GALVESTON, Texas - Business owners and residents near Porretto Beach found themselves in a sand storm again last week, but this time the beach's owner has a plan for taking care of the problem.
Several weeks ago, Sonya Porretto said she was afraid to get rid of the excess sand on her property, between Ninth and 10th streets, without permission from the Texas General Land Office, which has been locked in a legal battle with her over the property for years.
But after neighbors started complaining to the city, Porretto worked out a deal with the Galveston Park Board of Trustees to spread the sand onto neighboring beaches.
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On Wednesday, park board crews started working to move the latest pile off Porretto Beach and away from neighbors tired of the constant scouring.
During the last few days, business at the Pink Dolphin, a bar across the street from the beach, has dropped dramatically, co-owner Eldrege Langlinais said.
The bar normally cleared several hundred dollars in a night, he said. But on Tuesday night, bartenders took in $38.
Langlinais' regular customers are telling him to give them a call when the sand storm dies down because they just don't want to leave the bar covered in the fine granules any more, he said.
"Just getting out of the car to walk in, it gets all over you," he said.
The sand started blowing several weeks ago after crews working for Porretto scraped the property to create a parking lot and piled the excess sand up against the seawall. The pile was so large that strong southerly winds carried the top layer across the street.
Dunes eventually started to form on Seawall Boulevard, prompting the city to send crews out to clean it up.
This time, park board crews are doing the cleanup, board Chairwoman Jeri Kinnear said. And park board crews are hauling the sand off to another beach that needs it, she said.
Porretto won her legal battle with the state over ownership of the land earlier this year.
State District Judge Susan Criss ruled the land office illegally took the family's land when it leased some of the property to the Galveston Park Board of Trustees, which in turn leased it to concessionaries. The Porrettos were never compensated for the use of the land.
But the state is appealing the decision, which made Porretto fearful of doing anything with the property that would complicate the case, she said.
The park board has an existing permit for moving sand in the area, which gave the agency permission do the work for Porretto, Kinnear said. The park board is not paying for the sand, Kinnear said.
