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Monday, August 21, 2000

Making waves: Boaters resist decreasing speed
Island residents petition city, saying craft are hazardous
By Jonathan Osborne
Caller-Times

Reba Graham/Special to the Caller-Times

Peter Crane of Austin takes his son Conner riding through the Packery Channel. Several Padre Island residents are petitioning the city to declare the area north of the bridge over Park Road 361 to the end of the residences fronting Packery Channel a 'no-wake' zone, meaning no more speeding down the channel.

Packery Channel is a playground for people and their personal watercraft. On any given afternoon, riders on SeaDoos and Waverunners can be found zipping by, spinning out and splashing around.
   But when the riders stray from beneath the bridge and head north past the homes along the channel, the fun becomes a problem for local residents.
   And they want City Hall to do something about what they call a safety hazard and a threat to their property.
   "There's a number of problems, besides just the annoyance," said Greg Boss, who has a house on the channel. "It's a natural canal and therefore it's inviting for swimmers. The biggest danger is somebody getting killed."
   Boss is one of several Padre Island residents petitioning the city to declare the area north of the bridge over Park Road 361 to the end of the residences fronting Packery Channel a "no-wake" zone, meaning no more speeding down the channel.

Correction:
This story incorrectly reported where along Packery Channel Brad Rogers races his personal watercraft. Rogers said that he speeds his personal watercraft north of the homes along the channel, not near them.

   The city council is expected to vote on the ordinance at an Aug. 29 meeting.
   In a letter to the mayor and council members, residents along the channel complain of "Jet Skis speeding dangerously close to children swimming and relaxing in the waters of Packery Channel."
   The residents also complain of "unnatural erosion created by boat wakes."
   Noel Weaver, a member of the auxiliary coast guard, a group of civilians who assist the Coast Guard in promoting water safety, said the area is already a no-wake zone. The law just has not been enforced, he said.

George Gongora/Caller-Times

A game warden (far right, on watercraft) pulls over a personal watercraft rider for creating a wake under the bridge at the Packery Channel.

   Defining a no-wake zone
   "I think they have a valid concern. People just don't understand what the law is," Weaver said.
   "The law in Texas says you can't operate a boat, and of course Jet Skis are boats, within 50 feet of a dock or people in the water, any structure, other boats, all of this type of thing, unless you're going at a dead slow speed, no wake, essentially."
   It means that operators must legally operate their boats at the slowest speed possible while still managing to steer the boats, he said.
   "If they're within 50 feet of a dock, and they operate at more than a no-wake speed, then they are in fact violating the law already," Weaver said. "And they are eligible to be held liable to any for damage caused to property or any injury to a person.

Caller-Times

   'Fun to go fast'
   "The problem is there's been no law enforcement in Packery Channel enforcing the law that exists."
   Brad Rogers, a personal watercraft mechanic who rides in the channel on the weekends, said riders know they aren't suppose to speed past the houses, but they do it anyway.
   "I usually blow through there," he said. "One time, I had people throwing beer bottles at me."
   An ordinance could help, but it's not likely, he said.
   "I don't think it would deter them," Rogers said. "It's suppose to all be a no-wake zone. Nobody acknowledges it. It's so much more fun to go fast."
   Since the channel opens up into the Intracoastal Waterway, most riders, Rogers said, don't think there should be a speed limit.

Reba Graham/Special to the Caller-Times

People using personal watercraft must legally operate their boats at the slowest speed possible while still managing to steer the boats.

   Enforcement
   "On an open channel, I don't think it should be a no-wake zone," he said. "They need to post some signs, but this is the ski hole and so many people have been coming here for years."
   Currently, the Packery Channel is under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff's marine patrol, which according to Weaver, tends to focus more on criminal violations rather than traffic violations.
   Game wardens also can issue tickets on the channel.
   City Manager David Garcia said the city wouldn't deal with enforcing the speed limit on the channel unless it was a city ordinance.
   Limited city responsibility
   And Mayor Loyd Neal said he wasn't sure what authority the city could take over the channel.
   "There are several issues," Neal said. "This kind of thing is very difficult to enforce because you literally have to catch people when they're doing it.
   "The second thing is there are some (Environmental Protection Agency) and government agency involvement in this that we're going to have to look at. The city's responsibility in this area is pretty limited."
   But residents, such as Boss, say that the city could help curb the problem just by posting "no-wake zone" signs.

George Gongora/Caller-Times

Packery Channel is under the jurisdiction of the county sheriff's marine patrol. The marine patrol tends to focus more on criminal violations rather than traffic violations, a member of the auxiliary coast guard says.

   'That's their playground'
   "Enforcement agencies say that will help," he said. "If it's designated by the city as a no-wake zone, then the city people, if so inclined, can enforce it."
   The residents don't want to take away the rider's fun, Boss said. They just want to limit it to the area away from their homes, on the other side of the bridge.
   "That's their playground, that's fine," Boss said.
   But Rogers said it isn't likely riders would stop running up the channel, even if the city passes an ordinance.
   "It's just going to mean more tickets," he said.



Staff writer Jonathan Osborne can be reached at 886-3716 or by e-mail at osbornej@caller.com

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