Texas Clipper

[MichaelBaranows]

A few months ago there was a thread posted about The Aggie Clipper ship that is going to be sunk 17 miles off the coast of Brownsville. So this morning emailed Paul Hammerschmidt whom is the director of Texas Artifical Reef Program. He said the Aggies Clipper project is still underway but moving very slowly. But to me the good news is that it is moving.

I am not sure how many of yall know that there was a bill in the Texas House that pass in the last session to allow a "private reefing program". They are in the process of developing guidelines and rules for the program. And also working with the Coast Guard to creating potential shallower reefs and some public workshops to get feedback.

Michael

 

[Dee]

Thanks for the info! I didn't realize the bill had passed. Please keep us posted on the progress of this program.

 

[humanphibian]

I hope that the "private" funding approach works well. My "brilliant" idea to use the specialty license plate program (which, by the way, funds other TPWD programs quite nicely) to fund the offshore resource develpment projects was not met with much enthusiasm by Mr. Hammerschmidt.:snore:

BTW- I still would pay for the Specialty Plate if any of you TPWD guys happen to read this!

 

[MichaelBaranows]

Scott that is a great idea. Poltications don't always agree with idea but if enough people show interest sometimes there ideas will be opened. So I sent him email with your idea about speciality plates.

That was fast. I already got a response back and he states that TXDot that administers that program and would the place to start. So I guess we need to email TXDot.

Michael

PS. I also love your signature. That is a great quote from LJT. He is one of my favorite singers.

 

[humanphibian]

I've been the TxDOT route as well.

Long story short there is a 15k deposit required for the production. This is refundable after, I believe, 3500 plates have been sold. This deposit can either be put up by private groups, or through a process(read:red tape) within the State government. TPWD has plates with all kinds of stuff on them. I proposed one with a "Texas" dive flag and another with some kind of design for saltwater fishing. Both of these industries would directly benefit from the development of the offshore resources. I e-mailed both TPWD and TxDOT over the course of several months. Each sent me to the other and vice-versa. I caught up with Hammerschmidt at SeaSpace and asked him about it (we were in front of the Texas Clipper display at the time!) and he said that there was "little interest within his Dept. about persuing such a thing, because they didn't think that there would be enough interest to make it feasable". With that, I made my own tag :11: and went about my business. I have had probably 2000 people comment/ inquire about my tag (even a couple of cops!!).

The Gulf Coast is one of the greatest natural resources that Texas has, I think that the plates would sell. Hell TPWD already sells deer, fish, horned lizards, and a mess of others, why not a dive flag??

off my soapbox now

EDIT: run a search for my screenname, there was a fairly long thread at one point.

 

[MichaelBaranows]

Scott, sounds like you have tried but people in Austin don't want to do what publi wants. Now that you write that I seem to remember you talking about that before.

 

[humanphibian]

maybe if everyone will take the time to drop Hammerschmidt an e-mail we can "create" the interest.:05:

 

[cyklon_300]

maybe if everyone will take the time to drop Hammerschmidt an e-mail we can "create" the interest.:05:

too busy re-reading the nasty note Rick Perry sent him for losing the Oriskany...his efforts on that issue were less than monumental.

 

[humanphibian]

funny! I cited her loss to FL, due to lack of funding ,as a "damn good reason" to get some sort of Statewide program going.

"If you build it they will come" I guess that they missed that movie.

 

[archman]

As to the lack of interest by the state legislature, remember that Texas is the only coastal state in the U.S. where most of the population lives inland. Coastal issues thus get far less attention when compared to Florida, or anywhere else. Except Mississippi, which nobody really counts.

Plus our legislature is made up of essentially unpaid volunteers, and they don't meet very often. Most states do not operate in this manner, giving non-texans the impression that our legislature is incredibly lazy, when in fact they manage their time rather effectively. They just don't have very much of it.

Regarding the original Clipper, there's not much functional odds between "moving forward very slowly" and "stalled".