no strangers to water, but we're also no strangers to harsh Texas droughts; which is why we need to remember to conserve water. Please don't leave sprinkler systems or water hoses running unattended for long periods of time and only water your yards and wash your vehicles when necessary. This is just one small step we can take to help reduce waste. 

Recycling

Recyclable items can be taken to Old City Hall every Saturday from 8:00 AM to 11:00 AM. 

Items that can be recycled are: 
  • Newspaper
  • Cardboard
  • Office Paper
  • Aluminum
  • Tin
  • Plastic
To offer a better recycling service please: 
  • Compact, crush or break down plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, aluminum cans or any other items that may be reduced in size. This helps us use the most amount of space in the bins.
  • Remove any food, liquid, metal fasteners, adhesive materials or other items that may contaminate the whole load.


Animal Control

Friends of Animal Rescue operates the South Padre Island Recovery Center and Animal Shelter. The shelter is licensed by the State of Texas as an animal shelter and quarantine facility. 

The shelter is located at 4908 Padre Blvd and open to the public Tuesday-Sunday from 10 AM to 4:30 PM.  We do make arrangements to meet owners after hours if necessary in order to reunite pets with their families. Friends of Animal Rescue can be reached on their 24 hour hotline at 956-772-1171. Animals that are not claimed within 7-10 days are vetted (including Spay/Neuter) and adopted out to loving homes. 

Friends of Animal Rescue is a 501c3 nonprofit organization. To see the latest animals found or furry friends up for adoption please check out the Friends of Animal Rescue  Facebook  page. 


Incentive Policy

The South Padre Island Economic Development Corporation and the City of South Padre Island have approved an incentive policy in order to assist qualified new and existing businesses and to benefit the economic climate on the Island. Businesses can apply for property tax abatements as well as sales tax abatements for improvements that will contribute to the economy of South Padre Island. The City and the EDC will evaluate the applications to determine if they meet the established criteria for the programs. You can find a link to the policy, guidelines, and applications on both the City web page ( www.myspi.org) and the South Padre Island EDC web page (  www.southpadreislandedc.com) 

  
For more information, contact Darla Lapeyre, South Padre Island Economic Development Corporation Executive Director, at (956) 761- 6805 or email  [email protected] ; or Dr. Sungman Kim, City of South Padre Island Development Director, at (956) 761-8113 or email  [email protected] .



FREE Business Listing

Calling on all South Padre Island businesses. Please be sure to update your FREE business listing on the Convention & Visitors website (  www.sopadre.com ). If you haven't been provided with your login credentials please contact Carlos Centeno by phone: (956) 761-8390 or email:  [email protected] . By using your FREE business listing you have the ability to upload images, coupons, business description, and much more. Take advantage of this FREE marketing tool provided by the Convention & Visitors website.

PET OF THE WEEK

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
EVENTS

Looking for even more events? We've added and a new 'EVENTS' tab at the top of this newsletter! Just click that link and you can view our full calendar of events. We'll also be adding a new section here at the end of each month featuring the following months major events. Stay tuned! 

Date
Event
Location
Time
Nov 17-19 South Padre Island Convention Centre
6:30 PM
Nov 17-20
Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge
9:00 AM
Nov 17-20 Laguna Atascosa Wildlife Refuge
1:00 PM
Nov 17-22 Coconuts Bar & Grill
12:00 PM
Nov 17-22
The Quarterdeck Lounge
8:00 PM
Nov 17-22
Louie's Backyard
9:30 PM
Nov 18
The Quarterdeck Lounge
7:00 PM
Nov 18-19
The Garden Grille & Bar
6:00 PM
Nov 19
Louie's Backyard
7:00 PM
Nov 20-21
Clayton's Beach Bar & Grill
2:00 PM
Nov 20-21
Tequila Sunset
5:00 PM
Nov 20-21 Louie's Backyard
10:00 PM
Nov 21
Louie's Backyard
7:00 PM
Nov 22
NAMAR Event Center
11:00 AM
Nov 22 Clayton's Beach Bar & Grill
2:00 PM




City of South Padre Island
(956) 761-6456