County officials said anglers drilled holes into the deck of the newly reopened Bob Hall Pier, prompting frustration and increased patrols.<\/p>\n
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 One week after the opening of the new Bob Hall Pier, Nueces County officials say they are frustrated by reports of anglers drilling holes into the brand-new deck.<\/p>\n
Videos circulating on social media show a man drilling a hole into the deck of the newly reopened pier on Padre Island to secure a fishing rod. Officials say multiple holes have since been found.<\/p>\n
The pier reopened to the public last week after being closed for six years, drawing eager fishermen back to the popular spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re happy to be here… You know what they say, ‘you build it, we come,\u2019\u201d a group of local fishermen said.<\/p>\n
For Raymond B. Almaguer, the pier holds decades of memories.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeen fishing out here since I was nine and this is home,\u201d Almaguer said.<\/p>\n
More than 60 years later, he still returns regularly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s too many people that call it home. We don’t go to your house and drill holes in your door,\u201d Almaguer said.<\/p>\n
He said he does not want one person\u2019s actions to jeopardize access for the broader community.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are all my rods, those five rods over there. I know when something hits it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scott Cross, Director of Nueces County Coastal Parks, has spent years working on the pier\u2019s renovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never anticipated anybody drilling holes in our deck out here on this pier,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n
He said he supports alternatives that do not damage the structure, such as using PVC pipes to secure fishing rods that anglers can use while at the pier and then remove.<\/p>\n
Cross said the county is working with the Nueces County Sheriff\u2019s Office and increasing patrols to prevent further damage.<\/p>\n
\u201cWorked with the Sheriff’s Office and I’m hiring off-duty sheriff deputies that I’m paying for out of my budget to patrol this pier,\u201d Cross said.<\/p>\n
Nueces County Commissioner Brent Chesney said the fisherman seen in the initial video is facing consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been turned over to law enforcement just like every other vandalism will be turned over to law enforcement,\u201d Chesney said. \u201cAnd now we’re asking people out there to self-police and help us and take all video evidence because we don’t want this to ruin it for all the people, the 99.9% of the people that use it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cross said the first 90 days of access to the pier are free to the public. After that, there will be controlled access.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"County officials said anglers drilled holes into the deck of the newly reopened Bob Hall Pier, prompting frustration…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189564,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":["post-189563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi","tag-corpus-christi-headlines","tag-corpus-christi-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}