County Commissioners Darrell Apffel and Joe Giusti came to Jose’s Restaurant on Monday evening for a Town Hall meeting with Bolivar residents. Commissioner Apffel opened the meeting with a ‘state of the county’ list of issues as they relate to Bolivar Peninsula (listed below). As a result of the new redistricting maps recently approved by the Commissioner’s Court, Apffel will no longer represent Bolivar Peninsula. The new Precinct 2, dubbed the ‘coastal precinct’ because it encompasses the entire coastline of the county, will be represented by Commissioner Joe Giusti.
Joe, a lifelong Galveston resident and retired Galveston police officer, has served as County Commissioner for 7 years. He has been a resident of Pct 2 his entire life and is very familiar with coastal concerns. Welcome to our new Commissioner. (more about Joe Giusti)
Bolivar Peninsula Townhall
- Bolivar Beach Sticker Fund: current balance, $2.1M ($877K rainsed in 2021)
- Mobile Restroom Trailers: 4 new mobile restroom trailers will be installed in the three previous locations, with one additional trailer in the Gilchrist area.
- New beach porta-potty provider: United Site Services from Beaumont, to provide better service
- Elevated water tank almost complete
- GLO still waiting for permit to build fishing pier at Rollover, probably a year out
- Beach Access & Dune Protection Plan: in negotiations with GLO to address concerns, including concrete driveways, beach access points, crowd control
- Beach raking permit (from Corps of Engineers): expected by March/April 2022
- TxDOT/Hwy 87 embankment: awaiting approval from GLO
[Dec-7-2021]
Posted in 
Where is the Beach Sticker money used? How about a little transparency?
I read, with interest, the report of County Commissioners.
I was City Manager of Crystal Beach when we started selling beach stickers.
At the time, we had 4 Port A Potties and 5 regular employees to clean the beach.
I would spend Sundays driving up and down the beach, selling stickers and then directing clean up crew druing the week.
The first day we “cleaned” the beach, we picked up 81 bags of trash in 1/4 mile.
Then the state got interested in what we were picking up so we started categorizing the trash. Results were clearly, most trash was coming from oil rigs.
While we were implementing this project, we had the Port A Potties drug into the surf, along with the two booths where we sold stickers, every Saturday night.
Why?
Because the citizens of Crystal Beach believed it was “their” beach and they shouldn’t have to pay.
If others read the report from the meeting, with the new County Commissioner, you will notice…. there is now 2.1 MILLION DOLLARS, in an account, for the money raised.
TWO POINT ONE MILLION put aside in an account since 1983.
I would say, that’s a nice chunk of change for a project that was so visciously fought over.
Isn’t it time to use that money to make MORE money?
Yes, I have ideas, I headed up the team that put together the first Crab Festival and registered the name with the state so there can NEVER be another “Texas Crab Festival.” It’s time for y’all to decide what you want to be when you grow up and make a difference!
The population IS stronger than one Commissioner. With 2.1 million.. you can either grow to accomodate the crowds or fix “things” so the beach, once again belongs to you and not the masses that take over Hwy 87 on a regular basis. YES.. there are solutions.
How many years has been gone by that Hwy. 87 in need to be raised because of erosion an high tides but all that’s done is road repair an cement blocks that has no effect on high tides cuz road still gets washed out.