Local News

Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998

Packery funding dead for 1998

$19.5 million measure cut from budget

By DAVID SIKES
Staff Writer

   A bill that would have authorized $19.5 million to reopen Packery Channel died Friday in the U.S. House of Representatives.
   The killer: a California flood protection attachment to the bill that had nothing to do with reopening the historic channel between Corpus Christi Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
   The channel, which has been filled with silt for most of this century, would cut an avenue for pleasure boats to reach the Gulf of Mexico through the island. The lack of a channel has kept the island from becoming a major resort destination, proponents say.
   "There's some disappointment that the bill died in the House, but there's a feeling, especially from Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's office, that they can push forward early next year to get this thing passed again," said Gary Bushell, chief executive officer of the Greater Corpus Christi Business Alliance.
   The Senate passed its version of the legislation Oct. 8. Senate and House negotiators are expected to start from scratch next year to re-negotiate the legislation, but will consider previous support in Congress for the project, said Steve Bentfield, spokesman for the Senate subcommittee that oversees negotiations on the legislation.
   Port Aransas officials who oppose the controversial $30 million project say they will use the delay to continue their fight, while at the same time preparing for the anticipated competition the reopening might bring.
   Port Aransas Mayor Glenn Martin said they will continue to tell people that keeping the channel open will be an expensive and never-ending battle with Mother Nature, and that it could produce dangerous waves near the proposed jetties.
   "But other than that, about all we can do is put ourselves in a position to compete," he said.
   Other opponents say the commercial boom on North Padre Island would hurt Port Aransas businesses, drawing tourists away.
   

Proponents disappointed

   Nueces County Precinct 4 Commissioner Joe McComb, a key advocate of the dredging project, said he naturally was disappointed with the House leadership's decision to pull the bill because of the California provision.
   But McComb said the community is close to making the project a reality.
   "That's the way things go in Washington, D.C. You take two steps forward on something and two steps back," McComb said.
   But, he said, it's clear that the project has the support of Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, and Hutchison, R-Dallas.
   "They're committed to seeing this program through," McComb said. "I see them pushing for funding in January. It's a setback, but not a major setback."
   Bushell said he still believes that construction of the channel could begin late next year or in early 2000.
   He said he views the near-miss as a legislative trial run, and he believes that Washington politicians have seen the merits of the project, thanks to the efforts of Hutchison and Ortiz.
   Nueces County officials and economists have estimated the reopening would result in $22 million in county property tax revenues in 18 years alone, and $786 million in economic growth during that same time.
   

Project's costs

   Nueces County has spent thousands of dollars on environmental and feasibility studies of the project in recent years. It also has, in theory, committed to spending $10.5 million to dig the channel.
   Proponents say the channel will provide a better exchange of sea water between the Gulf and the Laguna Madre, thus enhancing the estuary as a wildlife habitat. Opponents have said it would hurt wildlife habitat.
   The project is also touted as a storm protection project. To offset the erosion problems caused by the altered water flow, engineers propose to use sand dredged from the channel to re-establish the beaches along the Padre Island Seawall, reversing years of erosion and increasing the value of taxable property there.
   Martin said digging the channel will cost more than expected and maintaining it will be a tax drain for generations, unfairly taxing residents who will not benefit.
   County estimates put annual maintenance costs at about $350,000. Port Aransas officials, who contracted their own study, said it will cost closer to $1 million a year.
   Martin said that design flaws will make waters unsafe near the jetties, where there are no emergency services.
   "That's another cost that hasn't been addressed," he said.
   Besides, Martin said, attracting more commerce and people to Padre Island before raising the JFK Causeway, for hurricane evacuation, is simply irresponsible.
   Staff writer David Sikes can be reached at 886-3778 or by e-mail at sikesd@scripps.com. Scripps Howard Washington Bureau writer Rose Hanson contributed to this report.

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  © 1998 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.